Happy New Tenants Stay Longer
It’s true, when tenants are happy, they’re happy to stay where they are at, but when they aren’t happy they tend to look for greener pastures.
One of your jobs as a landlord (or at least if you want to be a successful landlord) is to create a great environment for your new tenant(s), so they stay as long as possible and they treat your property as their home.
Not just a stopping place before they move on to their next rental.
So what can you do to make your new tenants happy?
Let’s start with move in day.
Moving is a stressful time for anyone. All the changes, the deadlines and the newness of the situation.
Often they are moving into a new neighbourhood, aren’t entirely familiar with local stores and restaurants, and they often have a crowd of friends helping them, so why not make the process easier.
First, a flat of water is quite cheap, so pick one up, drop it off in the fridge before you hand the tenant the keys and make sure you put a note welcoming them to the property with it. Now they have cold non-alcoholic refreshments, courtesy of their new favourite landlord, YOU!
A variation on this is to pick up a box of doughnuts. How many tenants, never mind new tenants, get doughnuts from their landlords?
Talk about making a great first impression!
Second, if your place is vacant, you are guaranteed to have a collection of flyers from local restaurants along with all the other junk mail.
Separate the restaurant flyers (especially the places with take out!) and put them all together in a drawer for the tenants. You can show it to them when they move in and they instantly have a collection of restaurants to call to feed their hungry helpers and to make settling into the area easier.
If you are really good, why not approach a couple of the nearby restaurants and ask if they have flyers or take out menus you can take to provide your new tenants as well.
Some places will even provide discount coupons to attract a new client! It’s little extra steps like this that will make you stand out in your tenants eyes and make their life a little easier as they move into your property.
By simply doing little things like this, you rise above 99% of the landlords out there and make your tenants happy they have you as their landlord. And happy tenants stay longer, take better care of your property and make your life so much easier.
Bonus Ideas
If you were a tenant at one time, did you ever have your landlord give you a Christmas present? Or a birthday present? A $25 box of chocolates at Christmas or a couple of movie passes arriving in their mail on their birthday goes a long way to making you the landlord they tell all their friends about.
What else can you think of doing to attract and keep good tenants? I’d love to hear your thoughts about this. Leave a comment and tell us what ideas you use to keep you tenants happy.
Follow Up With Your New Tenants
One last tip is too follow up. It’s simple enough to do, but we tend to forget this part so as part of your process give your new tenants a quick call, a text or an email just to make sure everything is ok and to see if they have any questions.
Everything might be great, but maybe they have a question and either way they will appreciate you following up!
If I see they are faithful on paying their rent on time, A good 8 months on time, no slack, I will allow the 9th month free.
Hi Wiletta,
That’s very generous of you, but I’m concerned you’re giving away the farm. It might not hurt to look at something not quite as costly. Remember if you are vacant for a month when you transition tenants you could be putting yourself in a losing position because now you’ve incorporated two free months in two years.
What we’ve done for great tenants is picked up gift certificates for local restaurants and put them together in a nice card thanking the tenants for being so great. This way, rather than giving up say $1,000 in rent, we give up $50 or $100 or even $200 for especially great tenants and we still get the benefit of them appreciating it.
Make sense?
Bill
I have five guests at my place every summer I have a barbecue in our backyard for them. I have also offered picnics but most of them are working men and they are too busy to avail it.
I prefer not to use word Tenant instead I prefer Guests. The guests don’t sign a lease, they may leave at the end of any month with a month’s notice. They will get the same notice but if their behavior warrants it they may be asked to leave without notice.
Mine isn’t a typical rooming house people are used to thinking. I am located in a suburb with a beautiful living, dining area, an LED TV, Mini fridge in every room, all rooms are furnished and have a smoke detector. A first aid kit and fire extinguisher in Kitchen. Pot and pans, dishes and cutlery, garbage bags are all provided.
Sounds like a fantastic setup Syed. Rooming houses often come with a negative connotation which is why I often refer to mine as simply shared accommodations.
Often there are niches like the one you’ve created that get over looked yet they help solve a real hole in the rental market at the same time. It seems like you have capitalized on this to provide a “guest” friendly environment. My hats off to you!
Bill