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My experiences have been smokers inately do more damage to rental units. I am not suggesting they destroy the place by smoking, but that cleaning up and readying the apartment for a new tenant requires more work and money.

If I rent to a smoker even for only a year, a thorough washing and repaint is always neccessary. Non smoker repaint is rarely needed between short term tenants, and touch ups are possible... touching up a smoked in apartment even with a good cleaning doesn't work... paint never matches no matter how good you clean... so even the most minor blemish requires an entire room to be repainted.

Carpeting doesn't wear out in one year, but I am guaranteed it will need a thorough cleaning if a smoker lived there, not so with a non smoker. Not that non smokers don't ever need cleaning as well, but its a given if the unit was rented to a smoker.

I have nothing personally against smokers, but a unit lived in by a smoker does in general take more effort and time to be cleaned and prepared for another tenant. Cigarette smoke gets into and onto everything, its just a fact of life. Its just like pets... they incur with them, no matter how well behaved certain things that you don't have without them. Of course with Pets you can demand extra deposits and rents for your troubles... Generally not the case yet for smokers... I do suspect though it will in time though.

Security Deposit is always close to rent, but not exactly.

I know a landlord who says
IF IT TAKES A LITTLE MORE TIME TO CLEAN AFTER A SMOKER HAS LIVED THERE, SO BE IT. , yOU HAVEN/T SEEN ANYTHING UNTIL YOU HAVE HAD SOME OF THE NON SMOKERS he has had. wow
yOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE THE CLEAN UP, THE HOLES IN THE WALLS.
gIVE him A SMOKER ANYTIME. iF ALL he HAs TO DO IS PAINT OR WASH WALLS. THEY ARE GREAT!!!!!!!
fact is, lots of tenents bring something with them for you to clean up after they leave. Its the nature of the beast. If you complain about everything then get out of the business. then again there are the great tenents too. Most of them are. hes running 50 50 there is a balance

#291........We lived in a townhouse until we bought a house, the owner asked us if he could use our unit to show prospective new tenants, because it was so clean and nice looking, I don't think he would have asked that if the smoke smell was unbearable, we lived there for 10 years, it was not painted when we moved in, 4 years later it was, it didn't get painted when we moved out, didn't need it, before we moved we had the landlord over to check the condition of the unit.... he happily signed off on it.
At one time we lived in an apartment, when we gave our notice, the landlord asked why, too small we said, his response: We have bigger apartments,you have done a wonderful job with this place, we will pay for all materials needed if you can do the same in another........ Moral: not all smokers are costly and irrisponsible.

Much of what you say regarding rental units and smokers may very well be true. But is not my experience. Yours is obviously different from mine.

My computer has sat in the same corner of the most used room in my house for more than 5 years.

I have had the same 3 prints in the corner, on the walls for more than 8 years. I've periodically taken them down for dusting and put them right back up again. I took them down permanently last week to pack them. There is no difference in the color of the wall from where they were and where they weren't. And my walls are white.