I hate to sound like I’m defending landlords, or that I don’t appreciate this article, but the implications are odd and they lead to blame-games on landlords (who, last I checked, don’t have magical powers over time and space) while the developers and architects, who are to blame for these issues, are left out of the loop.

I used to manage a complex where a the four bedroom townhouses had two and a half baths. The layout was horrendous — the half bath and one of the bedrooms were downstairs, the master (with private bath), two bedrooms, and second full bath were upstairs. End result, obviously, was three roommates (including the one in the downstairs bedroom) using the upstairs hall bath while one roommate had a private bath (and balcony, for that matter). The only thing we could do was advertise the unit as a ‘three bedroom with den’. I never figured out why the developer built such an odd floor plan, other than the fact that he was following 70’s building styles. Trust me when I say, however, that as landlord I wasn’t any happier about the arrangement than my tenants were.