Far too many landlords regard the needs of their tenants as an afterthought. Since they only view their renters as sources of passive income, these property owners see no need to devote significant time and energy to addressing their concerns. Needless to say, this approach to being a landlord isn’t going to do any favors for your professional reputation and will ultimately make it more difficult for you to attract new renters. Fledgling landlords looking for simple and effective ways to keep their tenants satisfied should consider the following pointers.
Making Your Screening Process Rigorous but Timely
The more thorough your tenant screening process is, the less likely you are to deal with unpaid rent. With this in mind, make sure to run a credit check on every rental applicant, confirm that they have enough income to easily afford rent and get in touch with any references they provide. However, while your screening process should be rigorous, it should also be completed in a timely manner – and user-friendly rental registration software may be able to help in this endeavor. No prospective renter wants their application to remain in limbo for weeks – if not longer. The more time this process takes, the more likely dependable applicants are to seek out other residences. Additionally, encourage all prospective renters to get in touch with you if they have any questions about their applications.
Make Yourself Accessible
Your tenants need to be able to reach you if they encounter any problems with the property or find themselves faced with maintenance emergencies. Needless to say, if you fail to provide them with contact info, they’re liable to have a hard time doing this. Additionally, if a maintenance emergency is unfolding, a lack of action on your part can result in considerable property damage – which stands to cost you a fair amount of money to repair.
To ensure that your renters are able to contact you with ease, provide each of them with a business email and phone number. Furthermore, to avoid leaving renters high and dry in the event of an after-hours emergency, make sure at least one member of your maintenance staff is able to handle situations that surface outside of regular business hours. Lastly, if you have an office on the property, encourage tenants to speak to you in person about any suggestions or concerns they may have.
Address Maintenance Issues in a Timely Manner
Not every maintenance issue a tenant encounters is going to constitute an emergency. However, this doesn’t mean that such issues shouldn’t be addressed in a timely and professional manner. After all, the longer some seemingly minor problems are allowed to linger, the more likely they are to become more serious – and more expensive to fix. In addition, allowing non-emergency maintenance issues to fall by the wayside is practically guaranteed to draw the ire of frustrated tenants. Furthermore, for safety purposes, all tenants should be advised to purchase renters insurance. By the same token, you’ll need to find a dependable landlord insurance policy, as homeowners insurance can’t be used for rental properties.
One way to ensure that such problems don’t get placed on the backburner is hiring the appropriate number of maintenance personnel. Unsurprisingly, a large apartment building or complex is unlikely to be sufficiently serviced by one or two people. For good measure, the maintenance professionals you bring on should be adept at a wide range of jobs and managing large workloads.
Hire a Dependable Property Manager
If you have a day job or simply don’t feel up to the task of managing a large rental property, it may be in your best interest to seek out a dependable property manager. In essence, this person will act as your proxy and perform all the duties traditionally carried out by landlords – i.e., collecting rent, managing maintenance staff and addressing tenant concerns. Still, this isn’t to say that you should adopt a completely hands-off approach if you hire a dependable manager. Regardless of how skilled this individual is, you should make a point of staying abreast of what’s going on with your property.
Even the most desirable rental property can’t turn a profit in the absence of dependable tenants. However, despite this fact, many landlords regard tenant concerns as unimportant and frequently turn a blind eye to their needs. Unsurprisingly, such landlords generally have poor professional reputations, which makes many prospective tenants understandably hesitant to rent from them. Fortunately, keeping your tenants happy doesn’t have to be an uphill battle. Putting the previously discussed tips to good use can go a long way towards helping you maintain favorable relationships with your renters.
