When you’re a landlord, finding good tenants is challenging. Yet when you find exemplary tenants who treat your property with respect and as though it were their own – you never want to see them leave. However, it only takes one bad experience to motivate a tenant to find somewhere else to live – so how can you persuade tenants to continue renting from you? This article outlines several ways landlords can retain good tenants to reduce their turnover expenses and become more profitable/better proprietors.
Handle Maintenance Requests Quickly
One of the main reasons a tenant starts looking for a new place to live is bad maintenance experiences or because problems aren’t resolved promptly. Tenants can quickly tire of living with a temperamental boiler, issues with the roof or pest problems; however, providing that you fix their problems rapidly, you will not have to worry about this issue.
Landlords can aim to do this by ensuring that regular maintenance is carried out at the property, whether it is vacant or inhabited, as this will prevent these sorts of problems from occurring. You may opt to carry out this maintenance yourself or consider hiring professionals such as vacant property guardians First Response Group to carry out these checks on your behalf.
From general building repairs to plumbing and electrical services, First Response Group offers various services to make property maintenance easier. Browse their website for their entire list of services, or contact a team member directly to discover how they could help you handle maintenance requests quicker.
Inform Tenants About Potential Disturbances
If you have scheduled work planned on one of your tenanted properties, you should inform the inhabitants as soon as you become aware. What if the contractor carrying out the service needs to gain access to the property? What if your tenant is working that day or out of town? Failure to inform them promptly will create potential problems that could interfere with your scheduled work.
To avoid this, ensure that you inform your tenant as soon as a confirmed date for the works to be carried out. Doing so will give them time to prepare, rearrange or make alternate arrangements for someone to be at the property, which will, in turn, solidify the relationship between the two of you and demonstrates the respect you have for them.
Make Sure That You’re Always Contactable
Communication is often critical, and nothing is more accurate in a landlord/tenant relationship. If a tenant feels you are never reachable or gets the impression that you’re ignoring their calls – nothing can sour a relationship more. However, if both parties know how they can communicate with each other and the appropriate times to do so, you will not have to worry about this issue.
You can do this by being flexible with your communication methods, as not everyone wants to phone their landlord every time a problem arises. You might have some tenants who work unsociable hours and would prefer to email/text you or tenants who exclusively want to talk over the phone – so having multiple methods of communication keeps all tenants happy.