Holiday gift for tenants?

Question

Jonna Weber · Answer

I do a non-monetary gift and card (like a small Hickory Farms box or gourmet popcorn). I try to catch them at home to say hello in person as well.   I am all about long term tenants who feel good about living there.

Account Closed · Answer

YES! I am a big believer in giving a $25-$50 gift card during the  holidays, for good tenants. I treat my tenants like business partners and showing appreciation goes a long way to strengthening that relationship and building good will.

Gail K. · Answer

The first year we had rental houses (4 of them) I gave $50 gift certificates to tenants as Christmas presents.

Did it stop them from moving (some without adequate notice) or, in some cases, paying the rent late?  Nope.  And only one tenant thanked us.

We then decided our "gifts" would be answering repair requests as quickly as we could and focus on maintaining a business relationship with our tenants.

My father was a "building superintendent" (fancy name for janitor) for decades, managing three apartment buildings in Evanston, Illinois.  Some tenants gave him Christmas gifts of a carton of cigarettes or a bottle of booze.  Bad choices all around; my father was an alcoholic who eventually died in a nursing home from end stage liver disease with his brain totally pickled from this disease.

Gail

Account Closed · Answer

Does your credit card company send you a gift for paying the bill on time every month? What about your cell phone company? The power company? Your mortgage company? No? Then why would the landlord?

Donna Salmiery · Answer

This is my first year as a landlord also. I have two single families and both tenants have been great. One even paid a few months rent in advance. A gift card sounds like a good idea. I am looking to buy an apartment building next and that could get expensive depending on how many units.

Jim Adrian · Answer

Search bp some more and you will find answers.   I do xmas with small gift and a card.   Never do bdays.  Once you start something you cant stop  or forget it.

Thomas S. · Answer

It is not supposed to be a warm and fuzzy relationship.

But that is exactly the motivating factor for hobby landlords to want to give gifts. A gift is not a reward for a tenant doing what is expected it is a personal message, a message professional landlords know has no value in the relationship.

Hobby landlords try to read far more into the relationship than any tenant ever wants with a landlord.

Rich Baer · Answer

@Mike Lightcap

You are providing housing and the tenant is paying for it. Remember that you are the CEO of a business. It is not supposed to be a warm and fuzzy relationship. As Kipling wrote in his 1892 poem "never the twain shall meet".

Holiday gift for tenants?

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