How to Improve Your Relationship With Tenants
Do you have a solid relationship with your tenants? Or do they try to stay as far away from you as possible? Or, perhaps, is it the other way around? Many landlords underestimate the value of their relationship with their renters. Most of the time, landlords fail to recognize that enhancing ties can make their job easier and lead to greater success. While the landlord/tenant relationship is professional, it does not prevent you from having a friendly, solid working relationship as well! If you're looking for tips on how to improve your relationship with tenants, in the rest of this article, we'll go over some ways you can do that!
Why Is It Important To Improve Your Relationship With Tenants?
It is logical for you, as a landlord, to expect renters to take care of your property and pay rent on time. To ensure that, you must be upfront and responsive when contacting tenants. On the other hand, tenants are more likely to comply with the conditions of their lease and consider renewing when they feel like they have a solid relationship with the landlord. So, as long as both sides of this process uphold their respective responsibility toward the other, everyone will be happy. This means you, as a landlord, won't have to look for new tenants any time soon. And that's a massive win since complicated tenant screenings can take up so much of your time.
Set Expectations Upfront
The first step to improving your relationship with tenants is to recognize that this is, in fact, a significant relationship. When dealing with tenants, always maintain open communication and set clear expectations. Begin by ensuring that online listings accurately depict pricing, images, amenities, and unit availability. Then, provide all available information about the refund of the security deposit. Take any opportunity to give the tenant more details on the pricing and charges to establish your expectations upfront. Sometimes, however, that's not enough. Before selecting tenants, don't forget to do your homework and choose someone who will pay on time, every time.
Make sure you provide your tenant with all the details and all your expectations before they sign the lease.
Provide Quick Service
It is critical to respond to and resolve repair issues as soon as possible to keep a positive tenant/landlord relationship. It may seem like waiting for a less expensive vendor can save you money. However, spending a little more for timely service will result in reduced tenant turnover and a higher likelihood of increasing rent in the long run. So, rather than replacing a renter who is dissatisfied with waiting a week for a repair, act quickly and keep your tenant happy.
However, it's often not enough to just act quickly. You also need to take preventive measures, prepare for seasonal changes, and ensure all your appliances are working and there are no plumbing issues. Preventative maintenance like this saves you money over time and lowers the need for emergency repairs.
Prioritize Comfort and Safety
It makes no difference if your tenants are young and healthy or elderly and disabled - you should never hear complaints regarding comfort and/or safety. Communities that form this reputation among potential tenants tend to attract fewer quality residents. This usually results in lower rents and frequent tenant turnover.
Communicate Regularly
Communication is essential in any relationship, including the landlord/tenant partnerships. Even though you are most likely quite busy, it is critical that you respond to tenants as soon as they message you. In addition, your response should be professional and helpful. Sending out reminders about significant dates, when payments are due, property improvements, and lease expirations is an excellent approach to improve communication. Don't forget it is possible to send too many messages and reminders. However, when you engage with renters regularly, they are less likely to flood you with messages that you don't have time to read.
Remain Firm But Compassionate
It is critical to strike a balance between being firm and compassionate with your tenants. To avoid tenants taking advantage of you, you must be professional and strictly enforce the conditions of your lease agreements. However, you must also treat your tenants with sensitivity and respect so that they do not feel exploited.
It's tough, but it's all about balance. You should enforce lease terms and due dates. Still, if a tenant comes to you with extenuating circumstances, you should be sympathetic to their difficulties. If the tenant is not paying rent and wants an extension, try to be reasonable, but don't give in too much or too often. If you must decline a tenant's request, explain why and be compassionate in your response.
While it’s important to be firm with your tenants, leave some space for empathy when your tenants need a rent extension every once in a while.
Stay Cool When Dealing With Difficult Tenants
It's very easy to lose your nerve when dealing with difficult tenants. However, no matter how dire the situation appears to be, it is critical to remain calm and objective. Make sure you approach the situation the right way and don't take it personally. A simple discussion can sometimes clear up a misconception. Other times, a conversation might not be enough, and you may need to take more severe actions.
Ask for Feedback to Improve Your Relationship With Tenants
Tenant feedback is crucial if you want to improve your relationship with tenants for several reasons:
- It helps to demonstrate your concern for the tenant's experience.
- It allows you to collect comments on the rental property's circumstances, allowing you to make improvements.
- And, it offers you an indication of how satisfied or unsatisfied your tenants are, which helps you know how close they are to moving out.
Reaching out to tenants for input on property conditions might help you enhance your tenant experience. It is also critical to collect comments on specific property maintenance issues.
Offer Online Rent Payment
Lost checks and money orders are a pain for everyone involved. So, to help improve your relationship with tenants, you should think about making rent payments as simple as possible for both you and your tenant. Online payments are convenient and straightforward, and they ensure that you receive your rent on schedule. Talk with your tenants and see if they'd like to pay rent through apps such as Venmo or other banking apps. There's a big chance they'll say yes.
Final Words
While all of these steps will definitely help you improve your relationship with tenants, it might require some hard work. For this reason, you should consider hiring a property manager and letting them do all the hard work. They will be there to facilitate communication and ensure that everything in the renting process goes smoothly.
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