5 PROVEN STRATEGIES TO BOOST TENANT RETENTION RATE

The longer you can keep your renters, the better. You’ll save time and energy that would need to be spent looking for new tenants, cleaning the space your renters left, and avoid losing money while your unit is vacant. Longer tenant retention should be something you’re always trying to improve so that you can make the best returns on your rental property.

Not sure how to improve your tenant retention?

Here are some simple tips that will help ensure your clients enjoy your property for many years:

Master the Art of Tenant Relations

You’re in charge of the property- we all know that, and your tenant acknowledges it too. But, that’s not a license for being submissive to the property owner, and establishing dominance over your tenants. Property management, at the end of the day, is still a business. That means learning how to handle your customers, particularly in antagonistic situations.

Instead of handling a hostile tenant with contempt, counter them with an approachable tone and encourage them to negotiate. Working with a team spirit as opposed to a competitive one can make the difference between a successful and sour tenant-manager relationship.

Even when a tenant is late on rent payments, do not be condescending in any way. Make yourself the tenant’s ally and politely ask them why rent is overdue. If the tenant has been making timely payments in the past, it wouldn’t hurt being lenient enough to grant them additional time to remit payment. Think of that as perks for good tenants.

Prioritise Property Maintenance

At the beginning, vacating into new property is exciting for tenants. It’s like acquiring a new vehicle or furniture. Very pleasant at first, but the excitement gradually diminishes with time, as they get used to the property. Ultimately, a tenant begins perceiving you as some huge extortionist who’s persistently making insane profits from them. The property stops feeling like a home or business premise, and more like a system of capitalist walls. Sadly, for most property managers, it only gets worse because they only contact tenants when rent is overdue. That’s why many tenants have such a bad view of property managers, and hope to vacate their properties as soon as possible.

One of the most effective ways to counter this effect is prioritising on property maintenance. This not only improves material durability, but also consistently impresses tenants and reignites their excitement. They begin feeling like valued customers, and continue staying at your property with a more positive attitude.

Respect Tenant Space

Don’t show up unannounced to your tenant’s apartment or home and expect to be let inside. When you sign the lease with your tenant, the property becomes their private space to use however they’d like as long as they follow basic rules. That means you lose the right to waltz in and out of the property as you please. So, don’t do anything that you wouldn’t like either. If you have to take care of maintenance, let clients know well ahead of time so that when you ring the doorbell, they are expecting it. Most clients won’t mind you coming in to do maintenance, but it’s essential you give them a warning.

Phone calls and email are great ways to keep in contact with your clients about anything coming up. Visiting the property is fine, but only with prior notice. This will keep your clients from feeling like you’re spying on them or invading their space.

Renew The Tenancy On A Regular Basis

Every time a tenant’s lease comes up for renewal, they will be making a choice whether to stay at your property or not. Sometimes external factors that you can’t control will influence their decision, but often you can do small things that will turn the tables in your favour.

Consider is to allow them to choose from a list of pre-approved property upgrades, such as new appliances, new flooring, new paint or window treatments. You’ll have to consider the costs associated with these upgrades, but if you were going to do them anyway during a turnover, you can offer them to your best tenants to keep them happy.

This is also a great opportunity to reassess the rent and communicate with

your tenants the options of increasing, maintaining, and or if the situation dictates, maybe decreasing it. Make them feel part of the decision making process and by gaining their feedback. You will also be more confident that the rent is sustainable for them to pay over the term of the new tenancy.

Keep the Rent Competitive

As a rental property owner, you obviously want to maximize your rental income. But being too aggressive with rent increases may cause tenants to leave, forcing you to incur make-ready expenses and vacancies, which will cost more than a slightly lower rental rate.

So instead of raising the rents to market level and increasing them with every lease renewal, consider keeping them slightly below market and only increasing every 2-3 renewals.

This strategy accomplishes two things. First, by keeping your rents below market, you will make it harder for your price-sensitive tenants to find a better alternative. This, combined with keeping your property in a good condition will simply make it uneconomical for them to move.

Second, by limiting how often you increase the rent, you will likely decrease the tenants’ anxiety associated with lease renewals and frequent rent increases. Nobody likes to see their rent go up and a tenant that knows you’re not going to do it every year is more likely to stay for the long-term.