Giving your tenants a cash gift at the end of the year

[Michael Goodman]

I have 1 rental property that I've had for about 4 years now and have had the same tenants the entire time. They started renting the place in November 2012 and in December of 2013 was the first time I gave the cash. After speaking with an uncle and cousin of mine who both have rentals I decided to follow their lead (our uncle is the one that started it but now my cousin and I both do it as well). If a tenant stays in the house a year we all give them a bit of cash at the beginning of December (roughly 10-20% of 1 months rent). It's a nice little thank you for being a good tenant and we keep it separate from the rent, just giving it as a gift so that we can attempt to avoid fair housing issues if we do not do it for every tenant in every property.

Curious if anyone else is doing this and if so what has your reception of it been?

[James Mc Ree]

It may work out a little better for you to give the gift in the form of a product versus cash if the product has greater value.  You could spend $100 to buy a $125 gift card, then gift the card for a $125 business expense versus a $100 business expense if you were to just give cash.

I am a hobby beekeeper and gift honey at the end of the year and fresh garden vegetables during the summer.  It is a great, low cost way to share the bounty and hopefully a little something special for mostly section 8 tenants for whom cost of anything is paramount.  Cost for me is negligible, but all those products have a marketplace value.

Jim.