How to Maintain a Good Relationship with Your Tenants
The Top 6 Ways to Stay on Good Terms with Your Tenants
Do you want to be a successful landlord who experiences little to no problems with tenants? The best way to achieve this goal is to establish a positive relationship with them as soon as possible.
Each party has to do its part in making this relationship work. As a landlord, you can do your part by remaining somewhat flexible on the payment schedule and respecting the privacy of your tenants. You should also keep an open line of communication by making them feel comfortable enough to contact you whenever they have questions or need assistance.
If you uphold your responsibilities as a good landlord, there will be a better chance of your renters maintaining their duties too. Then you can keep them as long-term occupants of your property.
Do you need further assistance in this endeavor? Below are the top 6 methods for establishing a positive and more trusting relationship with your tenants:
1) Have an Informative Discussion
Never solidify an agreement with a prospective tenant until you conduct a thorough background check on them. Once you see that they have a good credit rating, stable income, and an extended rental history, you should sit down with them for a more in-depth and informative discussion about themselves.
The screening process of new rental applicants involves more than looking at their recorded financial profile. You must also seek more insightful information about your potential renters, such as their housing requirements and preferences. The best way to obtain this information is through a friendly initial conversation, where you introduce yourself and get to know them.
Avoid talking about their income or credit rating because you should already know this information from the background check. Instead, you’ll want this conversation to be more personal without trying to up sell or high-pressure them in any way. Give them a positive impression of you so that they can trust you more. Then your relationship with your occupants will be off to a great start.
2) Welcome Your New Tenants
When someone has successfully signed a lease agreement to rent your property, you should welcome them with congratulations and a gift. One classy way to handle this is to put a welcome card with chocolates or flowers on the living room table or kitchen counter top. It will give your new occupant a positive first impression when they enter the rental home as a first-time resident.
3) Be straightforward
Your tenants will respect you more if you are straightforward and down to earth. That is why part of building a trusting relationship with them is about laying out your terms as clearly as possible right from the beginning.
You don’t have to act strict or authoritative about it. Just provide a clear breakdown of all the rules and terms of the lease agreement so that they are easy to understand. These terms may include the following:
- The rental price per month
- Pet policies (e.g., number of dogs or cats allowed)
- Who is responsible for maintenance and repairs? (You or the renter)
- Late rent payment fee
- Grace period extension length (if any)
- Smoking policies (smoking or non-smoking?)
- Required security deposit amount
- Insurance guidelines and responsibilities
- The penalties for breaching the lease agreement
- The amount deducted from the security deposit for damages
Feel free to create a printed list of these terms. If the occupants are clear about your and their responsibilities from the start, it will avoid unnecessary misunderstandings in the future.
4) Show Compassion and Flexibility
There may come the point when a tenant faces a financial emergency and cannot make their rent payment on schedule. If they have made their payments on time before, it would be wise to show them some leniency and flexibility during this unexpected hard time.
For instance, you could extend their grace period and waive the late fee to help them out one time. But don’t offer too much leeway because you don’t want them to assume you’re too flexible and forgiving. So instead, make one small exception while kindly stating your expectations of them going forward.
Think of it as maintaining a balance between compassion and authoritativeness. Stay professional, but also show empathy and feeling. If you can do that, you’ll remain in good spirits with your renters.
5) Maintain Direct Contact
Stay in consistent communication with your tenants, or ask your property manager to keep you up to date. It is the best way to know whether something is wrong with the property, such as broken appliances or other emergencies. Your renters must feel comfortable contacting you whenever they experience a problem with your rental property.
From the beginning, give out your cell phone number, so they can quickly contact you directly. The occupants may want to contact you, or your property manager, if they plan to make late payments on their rent and other violations of their lease agreement. The sooner you know about these plans, the faster you can prepare.
Please respond to their requests and correspondence quickly. Don’t leave them hanging for hours or days without any communication because they’ll begin to feel like you’re ignoring or neglecting their needs. The ideal response time would be 30 to 60 minutes after they call you.
Send written notices to your tenants if you need to convey important information about their lease agreement. That way, you can have a recorded timestamp of the correspondence as proof of the notification.
6) Stay Honest
A landlord is a businessperson, and your tenants are the customers. So if you want to make your customers happy, show them you’re honest and true to your word. Then your customers will stay comfortable and satisfied doing business with you. As a result, they will give you repeat business and refer other potential customers to you.
Honesty means upholding the tenants’ rights as outlined in the lease agreement. For instance, if the lease agreement includes a right to quietness or warranty of habitability, you must honor those provisions to benefit the occupants. Also, uphold your maintenance and repair responsibilities if they are part of the lease agreement.
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