Respecting Tenant Requests Can Also Be A Win For The Landlord.

[Rodney Burayidi]

Sometimes tenants can point out flaws in a unit that an owner won’t notice because the owner doesn’t live in the unit. The tenant of this unit pointed out that one of the windows in his bedroom was not actually a window he could open, it was just a thick piece of plastic. He asked if he could have a window that he could open like all the other windows in the unit. The previous owner of the property before us had placed the plastic sheet in the unit.

This may seem like a strange request from a tenant, but have you ever lived in an apartment that didn’t have windows I could open? I haven’t. The window was a special order due to the size of the space and cost a little bit more than normal. It was worth the price and time for a few reasons.

1. The tenant most likely will renew their lease and having a satisfied tenant who pays on time is the key to keeping tenant turnover low and increasing profit.

2. We made an improvement to the unit that will benefit us and any future tenant in the long term as well.

3. That plastic sheet was weird.