How to Keep Renters Happy
If you want to enjoy a successful rental property, being attuned to the happiness of your renters will serve you well. Happy renters will avoid jeopardizing the landlord-tenant relationship and will strive to keep up with their responsibilities. They’re bound to pay rent on time and maintain your property better.
We here at Evolve Real Estate and Property Management have a few tips to obtain happy renters:
1. Center Your Priority on Property Repair and Maintenance
A bulk of our time is spent at home. We want to feel comfortable and relaxed while living in our houses. This is why landlords must make sure the rental unit remains habitable.
Fix whatever is malfunctioning. Manage the leaks and replace damaged items. When you build up the kind of environment that renters appreciate, there’s no doubt they’ll be happy to stay longer.
2. Be Available When the Tenant Needs You
A great way to cultivate a good relationship with your renters is to be within reach, especially if there's an emergency. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to contact someone that you can’t get a hold of.
Make sure to hand out your contact information. When you receive communication from a tenant, respectfully answer them. If you’re currently busy, take time to reply with a message that you’ll return the call or get back at a specific time period. This reassures the renters and makes them feel valued and important.
3. Honor Your Tenant’s Right to Privacy
If you’re worried about a tenant breaking leasing policies, it still doesn’t give you a right to be nosy in their affairs. Be careful about crossing privacy boundaries. It’s a red flag to have a landlord that has no regard for the privacy right of a renter.
Privacy is so important that it’s part of the landlord-tenant laws. Excessively keeping watch on renters can border on stalking. For example, never open letters that aren’t addressed to you. Your job as a landlord is to provide peace and quiet. Issue a prior notice to inform a tenant before your property visit, preferably 24-48 hours in advance, so the tenants can adjust their schedule sufficiently.
4. Keep Your Tenants Safe
It’s essential to keep tenants safe to create happiness. Mount security cameras around your rental home. Set up light motion sensors. Make sure that you have solid locks in your doors and windows.
Often, intruders hesitate to break in places where security is high since they’re easier to identify. A secured rental home brings peace and security to renters.
5. Respectful Treatment of Tenants
Courteous behavior goes a long way. Respect is often mutual. As a landlord, acting in a professional manner assures your tenants that they can communicate with you. It creates an environment of ease. This makes renters want to stay longer.
Find time to listen to your tenants. It will enable you to recognize their needs and find ways to meet them. It also helps you enforce policies since they know you’re a fair and reasonable landlord.
6. Transform Your Rental into a Pet-Friendly Property
Given the increase in pet ownership, it makes sense to be welcoming towards pets. They offer a lot of benefits, such as providing happiness to tenants. It also helps in broadening your pool of prospects and adding more income.
Initially, you might feel it’s a hassle, but as long as you have set conditions in place, it will be manageable. Just make sure to specify the requirements and responsibilities that pet owners must perform for a clear understanding.
7. Show Appreciation Towards Your Tenants
Good tenants are a blessing. It can be a challenge at times to find responsible ones who can reasonably take care of your rental and pay the rent every due date. If you have this type of renter, offer tokens of appreciation now and then. They’ll be happy and also feel valued.
You can hand out greeting cards, coupons, baked goods, or movie tickets. Some even give rental discounts, especially if a tenant has stayed in their property for a long time. Remember that the cost of a vacant rental can be bigger than simply issuing a rent discount.
8. Cultivate a Great Listening Ear
Handling complaints is part of a landlord’s role. It’s vital to provide an environment where tenants can openly communicate their concerns.
This is a good way for you to establish a good landlord-tenant relationship. You’ll be aware of the issues and can find a way to resolve them quickly. Otherwise, small problems may quickly snowball into bigger ones that can cost you both time and money to fix.
9. Be Prompt When Fixing Property Damages
Conflicts can quickly arise and the relationship between a landlord and renter can crumble when the property isn’t taken care of properly. One of your major responsibilities as a landlord is to keep the rental habitable.
Address property damages right away and schedule repairs. This increases the tenants’ trust in you and makes them happy to stay longer.
10. Perform Frequent Inspections
Before damages can occur, being proactive in property maintenance through preventive inspections is very helpful. This practice helps you to save your resources and also prevents inconvenience to tenants in the future.
Major repairs can mean areas being inaccessible for a period of time. Spotting small signs of leaks can mean not dealing with flooding and mold. Renters will be happier not to experience both scenarios.
Bottom Line
To keep a tenant happy, you must become a landlord that’s observant and can deliver positive results. Strive to focus on details and place yourself in your tenant’s shoes. You would want to live in a safe environment and in a property that’s at its top shape. Additionally, you’d feel happy to deal with a considerate landlord.
If you lack the time to be a hands-on landlord, contact Evolve Real Estate and Property Management for help. You can reach us at (720) 800 6390. We’d be happy to speak with you!
