Look after the rents and the grounds will look after themselves
“Look after the sense, Mr. Dickens.”
Look after the pence, said Mr. Micawber (quoting a former Treasury secretary), and the pounds will look after themselves.
“Look after the pence, young master Copperfield …”
I always thought that a nice quote, encapsulating as it did the principle of sweating the small stuff. And though it’s been ages since I read David Copperfield, I have always looked to Mr. Micawber as the model of stoic optimism. So it was with no little surprise that I once encountered Lewis Carroll’s marvelous riff, buried in Alice in Wonderland, when the Ugly Duchess says to
And the moral of that is –
Then one day, as I was touring a decrepit property much in need of repair, I found myself muttering:
Look after the rents, and the grounds will look after themselves
The reasoning is straightforward. Because of the Law of Economic Gravity (uneconomic endeavors cannot survive), a property can afford for its maintenance only as much income as it receives. If it can’t maintain itself, it will deteriorate into an economically rational slum. As Mr. Micawber said it:
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure
“I find myself temporarily in funds.”
A property that lacks enough rental income will always fail. A property that has rental income — even if it is in trouble — always has options, from changing general partner and manager on down. As Mr. Micawber put it hopefully, “Something will always turn up.” Further, with adequate income, one can fund a proper replacement reserve, which is absolutely necessary because, as Mr. Micawber knew, “accidents will occur in the best-regulated families.”
Look after the rents, and the grounds will look after themselves. Words to manage by.
We will leave the last word to Mr. Micawber:
“
“It was as true … as turnips is. It was as true … as taxes is. And nothing’s truer than them.”
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