Do you reward your Residents at their lease anniversary if so how

[Scott F.]

Do you reward your Residents at their lease anniversary, if so how?

One of our policies is to reward a resident at their lease anniversary with a gift card to a very large national retail store in our market. The longer the resident stays, the larger the gift card becomes.

Initial lease $0.00

2nd year $25.00

3rd year $50.00

4th year $75.00

5th year $100.00 and so on.

No one has not ever liked this or expected it. 

I actually had one guy in a group of (party style) student housing had tears in his eyes on year four!

He’s going to sign year #6 with me in a couple of months, Cha-Ching!

[Linda S.]

@Scott F.,

It sounds like a good idea, however it doesn't benefit the landlord.    I like the idea of incentives, however it's not big enough where I think it will sway someone yes/no, and again-- you aren't gaining anything. 

What we plan on doing, is at renewal-- give them the option of $100- $200 to upgrade their house,  maybe it's adding a small fence, or painting a room, or a year of filters, at least this way we are improving the property and improving their quality of life.   You can write it all off.. whereas with yours, I believe you can only write off $25 in gifts.