Notes

Retaining Good Tenants
All residents at the properties should be treated as your business partners as they are in charge of income, expenses as well as your main point here earnings. It is important to have a good retention program and reward good tenants.
Why do people move?
People move for several reasons and quite often they simply like to move and still have pointless in any way. They don't just like the neighborhood, wish to move their kids to a different school, get divorced and require to relocate, or their family gets bigger and they search for a bigger place. Some people decide to buy their own home, some move around in with their relatives or elderly parents, some relocate due to their job change. Surprisingly the most common good reason that people move is because are now being ignored by their landlord. Not having good relationship using your tenants can result in them moving out out of your property. Tenant turnover is always costly as unnecessary work and repairs must be done as well as the vacancy and advertising expenses have to be looked at. To build a strong lasting relationship using your tenants it is very important have a retention program in place.
Classify your tenants
Make a listing of all properties and classify your tenants ranking from A, B, C, D: A being simply the best headache free and D being the worst nightmare ever. Most likely your tenants class with coincide using the property class. What I mean by that that the best properties located in A type neighborhoods probably will have the best tenants. Good neighborhoods get more affluent, educated and responsible people who desire a better life by themselves in addition to their families. These are individuals who are always polite, respectful, pay by the due date , nor call for unnecessary reasons. They will also manage their particular home and minor work that should be done like minor paint, rug cleaning or perhaps get their very own appliances. B type tenants are also a great paying resident by incorporating flows. Tenant type should be listed in 2 factors: timeliness of rent payments and property maintenance. Lateness isn't necessarily a bad factor so long as you get to collect the rent in addition to the additional fees which happens to be another method to obtain revenue. C type tenants are the types who've had eviction notices for non-payment, issues with maintenance as a result of increased wear. They are not responsible, their contact number isn't working, they forget to cover utilities, and they also range from job to job always trying to catch up with their bills. They don't maintain property well and you may have received trash citations, violations as well as complaints from neighbors. D type tenant could be the one you would like OUT. These people are the types who are non-negotiable, most often have minimum education, try illegal activities in most cases are in D type neighborhoods (war zones). In D type neighborhoods the top approach is to rent the house to a Section 8 or government subsidized tenant as rent payments always turn into a problem.
80/20 RULE
Like in almost any business, you probably spend 80% of energy on 20% of one's tenants. The goal is always to analyze which tenants result in your essentially the most trouble and acquire eliminate them. It is just not really worth the time to cope with headaches, extensive repairs, late payments and evictions. Get rid of them, require a decrease in a symptom to make it are employed in the end. On the other side don't forget about your A and B type tenants and take some time for it to reward them internet marketing great residents.
Implement Retention Programs
While you may be busy handling problems of 20% of your tenants, make sure you remember about the good ones. In the very end they are the types who build your living better and headache free. Remember, when individuals pay punctually, there is also some expectations. When you might have 100k in your bank account, you expect your banker to find out you from your name; same applies to your residents. Memorize their names and their family composition. Build rapport, be able to know who they really are and precisely what are their interests. Treat them how they do, make all necessary repairs punctually and each time, follow-up using their requests, and return their messages by the due date.
• Move In Welcome Package. First impression is the thing that sets the building blocks for the long lasting relationship. When people move into your house help it become clean and no repairs are expected. Assist them with getting their power bills transferred over and check in to be sure they switched it inside their name. We normally give small welcome gifts to new residents too. We also include a welcome package containing all the they need to have, including our Rent to Own program! Welcome package is an possiblity to upsell your customer in the long run.
• Quarterly Check Ups. It is a great idea to do quarterly property inspections and make sure the properties do not require any work or maintenance. Once people opt to move it is VERY challenging to change their mind, so don't arrive at a point when it is always to late and allocate sufficient time for your good residents. If you do not have time and energy to inspect the property or visit your residents, send them an e-mail, text or make a quick phone call to confirm things. People always appreciate that.
• Avoid Frequent Rent Increases. If you might have good paying tenants, leave them at the exact property , nor grow their rents frequently. Rent increases could eventually turn into a problem and will help make your residents move. It is especially common in times of recession when the property values drop and new landlords can easily offer lower rents as a result of lower mortgage payments. Rent increases are ok if you're offering initial discount on your rental or if you've got government subsidized tenants where a small rent increase is allowed annually. One year we chose to increase all of our rents by $25 and we lost several tenants. It cost lots of money in unnecessary repairs, advertising costs, and vacancies! It is also your TIME that needs to be considered that you simply put into getting the house rerented. In the very end you don't know which kind of tenant you may be with therefore it may cost much more take advantage the future. To avoid that you just can implement small "inflational" rent increases and justify them by increase inside your insurance rate, property tax increase or improvements/updates which have been done at the house.
• Gifts, Postcards and Thank You Letters. Show your residents appreciation by sending them a Birthday and/or Christmas cards. You will be surprised how happy celebrate people when they obtain it. We ALWAYS give gifts to tenants on Christmas and New Year. It is also an excellent idea to allow them to have a Home Depot/Lowes gift card or free carpet cleaning service. It will improve your home making your tenants happy. A lot of the times it is just not the gift but attention allowing to people, they appreciate it and a $25 gift will translate in great long lasting relationship along with your residents.
& property management kew ; Be Consistent and Do What You Promised. Managing rental properties is a business and yes it must be treated like one. It is common sense but more and more people don't do the things they promise. It makes landlord look unprofessional and irresponsible. It is your responsibility to be on top of management if you do not have a very management company and it is really a full time job! Simply do what you promised , nor promise if you fail to deliver.
• Pay for Referrals. You can turn your existing customers into more referrals by sending them either e-mail blast newsletter with new properties or perhaps flyers with your properties by regular mail. It is important for you them to your "A" and "B" type tenants. Good people usually associate with like-minded people along with the chances are extremely high you may be getting another good resident. Your tenants would not wish to put your relationship at risk and so are not likely to recommend someone they don't know personally. As in any business you desire to give incentives for your residents for referrals also it can be in are commission, referral fee, or rent discount.
• Renew Lease EARLY. Make it a habit to deliver renewal lease no less than 60 day ahead of the current lease expiration. At this point residents don't even think about moving and you will be more likely to sign another lease. If you do it very last minute odds are they already are seeking another place and probably have found something better or cheaper, or both. Put the dates inside your calendar and remember to send the lease by mail/e-mail and confirm the receipt with tenant. You need to learn as soon as possible in case you current resident is moving out so you can start advertising the area. It is also a fantastic idea to go over your re-locate policies should they made a decision to move.
Policies & Procedures.
Being nice does not necessarily mean it is possible to avoid policies and procedures. Set expectations of one's residents upfront and explain them everything they need to learn (it needs to be in some recoverable format with your lease agreement) about overtime policy, property maintenance, pet policy, sublet policy, tenant insurance, leave procedures, security deposit policies, local laws and ordinances. People might not be aware of things they certainly wrong also it will make you look bad in the long run. Set all expectations upfront and be nice later! Find a tenant retention program which works for you and implement it regularly, test several things. Remember individuals are many different and what works for one person may not help another.
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