Some strategies for low maintenance/repairs

[Matt Liu]

What are some ways to encourage and even incentivize a tenant to take good care of a freshly renovated rental unit? In the case of a SF home, it's already more likely they will feel ownership. But how can you go further?

Some ideas I thought of:
Tell them I have x-number of dollars budget for repairs. If they stay under that amount - I give them what's left over at the end of the year.
Tell them I will not raise the rent more than $10 a year as long as repairs stay under my budget.
Send them a nice apple pie for July 4th and something else nice on Christmas time.
Plant flowers in the front.

hmm.. any other ideas?

[John McCombs]

While I do like the idea of incentivizing the reduction of repair call, there could be unintended consequences that don't ultimately save money. For example, A tenant could neglect to tell me about a leak that ends up costing more money to repair water damage. I try to postpone some repairs in order to make best use of my handyman's schedule. Some tenant will expect a mile if you give them an inch, and ultimately could claim that they have delayed telling you about a needed repair therefore they should be given an incentive that was not agreed upon. There may just be too many complicated variables to make this incentive successful.