3 Ways to Improve Your Relationship with Your Tenants
Strong relationships between tenants and landlords are integral to the success of any real estate business. When tenants and landlords have good working relationships, tenants are more likely to respect the property, pay on time, abide by the terms of their lease, consider renewing, and more.
It can be difficult to know how to build these strong relationships, though. Many landlords find themselves fumbling when they try to establish more cordial relationships with their tenants. To help make your job easier, we’ve curated a list of three successful strategies for improving your relationship with your tenants.
#1 Communicate Regularly
Communication is key in any relationship — including tenant-landlord relationships. Although you’re likely very busy managing your real estate business, it is crucial that you respond to tenants quickly when they message you. Not only that, but your reply should be professional and helpful.
A great way to improve tenant communication is to send out reminders about important dates, when payments are due, updates about the property, and expiring leases. It is possible to overdo it with messages and reminders, but when you proactively communicate with tenants, they are less likely to bombard you with messages that you don’t have time to read.
Another strategy for improving communication with tenants is to send out anonymous surveys that gauge how tenants are doing and if there’s anything they would like to see improved with their renting experience. This provides a safe way for tenants to provide honest feedback and feel like their opinions are valued by you, their landlord.
#2 Remain Firm but Empathetic
It can be difficult to balance your duties as a landlord managing your own business and the empathy that you have towards your tenants and their situations. It is important, however, to find that balance between being firm and empathetic. You must be professional and enforce the terms of your lease agreements so that tenants don’t take advantage of you. But you must also treat your tenants with empathy and respect so that they don’t feel like you’re taking advantage of them.
It’s tricky, but it really is all about balance. You should enforce due dates and the terms of leases, but if a tenant comes to you with extenuating circumstances, you should be empathetic to their struggles. Try to be flexible with reliable tenants if they ask for extensions on their rent, but don’t give in too much or too often. And if you do have to deny a tenant’s request, explain why and show empathy in your response.
#3 Update and Maintain the Property
Tenants want good living environments. When they are no longer satisfied with their rental, they will inevitably move on to another one. And if a tenant feels as though their landlord doesn’t care that they’re living in poor conditions, they will be more likely to be careless with the property as well.
You don’t have to spend an arm and a leg upgrading your property, but you should at the very least maintain the quality that the tenant agreed to when they signed their lease. This means attending to maintenance requests quickly and thoroughly. If there are any minor improvements that will make a big difference to your tenants, it will likely be worth the effort in the long run. Putting in the extra care to maintain and improve your tenant’s living environment will help you foster stronger relationships.
Importance of Strong Tenant-Landlord Relationships
You should now be equipped with a few strategies that will help you create and maintain strong relationships with your tenants. Of course there are plenty of other ways to establish good tenant-landlord relationships, some of which you probably already rely on.
But no matter how you choose to do it, it is immensely important that you build relationships with your tenants. Generally, satisfied customers lead to successful businesses. This is also true for landlords, except your “customers” are tenants. Thus, to manage a successful real estate business, you must prioritize your relationships with your tenants.
About the Author
Innago is a free, easy-to-use property management software solution, designed to save you time & money. Innago allows you to easily: collect rent, screen tenants, list properties, manage work orders, create applications, sign leases, organize financials, communicate with tenants, & much more! Learn more here