AAOA Blog

HOW TO CREATE A SOLID LEASE AGREEMENT: Part Three of Four

By Wayne Gathright

Part One, Make Your Lease a Tenant Satisfaction Agreement

Part Two, The Basic Lease Agreement

BUILD TENANT INCENTIVE CLAUSES INTO YOUR LEASE AGREEMENT

Apart from the basic provisions, you can build incentives into your lease agreement to reward a good tenant. In return, you can turn your tenant lease into a valuable marketing tool for your business, while at the same time providing extra satisfaction for your tenants.

Here are a few ideas:

• Award special benefits to your tenants the longer they stay.  At each tenant lease anniversary, provide a financial or other type of award, provided they are on time with all of their rent payments.
• Provide incentives for your tenants to recommend you to other prospective tenants.
• Provide an incentive for your tenants to eventually own the house they currently rent, provided they remain in good standing as a tenant.
•  Encourage your tenants to make upgrades to your property if they have the skills.  You can provide materials and they can provide valuable labor.

Check back tomorrow for Part Four, Added Clauses.

Wayne Gathright is president of WG Software, Inc., developers of the Tenant File Property Management Software.  He has over 30 years experience in consulting and software development for real estate.  Mr. Gathright also markets a product for easy creation of leases called The Lease Designer, that allows the user to select from several prewritten leases, choose from over 200 prewritten rental clauses, and add house rules templates to the lease. A user can write their own leases and clauses, modify the existing templates, or import leases from other programs.

American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services related to your commercial housing investment, including tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing.  Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org.

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