My Problem or Tenant Problem?

[Kyle Benham]

Hello all, my name is Kyle, and I'm looking for some advice from those that have potentially gone through and experience similar and what you all did to resolve it.

I bought a 4-unit multi-family two years ago. It is my first property. It's located in Phoenix and I live on the outskirts of Phoenix about 30 minutes away. I self manage currently and plan to turn it over to a property manager in the future at the next turnover of one of the units so I can focus more on my next purchase, which I am in the process of acquiring now. My issue recently has been theft/vandalism of the mailbox I installed almost a year and a half ago as well as last night, one of my tenants had their catalytic converter stolen in the middle of the night. This is a C/D area. It's right on the line of where properties start to improve as you move north and where things get worse as you move south, and I'm hoping gentrification continues southbound. It's no secret that crimes of this nature are prevalent in this area. I've worked hard to improve the property since purchasing through full scale cosmetic renovations of the interiors and most of the exterior. This allowed me to raise rents and attract better tenants than the average in the area. So I've been running through some potential options in my mind and on paper to fix this problem since I do feel that it hurts my properties reputation if tenants are having issues. Do I?

1. Leave it to the tenants. They are encouraged to obtain rental insurance at purchase, and they know the area when they sign the lease. Most have lived in the area a while and are very familiar. For those that aren't, I've been up front with them when they show interest. 

2. Invest in a security camera/system of sorts. The problem here is that from what I've researched, I'm looking at the need to then acquire internet (potentially place it in the laundry area, which is locked and closed off, unless of course a tenant leaves it open). This would be an added monthly expense and take from my cash flow, but would provide some comfort to the tenants. I've thought of maybe getting faster internet and then providing it "free" to tenants, but increasing rates at turnover by $50, so essentially I could turn it into additional income, but then if the internet doesn't work at times (which we all know happens), it's an additional headache to keep it up and running. And what keeps the same types of vandals from just stealing the security cameras is my other thought.

3. Does anybody have another way they have solved a similar issue?