His tenants love him, but most importantly to him, his 20-year-old daughter loves him for what he did last week.

Joel Berlinsky, a 61-year-old real estate investor and landlord from Los Angeles, told the Toronto Star that he was moved to tears when his daughter wrote a beautiful message on Facebook following his Christmas gesture which went viral last week.

“It was a nice side benefit,” he said.

The landlord, who owns about 120 apartment units in Los Angeles, announced that he is giving his tenants a $70 rent break for Christmas — a gesture that will cost him more than $8,000.

“I’m surprised at this whole thing,” Berlinsky said, adding that he started doing this about 15 years ago to help single women with children in his units.

“I thought they could buy a gift for their kids and that’s how it started,” Berlinsky said. “I know several guys who are landlords and the comments from several of them are that, ‘you’ve raised the bar for us, Joel.’”

Berlinsky’s act went viral when a tenant posted a photo on Reddit showing how Berlinsky was advising tenants to knock $70 off their rent cheques for December so they could buy a gift for someone special.

When Mike Olejarczyk posted this on Reddit, the act of kindness took on a life of its own.

Olejarczyk, using the Reddit screen name “mikeoley,” posted a photo of the notice on the popular online forum Thursday with the heading “Good guy landlord.”

By Monday, the post had more than 600 comments.

Olejarczyk, 32, works for PlayNetwork in the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles as a motion graphics artist.

“We (he and roommate) were both blown away by the (landlord’s) generosity,” Olejarczyk told the Star. “It’s pretty remarkable because we’ve only lived at the unit since the middle of October.”

He has never met Berlinsky, but he has a building manager named Nancy who lives in the small 12-unit complex and “she’s equally as nice.”

The apartment unit is a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit with 900 square feet of living space and a balcony. It is situated in a quiet area of west Los Angeles and costs more than $1,000 a month.

“It’s hard enough to find a nice place to live in this city,” Olejarczyk said. “Finding one with management who cares about their tenants as well simply blows my mind.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

With the savings, he plans on “buying Joel and Nancy a small gift to show my gratitude.”

But just in case anyone forgets that Christmas comes only once a year, Berlinsky added a postscript to his note: “Rent will return to normal levels with your January 2013 payments.”