4 Practical Ways to Increase Tenant Happiness (& Quality)

Vacancies can cost you money in lost rents and in turnover expenses. The best way to ensure profitability is to keep your tenants in your units long-term and avoid recurring vacancies. Some tenants move because of a change in their job, life situation, or circumstances you can’t control as a landlord. Others move because they are no longer happy where they live or feel their needs can be better served elsewhere. So, how do you keep your tenants happy?

Today, I’m going to give you four practical tips that will help keep your tenants happy and increase tenant quality. You might be wondering, “Why is it so important to have happy tenants?” In today’s video, I give a few other reasons that it pays to keep your tenants happy, outside of avoiding a vacancy.

Related: What to Do When Your Tenant Drives Through the Living Room

4 Practical Ways to Increase Tenant Happiness (& Quality)

In the video, I go over a few tips on how to keep tenants happy. Here are the first two:

1. Treat them like people. This means just treating them with respect. Treat them how you would want to be treated. Speak to them the way that you would want to be spoken to. This is important because it will remind you that when it comes time to make tough or expensive decisions, you base your decision off of the human factor and not just the bottom line.
2. Take care of maintenance, preventative and reactive. Take care of maintenance issues in a timely manner. This doesn’t mean drop everything you’re doing for small issues, but when it comes to major issues, make sure you address the issue quickly. Also, take care of the small things that will need to be taken care of in the future. Make sure your tenants see you and that they notice that you’re looking out for them.
3. Allow tenants to have pets. People are happy if they’re allowed to have their pets. If you charge a moderate fee, they’ll even happily pay it. But it’s unlikely someone with a pet would consider moving in if you say this is a no pet property. Now, some tenants may be allergic. This is something you’ll want to keep in mind and try to accommodate, too. Maybe you have some pet friendly buildings and some that are not—then, everyone’s happy.
4. Thank yous and give backs. A “thank you” is a way to show your tenants you care and appreciate them. Maybe it’s a giveaway, a drawing, for paying rent on time. We give away one flatscreen TV a year; other landlords give tenants a Thanksgiving turkey. A “give back” would be something like decorating a multifamily for the holidays. This is what someone would do if they owned a home, so it makes the tenants treat their rental like it’s really their home.

In conclusion, the happier your tenants are, the better quality property you’ll have. I would even say that happier tenants will create a better performing asset and increase your ROI long-term. Take the time to treat all your tenants with respect and find small ways to show you appreciate them. After all, if they’re paying you rent, they’re putting money in your pocket, and for that, you should always be grateful. Please leave a comment below to share some thoughts on tenant happiness!

Hope this helps! Until next time, have a great and profitable week!

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Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.