How to Build an Amazing Relationship with Your Tenants
Jan 24, 2020
When it comes to being a Roseville property owner, it all boils down to the relationships you form. After all, if you’re looking to retire with passive money coming in from your rental property, you’re going to need happy tenants.
And the only way you can get happy tenants is to build long-lasting relationships with them.
Whether you self-manage your rental property, or use the help of property management in Roseville, the landlord-tenant relationships you build will be the key to your success. That’s why today, we’re going to take a look at how to create meaningful relationships with your tenants.
HOW TO BUILD STRONG RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR ROSEVILLE TENANTS
1. Choose the Right Tenants from the Start
One of the best ways to build a strong relationship with your tenants is to place the right ones in your property from the start. This means weeding out potential problem tenants with thorough tenant screening every time your rental is vacant.
When you screen your tenants, you should check the following:
- Creditworthiness
- Criminal background
- Employment and income
- References (including personal, employer, and previous landlord)
When you have access to this type of information, you can make an informed decision about those you’re placing in your rental. This will allow you to begin a solid relationship from the beginning.
2. Stay Professional
It’s tempting to want to befriend your tenants in hopes of building a better relationship with them. However, doing this opens you up to being taken advantage of. It also puts you at risk for late rent payments, broken lease provisions, and even damage to your rental property.
If your tenant feels like you’re their friend, they may behave in a way that breaches the lease agreement. This will create tension and degrade any positive relationship you hope to form.
Remember, being a landlord is the same as running a business. And even if you use property management in Roseville to help you out, you have to maintain professionalism to secure a good relationship with your tenants. Trust us, when you place the right tenants in your property, they’ll respect you for your professionalism
3. Maintain Open Communication
Your tenants want to know they can get in touch with the right people at the right time – no matter what.
That means being able to contact you or your property manager any time there’s a problem.
One of the biggest complaints tenants have is lack of communication. They feel as though landlords or property managers don’t communicate enough when it comes to:
- Expectations
- Rules about the property
- Property maintenance and repairs
- Tenant satisfaction
It’s important you communicate with your tenants throughout their entire tenancy, not just when things go bad. In fact, conducting routine property inspections gives you a chance to check in with your tenants and make sure they’re happy. This shows you care, gives you an opportunity to make minor repairs before they become costly, and continue to solidify the landlord-tenant relationship.
4. Respect Your Tenant’s Privacy
While checking in with your tenants is a great way to monitor your property and see how happy your tenants are, you have to be careful not to cross the line and become invasive. People call your rental home. The last thing they want to deal with is unexpected visits from you or your property manager.
In California, there are strict laws regarding the rights of landlords
to enter their investment properties. Unless there’s an emergency, such as a fire or water leak, a landlord must receive permission to enter. In addition, landlords or their property managers must give proper notice and only enter during business hours.
Inconveniencing your tenant is not going to earn you any bonus points. In fact, it may cause a tenant to leave once their lease is up, leaving your property vacant. And don’t think that your tenants want to deal with multiple emails and voicemails either, because they don’t. Respect your tenant’s privacy and they will be much happier with you.
5. Ask for Feedback
One of the best ways to find out whether your tenants are satisfied or not is to ask them. When you conduct your routine property inspections, you can collect feedback from your tenants at the same time.
Doing this is beneficial because:
- It shows your tenants you care about their experience leasing from you
- The feedback can be used to make repairs, improvements, and upgrades
- You’ll be able to better gauge whether to expect a signed lease renewal at the end of the lease term
Sometimes you’ll discover your tenants are unhappy with the way you or your property management in Roseville are managing things. If you wait until the end of the tenancy to find this out, you’ll have no time to turn it around. This will likely lead to a vacant property.
However, if you find out during a property inspection that your tenants are dissatisfied, you’ll have an opportunity to fix whatever is bothering them. This shows your tenants you appreciate them and help convince them to renew their lease at the end of the term.
In the end, collecting tenant feedback is crucial for building stronger relationships. It will also help you improve your rental property business.
6. Balance Flexibility with Firmness
If you’re hoping to supplement your retirement with rental income, the key is to secure long-term tenants.
As a Roseville property owner, you don’t want to be a pushover. This will only lead to late rent payments, property damage, broken lease agreement rules, and much more.
That said, making some exceptions to the rules will help you forge a better relationship with your tenants. And the better the relationship, the longer the tenant is likely to stay.
Here are some of the things you might consider taking a chance on changing, especially if your tenant is a great one that you want to keep:
- Changing the no pet policy
- Allowing temporary interior changes (g., paint, fixture changes, and wall hangings)
- Upgrading an old appliance to a new and energy efficient one
- Changing the flooring (upon your tenant’s request) at the time a new lease term starts
- Allowing additional people to move in (complete with a new lease and signatures)
Of course, there will be some things you just won’t budge on, and that’s okay. The point is, if your tenant comes to you with a request, you should at least consider it. Doing so shows your tenants that you’re approachable and open to suggestions.
7. Using Property Management in Roseville
Managing your own rental property can take up a lot of your precious retirement time. But that doesn’t have to stop you from earning a generous income during your golden years.
If you have an investment property and want to generate passive income during retirement, consider hiring property management in Roseville to help.
The right property management company knows what it takes to make tenants happy. They understand how to create long-lasting relationships and earn the trust of tenants. And this all on top of everything else they know how to do, such as:
- Screen for the right tenants
- Draft legally compliant lease agreements
- Collect rent
- Maintain records
- Perform maintenance and repairs
- Conduct property inspections
- Help tenants with questions or concerns
- Be on call whenever there’s an emergency
- And so much more
If you’re ready to take your retirement to the next level financially, but don’t want to do the work required to lease a rental property, get in touch with us today. At Tiner Property Management, not only can we help you manage your rental so you don’t have to, we can build those long-lasting relationships with your tenants.
Not quite ready to retire, but looking to jumpstart your savings?
Let us manage your investment property for you now so when the time comes to retire, you have great tenants living in your property and rent coming in each month.
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