Holiday gift for tenants

[Adrian Smude]

Every year I give my tenants a small gift for the holidays. Some examples are Poinsettia and deluxe chocolate covered mixed nuts. 

I’m looking for an idea for this year that’s not a boring gift card. What do you give?  

[Patrick M.]

Recap

Gift reasons:

1. It makes me feel good.

2. I want the tenant to think of me as more then just a landlord. (Family)

3. I want to “ensure” that the tenant follows the terms of the lease.

4. I don’t want the tenant to move out.

[Mark S.]

For those who claim that a true ‘business’ does not give holiday gifts, you are in error. I have worked for numerous financial companies over the years, regional and national, and all have given various gifts. These generally were for their best clients. Tenants who pay on time and take care of the property would qualify as a ‘best client’ to me.

[Eric D.]

@Adrian Smude I agree, actual gift card giving may not be scalable, but giving just a Christmas card certainly is. I personally give cards with a $50 gift card to all of my 6 tenants. I realize I am not a big operation and someday I may move to just cards but I think over the past year the mortgages were paid down by 15k, the houses cash flowed more that 20k and they appreciated by around 80k.. does a $300 expense really seem like too much? Also I think it demonstrates that I appreciate their business and it shows from low turn over.

[Adrian Smude]

The point has already been made about the “not scalible” but I’ll repeat with my views. Each property should be cash flowing enough to afford it. If a few dollars over the entire year breaks the deal it wasn’t a deal from the start. If you’ve scaled to the point it will take a lot of man power you should already have employees. 

Again, thank you to the people that answered the question I had with a gift idea. :-)

[Renee Moomey]

@Mary Mitchell I appreciate your ability to voice what I was thinking. Great business is done by people who do what no one else is doing and who get paid more for doing it.

[Chatree C.]

Each business is different. I only have a few rentals but one of them is in a different market with different kind of tenant (A neighborhood, high income expats) so gifting would make sense for that one in my case. I want to build a long lasting relationship with them and hopefully get more tenants via their company.

Reading many of the posts about rentals just need to be reminded to pay on time, no reason to gift them makes me realize I much rather prefer dealing with volume, higher touch business. Perhaps this is more on the AirBnB side rather than long term rentals.

There's a place we like to go on AirBnB, quite expensive, every time we get there, there'll be a bottle of wine waiting in the kitchen. It's not even promised in the listing but they did it any way. Gifting doesn't have to come out of your pocket, just build it in to the expenses when you run your numbers.

[Ryan D.]

Wow folks. There's a lot more to business & life than simply "fulfilling your contractual obligations". I've lived in rented small duplex/triplex-type buildings where the LL never gave so much as a "thanks for keeping the place nice", and in LARGE complexes where the management hosted annual holiday events for all the residents. Guess which management the residents treated better. Tenants can make your business easy, or a headache. Creating good will is one  way to encourage (yes encourage, not guarantee) the type of behavior you want from them. 

As far as scale, if your RE business cant handle a per unit $20-25 expense once a year, for client retention & good will, something is wrong. 

Have you never given a holiday gift to your kids teacher, or your mailman, gardener, baby sitter, etc? All of which you've already fulfilled your "contractual obligations" to when they got paid.....doesn't mean that generating some good will is a bad idea. 

We give turkeys to the residents in each unit every Thanksgiving, via our management companies. 

[Moises B.]

@Nathan Wankel hmmmmmmmm depends. Set up a process. I agree a handful of units manageable.  100+ units you should be able to take more of a hit with unpaid or late payments at which point perhaps you don't need put forth an incentive for tenants.  As my portfolio grows, I will level set and determine other strategies. 

[Moises B.]

@Paul B. that goes without saying. To think having a portfolio of 100+ or 1000+ units you'll be giving $25.00 gift cards for paying on time, it's a bit absurd, yes?  My point was targeted for a portfolio of a handful of units.  Once you begin having 20,30, 40+ then I'd think your screening services, management services are a lot more robust, thus, you'll be able to take that hit of a late payment (+ late fee) whenever possible.  

Baby steps.

[Adrian Smude]

We made our decision. The gifts  varied from property to property a little, but some examples of what we got more a large coffee mug who Starbucks cocoa and a pack of kids go fish cards.  Placed in a gift bag and cost under $14.  I’ll probably deliver them second week of December. :-)

[Fritz Ritter]

@Mary M. You are already providing a service to them , I mean unless they are 5 year long term tenants I wouldn't award them for doing what they are supposed to do as stated in the lease. Its a nice gesture and I'm not saying if you do your a sucker ,  I just think running as a business and dealing with multiple tenants this can become a expectation and eventually a expense that can reflect negatively on the overall performance of your investment. A card saying happy holidays would probably be sufficient. 

A question I have is would you write it off as a business expense ? If not then maybe it doesn't look bad on your business performance , but if you do it just seems like a unnecessary expense on your balance sheet.  

[Mary M.]

@Adrian Smude  happy holidays!!!