So you’ve decided to become a landlord, you don’t know a thing about renting, but you want to be successful. The key to being a successful property manager is happy tenants. Happy tenants pay and happy tenants stay. But how exactly do you keep your tenants happy? Luckily for you, we’re here to provide you with some key tips likely to help you not only keep the tenants you have, but increase the number of properties you have.
Communication: in the age of information, being well informed is the difference between a happy tenant and an angry or terrible tenant. This means giving your customers all the tools to being a successful renter upfront:
Notify them of all important dates; fee schedule, lease dates, inspections, HOA or other community dues, when to expect service visitors, trash and recycling days. Moving to a new area can be disorienting for anyone, so it’s always a good idea to be able to provide as much information to your renters as possible including local guides books and directories.
Be reachable; this means having reliable options for your tenants to contact you by phone, email, or online web portal. Ideally your web portal should serve additional purposes by accepting online payments and processing service or maintenance requests. You’ll effectively cutdown on the number of phone calls received by using to automation as a means to increase effectiveness and accountability. You don’t have to worry about angry phone calls when you’ve already notified them first.
Respect: making a prospective or already in place tenant feel respected goes a long way. Everyone wants to be treated with dignity and listening to your tenants complaints goes a long way in making them comfortable. Even if a tenant is being unreasonable or even rude, never lose your composure, you are running a business and have no room for emotional responses. How you treat your tenants has a big impact on their retention; always presenting a courteous and polite manner makes tenants feel welcome. Be understanding; bad things do happen to good people, don’t make them feel worse by adding to their stress. It is possible to be polite and firm, make sure your tenants know you will not tolerate lease violations, but a problem here or there can be handled if they’re honest with you. Tenant-landlord relationships are built on trust between the two, and everyone wants to be treated fairly.
Speed: nothing tells a tenant you care more than making sure you address their concerns in a timely manner. Nobody likes to be kept waiting, especially for someone else, and nobody likes feeling ignored, which is how tenants feel when their needs are not being met. The great thing now is that with so many electronic and web based tools available to us, finding repairmen and contractors for any kind of job is a lot faster, this also means tenants expect fast turn around on their issues. However, if their expectations cannot be met, it is important to communicate that information as well.
Upkeep/Upgrade: this applies more to your long term rather than short term, but as a property manager you become responsible for maintaining the properties appearance in addition to the tenants. As a property ages, so will it’s looks internally and externally. This means from time to time you may need to paint, install new doors and windows, replacing old and worn appliances, carpet replacements, repaving driveways and parking lots, new lighting, even upgrading the landscaping can have a profound effect on the curb appeal of your property. Keeping these things up to date and in good condition will help tenants have a sense of pride in the place they live.