Four Easy Ways To Keep Tenants As a Landlord
If you’re renting one or more properties out, keeping them populated with tenants is probably a going concern. While you can’t always win in terms of getting good tenants vs. bad tenants, as a landlord there are several steps you can take on your end to ensure your properties are continually occupied and creating income. This is especially important in the Digital Age, where user review sites often play a large role in influencing the decisions consumers make on everything from restaurants to rental properties (yes, several Yelp-like sites exist solely for the purpose of reviewing landlords), so you want to make sure your practices as well as your character are above reproach. Your reputation, and by extension your income, is at stake here.
As a landlord, you’re probably well aware of your obligations and the potential pitfalls inherent to renting out your investment properties, but equally important is how your tenants perceive you both personally and professionally. Remember, renting or leasing a home is a business transaction, and you should conduct yourself accordingly. Even the most well-meaning and sincere of us can make honest mistakes or display a lack of conscientiousness, so here are a few tips to help ensure that your tenants don’t immediately head to a review site and vent, which can seriously harm your future prospects as a real estate investor:
Treat tenants with respect and give them space:
As we said a moment ago, your relationship with your tenants is a professional one and you should be as cordial to them as any colleague or business contact. If you wouldn’t do or say it to the contractor who works on one of your properties, don’t do or say it to a tenant. Your attitude plays a big role here. Even if you play everything by the book, a condescending or cranky demeanor can be seriously off-putting to current and potential tenants. Giving them their space is crucial as well. In some states, law requires a 24-hour notice before you pay the property a visit with the intent of entering the home, and other states expressly prohibit you from entering without your tenants’ consent. Yes, it’s your property, but no one wants to live in a place where they have no privacy, and most state laws take that into account. Be self-aware; don’t drop by with a grin and a joke about surprise inspections, and don’t show up uninvited with a bottle of wine on a Wednesday evening.
Set up convenient payment:
You as a landlord have every right to expect timely rent payments. No one disputes that, but that’s not to say you shouldn’t do what you can to make things easier on your tenant (plus, if they fail to pay, it’s harder to point the finger at you). PayPal and Venmo are ridiculously convenient and instantaneous payment methods, and since most renters are likely to be younger, they’ll probably prioritize a hassle-free experience in paying their rent. This is especially true for Millennial renters. Even if you’re used to keeping paper records, consider getting with the times and taking consumers’ preference for convenience into account, and remember that online methods are just as airtight if not more so in terms of record keeping as paper trails. We live in a fantastically modern world; if potential tenants want to pay their rent via phone, consider accommodating them.
Return calls promptly:
In this day and age, there is simply no excuse to go more than 24 hours without responding to a serious inquiry or contact. It’s a consequence of our increasingly interconnected world, and while it might be a chore, it does simplify overall several aspects of conducting business (as an aside, contrary to popular belief, smartphones don’t actually increase economic productivity). Not responding to a call or email within a reasonable time frame is not only rude, but also reflects poorly on your habits as a business owner. If your tenant has a question or issue, you should make yourself reasonably available and relatively easy to get a hold of. It will pay off in the long run. Happy tenants are generally good tenants, and your property and bank account will thank you.
Take care of any maintenance issues ASAP:
This is probably the most important one, because if any renting experience is going to stand out in a tenant’s memory, it’s going to be that time their heater broke in January while the landlord took several days to address the issue. We realize there are practical limitations to fixing things promptly (weekends, holidays, etc), but you should make it obvious that you’re doing everything within reason to rectify the situation as soon as humanly possible. After all, your tenants are paying you a static amount each month with a certain set of expectations, so you should uphold your end of the bargain. No one likes freezing in the winter or broiling in the summer heat, and nothing will make a tenant revile you quite like subjecting their children or pets to such conditions. If the water heater breaks, bite the bullet and take care of it, even if it means cancelling plans or putting off leaving for your vacation by a day or two. Again, it will pay off in the long run.
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– Get It Right Solutions