3 Inexpensive Ways to Attract High-Quality Tenants

As every landlord knows, high-quality tenants fly through your tenant screening process, with a great credit check and crime-free background.

And since they don’t have a criminal background, they’re likely very interested in keeping themselves and their loved ones safe.

So if you want to attract conscientious tenants, wear your crime-free commitment on your sleeve.

Demonstrate your dedication to their safety by doing the following:

Basic Crime Prevention: Make sure your rental has peepholes, deadbolts, window locks and a sliding chain lock on all exterior doors. These items are required in many areas of the country anyway, so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by making sure you have them in place. Point out these features to impress prospective tenants.

Think Like a Criminal: Inspect your property as if you were a criminal, trying to gain access. Check all entrances to confirm they are secure. Make sure lighting is properly placed so that all access points are flooded with motion-sensitive lights to prevent unwanted prowlers from gaining access. Trim back bushes around entrances and other vulnerable areas, so your tenants know you care about their safety. Proactively explain your thought process to tenants, so they see you as their ally against crime.

Tenant Safety Audit: Invite your tenant to inspect your property for potential security problems. When tenants are involved in their own crime prevention planning, they are more likely to treat your rental with the respect that it deserves, resulting in lower turnover and problems.

These simple crime-prevention strategies will make a statement about your desire to protect your tenants and keep your properties high-end. Your out-of-pocket costs will be minimal, and you make a subtle statement to prowlers or other shifty characters who may be eyeballing your property with the intent to rent. It says, “Stay away, we run a tight ship!”

With AAOA, landlords have resources at their fingertips. Check out our Landlord Forms page.

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