Creating cooperative and kind tenants with lottery tickets and thank you notes

[Edward Ross]

I own 11 Single family homes and manage four of them myself. The four I manage are by far the most profitable and have the fewest maintenance calls. One of my secrets is using lottery tickets and thank you notes. Each month that a tenant is on-time with their rent check I send a thank you note with three lottery tickets. I thank them for being on time and wish them a great month. If they are late I still thank them for the check and let them know I won't charge them the late fee of 5% this time and I re-state when the rent is due. I also use these monthly notes to communicate any issues, such as past due trash bills, or any city notices for not mowing a lawn. In the month of December I send each tenant a $50 Target gift card (rents are a $1000-$1200/mo). Every tenant I have had has told me I am the best landlord they have had. This has worked out well, because most of my tenants take care of their own maintenance issues, except if the heater stops working. One tenant who was moving out to get a bigger place with his girlfriend made due with a bad garbage disposal for a month because he knew it would save time and money if I could replace it when I performed the turn-around after he moved out rather than having to call a plumber. Trust me, having tenants who respect me and work with me eases a lot of my landlording stress.  Take care, Ed