Top 3 Ways to Keep Tenants Happy (and paying)

Having a happy tenant who keeps renewing their lease is a dream come true. These dream tenants will typically give you fewer hassles, and be more open when issues arise. After all, every month of vacancy is 8% of the annual rent you are missing out on. Having a good tenant renew their lease will save you thousands in turnover repair and lost rent. The most common reason why people move is due to the manager's lack of communication or not getting items repaired.

• Communicate: As in so many aspects of life, communication is crucial to keeping a happy tenant. I prefer to communicate everything via email so there is a paper trail and it is easier for me to stay organized. Figure out which way works best for you and your business and stick to it. You will want to communicate regarding things like lease renewal, construction, or inspections around the property and updates on any ongoing projects. Being quick to respond to their communication is vital, even if it is just to say that you received their email and will get back to them with more information shortly. Your goal should be to respond to each communication within 3 hours.

• Maintenance Requests: Lingering maintenance requests is the number one reason why tenants do not renew their lease. Take care of any maintenance issues quickly and efficiently. You will need to do the repair anyhow so you might as well do it as soon as possible. If you are self-managing, sites like taskrabbit.com and thumbtack.com are great ways to find people to take care of small repairs. Make sure you are getting as much information regarding the repair as possible. This will help make diagnostics easier and cheaper for you.

• Upgrades: Who doesn’t want a free upgrade? Your tenants are the same way. Any time you can give them some sort of upgrade, it will go a long way with them. If you have a fantastic tenant that you want to keep, consider upgrading a dingy appliance for them. This will go a long way for them and it is something you probably need to do anyhow. Other upgrades could be replacing a ceiling light with a fan/light combo, installing an upgraded shower head, or replacing the vent hood with an over-the-range microwave. These are all relatively low-cost items and if you were going to do them anyhow, you might as well get some extra bang for your buck out of them by rewarding a good tenant. What if you just rehabbed your property and everything is already upgraded? Offer to have their home professionally cleaned. Explain the situation to your cleaners and tell them you want to cap the total at whatever you feel comfortable with. I would recommend around $250.

Doing these three things will drastically improve your bottom line and help improve your business overall. The biggest headaches of owning rental properties are finding new tenants and dealing with "bad" tenants. By reducing turnover you also drastically reduce the amount of time and bandwidth needed to spend on managing your rentals.