Everyone knows tenants gripe about their landlords. But landlords have their shares of complaints, too.

According to a recent poll by ManageGo, a property management software company, property owners’ and managers’ biggest bugaboo is tenants who complain about things they should or could do themselves: changing a lightbulb, for example, or repairing a running toilet.

Changing a lightbulb? Come on, people.

And about those cantankerous toilets: How about jiggling the handle a few times to see if that stops the thing from running? Or lift the lid off the tank and adjust the float. If none of that fixes it, then it becomes the landlord’s problem. By all means, give him or her a holler.

But just one call should suffice. Another pet peeve, say the 100 New York City-area landlords surveyed: Multiple repair requests from the same tenant, with repeated emails and/or phone calls about the same problem.

This response indicates landlords think there’s often too much communication, but tenants say there’s not enough to suit them. Half the tenants polled said their landlords fail to keep them up-to-date on progress related to their calls for help.

Obviously, says ManageGo’s Chaim Lowenstein, there’s a need for better communication between landlords and their tenants. And it goes both ways.

Surprisingly, only 10 percent of tenants polled wanted repairs made right away. That’s a good thing, because fixes often become an issue of contractor availability. Some places have a stable of repair techs on duty, but most mom-and-pop landlords don’t have electricians, plumbers and appliance people at their beck and call.

And the more complicated the fix, the longer the wait is likely to be. If an elevator needs replacing in your building, for example, service is going to be down until the old one can be removed and the new one is ordered, installed and tested. So be prepared to take the stairs for as long as that process takes. And if you rent from a part-time landlord, they’ll have to call around until they find someone who won’t break the bank.

“It’s tricky,” says Lowenstein. “Most landlords want to get (a repair) done. But sometimes, they have to revert to their second or third choices. And sometimes they have to make temporary fixes until their first choice can get there.”

Much has been said about how student debt is hurting the ability of many millennials to qualify for a mortgage. But lenders may be starting to take a harder look at the amount of money would-be borrowers are paying every month for their fancy BMWs, Mercedes and Ram trucks.

Why? Because while homeowners overall are getting better at paying their house loans without missing a beat, the overall performance of auto loans has been slowly worsening, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The deteriorating picture is masked somewhat by their strong payback records among borrowers with the highest credit scores. But among those with scores at 620 or below, the delinquency rate, as of last year’s fourth quarter, exceeded 8 percent -- “a development that is surprising,” said economists at the Fed, especially when considering the strength of the economy and labor market.

Although rising delinquency rates remain below the 2010 peak, the economists said, there are still more than 7 million people with auto loans who were 90 days or more late at the end of 2018. That’s a million more than at the end of 2010, when delinquency rates were at their worst.

Their advice to lenders: The situation warrants continued monitoring. Meanwhile, if you are in the market for a house, or just recently bought one, stay away from high-priced vehicles. The payments -- an average of $556 a month for a nearly six-year loan, according to Edmunds.com -- can be killers.

If families were considered mortgage companies, they’d be the seventh-largest lender in the country, according to Legal & General, a multinational financial services firm. The proverbial “Bank of Mom and Dad” is “a hugely influential force in the U.S. housing market,” says L&G’s Nigel Wilson.

Nationally, parents and grandparents supported the purchase of $317 billion worth of property -- some 1.2 million houses -- last year, L&G reports. One in 5 buyers received gifts or interest-free loans from family members so they could buy a house, according to the study. The average amount: $39,000.

Half of all wannabe homeowners under age 35 say they need help from family to make the deal work. And those young buyers who went before them said that without help from the old folks, they would have had to delay their purchases for at least three years.

Just as some people look for love in all the wrong places, some homebuyers and sellers look for advice in all the wrong places.

Rather than seek the counsel of their real estate agents, they ask practically everyone else how they should proceed.

Among the questions they pose to anyone within earshot: “Should I offer above the asking price?” “Should I hire an attorney?” “Should I forgo a home inspection?” “Do I really need to offer a warranty?” “Can I make a lowball offer?” “Can’t I just sell my house myself?”

But ask yourself this: How much is free advice worth?

The topic was raised recently on the ActiveRain online real estate community by agent Scott Godzyk of New Hampshire’s Godzyk Real Estate Services.

Admittedly, Godzyk was having a bad day. A client of his had sought advice from numerous sources, but not from Godzyk -- the agent with whom he had listed his property for sale. The place was priced at the highest end of the market, but needed some work, and had been for sale longer than neighboring houses listed at more reasonable prices.

“The seller solicited advice from everyone but the listing agent,” said the broker-agent, who just happens to have 30 years’ experience in the field. In situations like this, he said, “the seller ignores the listing agent’s value and ignores the listing agent’s advice.”

So before you think about taking someone else’s advice over that of your agent, ask yourself: Do you really want to take the word of someone who last sold a house 20 years ago? Or should you, instead, trust someone who bought or sold 11 houses in a single year?

Why 11? That’s the number of deals the typical realty agent handled in 2017, according to the latest member profile published by the National Association of Realtors.

Some other profile stats worth noting: The average agent works 40 hours a week. She (52 percent of all agents are women) gets 17 percent of her business from referrals and 12 percent from repeat clients, so she must be doing something right.

Many agents bring broad experience to the real estate world: About 32 percent had previous careers in fields like management, finance, retail or sales. And they work at real estate day in, day out -- often day and night.

Sure, there are agents out there who don’t have this kind of experience or success. But you won’t be saddled with one if you do the homework necessary to find a good, qualified agent. And once you do find an agent you trust, listen to him or her -- not the peanut gallery.

