It’s difficult to locate excellent tenants that pay their rent on time, maintain the property, and abide by the terms of the lease agreement. Once you’ve landed a qualified renter, you don’t want them to vacate.
Landlords are constantly seeking strategies to persuade excellent tenants to continue renting from them. The following suggestions can help you retain your best tenants for longer:
Uphold Your Responsibilities as a Landlord
Being a landlord comes with many responsibilities. To keep tenants happy, you must stay on top of your duties.
Make it easy for the renter to get in touch with you and reply quickly. To prevent miscommunications and enhance the entire tenant-landlord relationship, keep the channels of communication open.
Beyond communication, make sure you’re keeping up with property inspections and preventative maintenance. When a tenant feels safe and comfortable in the property they’re more likely to want to renew their lease.
Recognize Your Tenant’s Needs in Terms of Amenities
Understanding the amenities that modern tenants look for in a rental property is essential if you want to better meet consumer demand. If you want to find a qualified tenant and retain the one you currently rent to then you need to understand what amenities they value most.
The tenant should feel at home in their rental. There are many things you can do to create a more individualized environment, which can persuade your renters to remain longer. By providing tenants with the facilities they need, you may be able to find better long-term tenants and persuade them to extend their leases.
Amenities that many renters value include:
- Bike racks or secure parking spaces
- Soundproofing especially in multi-unit buildings or in housing on busy streets
- A central air conditioning system
- Hardwood flooring
- Stainless steel and/or energy-efficient appliances
- Additional storage space
- Private outdoor areas
Adding some of these amenities could be a critical and profitable investment if you’re trying to draw in new tenants or persuade existing ones to stay longer.
Fix Maintenance Problems Quickly and Professionally
Maintaining your tenant’s satisfaction is essential, especially if you ask them to renew their lease. If you take good care of your property and perform regular property inspections, they will be more inclined to renew their lease thus ensuring a more steady rental income.
One of the most frustrating things about being a tenant is having repair requests go unanswered. When your tenant is thinking about renewing their lease, this may be a major deciding factor. Therefore, you want to demonstrate your dedication to giving them a comfortable place to live by being responsive.
You can stay on top of maintenance issues that need to be resolved and avoid minor maintenance activities from turning into large difficulties by regularly evaluating the condition of the unit. Performing regular property inspections both inside and outside the property will result in fewer instances of emergency maintenance issues.
Additionally, providing incentives like annual professional carpet cleaning or home cleaning services may draw in long-term tenants. This works perfectly since they make them feel appreciated and you won’t be breaking the bank
Remember that taking care of the rental property protects your tenants, and therefore, your overall investment.
Be Impartial while Dealing with Tenant Complains or Issues
No tenant wants to feel as though their landlord is after them. You must treat all of your tenants fairly regardless of their protected classes as stated in the federal Fair Housing Act.
When dealing with tenant complaints make sure to establish a general process that can be applied to all tenants. This will ensure that everyone is treated equally and that no steps are missed when addressing the complaints.
Stay On-top of Lease Renewals
If you like your current tenant, your goal should be to retain them long-term. Therefore, if you know that the tenant's lease will be coming to an end in the coming months, reach out and see if they’d like to renew.
If they’re not planning on renewing, this will give your more notice and allow you to start the marketing process early to reduce vacancy periods.
Enforce Laws While Remaining Compassionate
Before the lease is signed, you must put all of your property rules in writing, including those relating to security deposits, pets, subletting, and additional fees. This makes it clear what you expect from your renter and what they can expect from you.
Ensuring that everyone is on the same page will go a long way in building a solid landlord-tenant relationship. If you already have a long-term tenant talk to them before taking any immediate action if they have violated the rental policies.
Get a clear idea of the situation before drawing any conclusions.
Ensure you can enforce lease agreement policies and restrictions equally and fairly and have a clear policy for what will happen if they are ignored. As such you can make tenants feel safer and regulate their expectations.
Closing Thoughts
If you follow these recommendations, you might have an easier time finding long-term tenants and keeping them happy. Landing a qualified tenant and maintaining a solid landlord-tenant relationship requires a lot of work and effort especially if you’re managing your rentals yourself.
Self-management of a rental property can be daunting. Why don’t you contact the experts at Evolve Nevada? We are a full-service property management firm in Northern Nevada that focuses on overseeing both residential and commercial properties.
Whether you own one rental property or a large portfolio of them, we can customize our expert property management services to meet your needs. Contact us today to learn more about our services!
