After that the next time that they see me is at Christmas (visit and small gift again) or if there is maintenance or a pending vacancy.I try to avoid tenant problems by building a reserve of goodwill.

She gave me a poinsettia plant and a Christmas card every year and then one day I decided to sell and she got the listing. 

I refinanced at 4.875% a few days before Christmas ( my lender says this is a great rate for an investment property) , with a loan amount of 290k.   

December is historically slow... no one wants to be moving at holidays.. or they want in the new home before Christmas it can go both ways.then the market in the NW really starts to jump in Jan feb one of our projects in PDX  27 new builds.. we sold I think 3 or 4  from sept 15 to Jan 1.. then sold out from jan one to May 30th.  

My wife is a licensed realtor and manages apartment buildings for a living.Did I mention that all my tenants get a gift card for Christmas, even the ones that are late, even the ones with arrears.

Think of April as Christmas.

People do this all the time to save for Christmas money, etc. 

The first bill covered (probably) the Christmas holidays.

Since they pay the rent on time,  during Christmas day,  I give them each a Christmas basket and they love it!

Assuming that's feasible and ends up being the case, that would still allow Christmas and New Year's to be the official startup of the tourism industry in this area again.