“Sometimes sellers shoot themselves in the foot,” says Anna “Banana” Kruchten of the Phoenix Property Shoppe. “Even though they’ve been given expert advice, (they) decide to do it their way, or somebody else’s way that has no clue.”

Myrl Jeffcoat of GreatWest Realty in Sacramento once listed a house for a seller whose two sets of in-laws “almost got into a fist-fight over how to proceed with a sale. Yet, neither had thoughts that were sound, or based on professional knowledge.”

Similarly, Francine Viola of Washington’s Coldwell Banker Evergreen Olympic Realty worked with a buyer whose neighbor told her she should offer $10,000 over the asking price, even though the house had been languishing on the market for months with no nearby competition.

Some other examples of really, really bad advice:

-- “You can sell your house as-is. You don’t need to disclose or fix anything.” Wrong. An owner is obligated by law in most places to divulge anything and everything regarding the home’s condition. You don’t have to repair what’s wrong -- but of course, you should. Otherwise, you will almost certainly get lowball offers, if any at all.

-- “Where I come from, the seller doesn’t have to pay the buyer-broker’s fee.” Incorrect. In most places, the buyer-broker, who is working solely on behalf of the buyer, is paid half the commission paid by the seller to the listing agent.

-- “It’s a seller’s market, so you can ask whatever price you want.” Sure, you can ask for the moon. But if the market is starting to turn -- as it is now, in some places -- you won’t get any offers. And if you do get a contract, it will be for well below what you’re asking.

-- “Pick an agent who promises to obtain the highest price possible.” Nah. Overpricing a property is one of the oldest scams used by agents to secure listings. Better to base your choice on his or her past performance, expertise in your specific market and marketing plan for your home. Price is a separate issue.

So, the next time someone offers you an opinion, ask yourself this: Just how much is free advice really worth?

In something of a throwback to the 1920s, a new minimalist trend, in which less is more, may soon be taking hold in new-home design. At the same time, some builders will be heading deeper into urban and close-in suburban spots where location will be the primary amenity.

These two possible trends, predicted at the recent National Association of Home Builders convention in Las Vegas, are not likely to change the face of new-home construction. But if they are on the money, at least some builders will be simplifying their designs to capture buyers suffering from sensory overload, while others will build smaller houses on smaller lots in an effort to bag young buyers who are paying in rent what they could pay to own.

The minimalist trend is “in its very early stages,” according to Renee Labbe, director of foresight strategy at Broadside Studios in Los Angeles. But in that it stems from the need to provide a respite from buyers’ overstimulated modern lives, it can’t arrive quick enough.

“We are all subjected to an exceptional amount of technology, social media, visual messaging, infomercials and the like, and that has caused people to lose focus,” Labbe says. “Our brains have become so busy that we need to reduce friction.”

For home design, that means a reduction to simpler floor plans, and to modestly pitched roofs with minimal overhangs and reduced ornamentation -- or none at all, says Labbe, who calls the shift “design reduction.”

In a sense, it will be a return to a style of architecture popular nearly a century ago, when houses were sheathed in just one material, including the roof, and in just one color.

“It will be somewhat similar to a simple barn house,” Labbe explains. “The trend offers consumers a ‘visual ease’ wherein the details that comprise the total aesthetic are reduced for the express purpose of greater overall unity. Detail will exist, but it won’t detract from the whole.”

At the same time, Labbe sees the boundaries between architecture and nature blurring, so there will be less noticeable difference between the two. Landscaping will become less showy and more relaxing, she says -- less manicured, more primitive and raw.

And in another predicted trend, which the foresight strategist labels “priva-see,” she says the focus will be on achieving a balance between providing a sense of freedom -- a feeling of being outside -- while increasing privacy between the house and the world beyond.

Meanwhile, John Hunt of MarketNSight, a feasibility assessment firm, points out that if builders want to recapture the share of the market they have lost to the resale sector -- 35 percent all of buyers used to purchase new units, and now just 8 percent do -- they have to build closer in, not farther out.

Hunt believes millennials are willing to buy and live in small spaces, as long as the homes are in their target areas. “For many of today’s potential new-home buyers,” he says, “experiences and location trump square footage.” And they are not alone: Boomers are vying for the same houses.

Builders and developers aren’t currently building the homes that first-time buyers and retirees want, or where they want them, he said.

“We’re still building the same houses we built 40 years ago,” he said. “We need to build something different.”

Not every buyer wants to “drive until they can buy,” he points out. Many want to live in trendy locations where they can walk to food and entertainment options. Their major concern isn’t schools; it’s convenience to work and nightlife, or where they can grab an Uber or Lyft.

Right now, this “potentially huge” market is being served by apartment builders. But Hunt says builders can offer more space for the same price -- and make a higher profit, to boot: “We have seen small product garnering as much as $450 a square foot.”

He’s talking townhouses, for sure, but also condominiums, and even “micro homes” of 500 square feet or less. Hunt says millennials are willing to pay higher prices for smaller spaces, as long as they are in their preferred locations.

As he sees it, it’s not the lack of demand that is keeping builders in the ‘burbs; it’s the fear of not being able to obtain the right price. But he has case study after case study that shows builders can make their price points, or even more.

In one hot Atlanta neighborhood, for example, one builder is hoping to build stacked flats that will start at $180,000 for 400 square feet. The mortgage on the smallest unit would run $750 a month, which compares favorably to $1,600 a month in rent for a 560 square-foot apartment across the street.

“The apartment market has shown us the way, if we are willing to listen,” says Hunt, a 30-year veteran of the housing wars. “We can compete with them.”