Good and caring tenants that are concerned about the place they are living in are hard to find,and you surely don’t want to lose them. Once the tenants have signed a lease, they are not bound to live there forever. They can move out as soon as their agreed term comes to an end. But if you want to keep your tenants to stay for a longer time span, you must be flexible with them besides being professional. You can find and use many different strategies to get good results, and some of them are mentioned by TPM, one of the best property management companies to help you with all things real estate.
Here are strategies that will help you in tenant retention:
- Inform Before Visiting
No one wants to live in a house with a bossy landlord who might show up at any time he wants. Everyone wants some privacy in their life be it, tenant or relatives. Unannounced guests are likely to affect the family time and routine of the house. If you want to pay a visit to your property show some respect and inform your tenants a day ahead so they can adjust their schedule accordingly. Be considerate and polite if they have some issues with your mentioned time and schedule your visit with mutual agreement.
- Permit Minor Changes
Good tenants never harm your property for they consider it as their home. They treat your property with care and love as it’s their own comfort zone and living yard. They must be concerned about the outlook of the house, entrance, porch, garden and play area and may want to make some changes.
If you want to keep these caring tenants for a longer time frame, be little flexible and allow them to personalize your space to some extent like growing some trees or vegetables in the garden or installing a playhouse in the backyard. This won’t harm your property instead it will enhance its worth.
- Allow personalization
Tenants who will treat your property as their own homes may be interested in personalizing its interior according to their own requirements. For instance, changing the paint or installing a wardrobe. Be considerate in dealing with this issue and let the tenants do some customization according to their own taste but only with your due permission. Set the terms at the time of lease so that no changes should be made without your consent. Allow only those changes that can be easily reverted or that you want to keep in the long-run.
- Be Prompt when Fixing Issues
Tenants are not liable to fix any of the issues related to the property. Like the drainage issue, or malfunctioning of stoves. You are responsible for fixing these issues. Good tenants won’t bother you for minor issues like changing a bulb or for unclogging the drainage but only for series matters. You should be available for listening to their complaints and fix it spontaneously. Your caring attitude towards their problems will definitely help you in retaining them for many years.
- Be Flexible and Understanding
Hard times and unfortunate phase can hit anyone. If your tenant is reliable and caring,but they may be going through a tough time,you should be flexible in dealing with them. Try to understand their situation and give them a little leverage in the rent for a month or two.If they are unable to pay the rent for a month or so but assure you to pay soon be considerate to some extent.
Your tenants must be looking for a low rent space due to their financial crisis. If you really want to keep these good tenants, you might offer them a reduced rent proposal on next lease. This will save you both from the hassle of finding a new apartment and new tenants.
When you treat your tenants with respect and understand their personal space and desires to renovate it. They are most likely to stay with you for a long time may be for their whole life. Remember what goes around comes around.
