As a rental property owner, you already know that renter retention is crucial for long-term success. Not only do high turnover rates increase costs, but they can also disrupt the stability of your investment property in other ways. Therefore, resident retention should be a main priority for landlords and rental property owners alike. The good news is that a few easy, effective strategies can significantly impact residents’ satisfaction and willingness to renew their leases year after year. Here are our top recommendations for boosting resident retention and ensuring your properties stay profitable and prospering.
Build Trust Between Renters and Landlords
Relationships with people play a significant role in the work that owners and landlords do in the rental industry. A key component of long-term retention is effective communication and a feeling of trust between a renter and their landlord.
As a property owner, you can build a good relationship with your renters by interacting frequently (and pleasantly) with them, preserving open lines of communication, answering their requests promptly, and following up with them on a regular basis. While you don’t want to overdo it, staying responsive to your renter can help them feel like you care about their wellness and drive them to stay in their rental home longer.
Ensure the Property is Properly Maintained
Besides cultivating a positive relationship with your renters, it is equally important to remain on top of your property maintenance and repairs. These two methods go hand-in-hand, specifically when aiming to improve retention rates.
Terrible property upkeep is among the key reasons why renters leave, primarily if they have made maintenance requests that have been overlooked. Moreover, proactive maintenance can reduce costs by avoiding costly emergency repairs and exhibiting to your renter that you appreciate their living in a well-kept property. In turn, this might motivate them to take good care of the property, which can also protect the value of your property.
Invest in Thorough Tenant Screening
Sure enough, finding renters who will take good care of your property can be quite challenging. Yet, you can thoroughly screen your applicants before signing a lease. Screening renters is a must because it can help you assess whether a potential renter is credible, liable, and a good fit for your property.
A quality screening should provide a detailed look at your renter’s finances, credit history, and rental history and alert you to any past issues. Just be sure to ask for and check their references, including previous landlords, any criminal history in your state, and any states where they’ve previously resided.
Provide Incentives for Lease Renewal
An effective approach to encourage lease renewals is to motivate your current resident. Tragically, numerous rental property owners capitalize on the lease renewal to raise their rental rate or add barriers that make their renter unhappy or unwilling to renew. While a rental rate increase may not always be avoidable, it should be sensible and justified by a description of the value the tenant will receive in return.
As an illustration, you might highlight recent property upgrades, such as new appliances, enhanced amenities, or improved safety elements. You may also want to think about providing your resident a small discount for renewing early, an additional carpet cleaning, or even a minor unit upgrade, such as fresh paint or new fixtures. Even a small offering can go a long way toward making your resident feel valued and maintain a sense of trust.
When to Call the Experts
These proven strategies can dramatically improve resident retention, lessen turnover costs, raise property values, and establish stronger, long-term tenancies. Sure enough, managing a rental property and resident relationships can be an enormous task, not to mention a time and effort commitment that you might not be able to make.
At Real Property Management Vanguard, we recognize that managing rental property and resident relationships can be a significant challenge, necessitating a significant amount of time and effort that you might not have available. That’s why we are here to provide assistance. Our staff is prepared to assist you in boosting resident retention in Sanford and nearby. Contact us online or call 407-681-7802.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
