Crisis property management -- two simple survival tips

I've been managing my own rentals for 35 years, and running our property management company the past 8.  When this COVID virus hit I was just as worried as everyone else that we would get a large number of rent deferrals.  I went on a webinar to our clients (and later with our tenants) in mid-April to share resources at their disposal for managing the pandemic.

In March we figured we might have 10% of our tenants need help with April rent.  That is what I told our clients in that webinar.  We figured that was pretty good -- the national average was reporting 31%.  Imagine our surprise when it came in at 2.5%!!  That's right.  We had 5 of our 300 tenants pay partial rent.  Two didn't pay any at all.  

So what did we do get that number so low?  I believe it was the result of two things:

• Good tenant screening
• Good communiation with our tenants

Good tenant screening: I'll put in a shameless plug to go to the Learning Center on our website for a proprietary tenant screening method that I developed over 28 years in the trenches leasing property.  Teaser: credit reports amount to only 10% of the method.  The other 90% is wrapped up in two other areas.

Good communication: When the crisis hit we immediately started communicating with our tenants.  We didn't hold up a baseball bat and say "You better pay!"  Instead we empathized with them, explained to them that we were all in the same boat, and that we were there to help them.  We immediately suspended late fees -- well before the governor ordered it.  We put together a webpage tenants could reference with a list of COVID resources to assist them.  We became their ally so they could trust us.  We had compassion.  We knew exactly how they felt because we felt the same way (with our lenders.)  It was amazing how tenants reached out to us explaining all they were doing to try to get their rent paid.

And we communicated with our clients.  Besides the aforementioned webinar, we were in constant touch through email blasts.  As soon as a tenant told us of a payment issue we passed the information on to the owner.