A matter of great concern for any landlord is losing revenue because of tenant change. If one or two units stay vacant for even a single month, it can cost a lot of money. Tenant turnover can lead to a lot of work and expenses for landlords. Although it is impossible to avoid tenant turnovers, landlords can surely try to minimize it.
To reduce tenant turnover, landlords can do proper screening to make sure they rent their houses or apartments to tenants who are willing to stay for a long time. The landlords also have to make sure that the rented house or apartments are well maintained to not feel any reason to move.
This article will talk about the different strategies like selecting the right tenants, maintaining good owner-tenant relationships, and using rent management software to minimize tenant turnover. These strategies can make rent management more effective.
Minimizing Tenant Turnover
There are many reasons why tenants leave. They might leave because of personal reasons, economic conditions, job location, bad neighborhood, or many other reasons. Again, in many cases, the cause might be the house or apartment itself. The apartment or house which the landlord rents may not be comfortable or affordable for the tenants.
However, the landlords can reduce the problems to a great extent if they manage their property strategically. Here are 10 ways to minimize tenant turnover:
- Screening Tenants
As a landlord, you have to screen your tenants well. Choosing the right tenants for your property is crucial because they are the people who will take over your property temporarily. Find people who will take good care of your property so that you do not need to spend much money to renovate and repair when they leave.
Interview potential tenants, ask for references and cross-check the authority. Find out if they have any criminal records.
- Affordable Rent Increase
Another reason why tenants may leave is a sudden rent increase. It is normal to increase the rent when bills like electricity, water, or gas increases. The landlords have to think about their revenue, and so they increase the rent of the properties.
But landlords should avoid a massive increase in the rent. The rent has to be affordable to pay without much pressure on their financial condition.
- Make a Proper Lease Agreement
Make a lease agreement that is convenient for both you and your tenants. Think about more extended contracts – like a two-year renting agreement.
This way, you will not need to worry about sudden tenant turnover for a more extended period.
- Prompt Response to Tenant’s messages
Keep your tenants satisfied by providing them instant service. Respond to the tenant’s messages and inquiries as soon as you can. They may want help with maintenance or complain about the next-door neighbors. It is your responsibility to listen to your tenant’s complaints or opinions. Make sure to solve their problems and react fast.
If the tenants get satisfactory service from their landlords, they will not leave, and there is a huge possibility that they will stay longer than you expected.
- Maintain the Apartment or House Properly
Proper maintenance of your property is essential to make tenants stay for a long time. No one will like to stay in an apartment or house if it looks shabby, broken, and old.
So, focus on the appearance of the rented property. You can upsell regular cleaning services. Besides that, you have to renovate and repair broken things (Doors, windows, furniture, etc.), apply new paint when necessary, and install modern applications in the building.
Improved living conditions will convince tenants to stay in the property and attract more tenants to your place.
- Maintain Good Relationship with Tenants
Many property owners fail to hold on to their tenants because of their behavior towards them. They often think the tenants are just people who have to pay them money for staying in their property. As a result, tenants leave without hesitation.
Instead of treating the residents only to earn money, the owners should maintain a friendly relationship with them. There are a few ways you can keep a good relationship with the tenants.
For example, you can welcome them when they move to the property with flowers or sweets, visit them from time to time to know how they are doing. And you can also wish them on their birthdays or anniversaries. However, make sure not to be too imposing, or else you will make a negative impression on the tenants.
- Offer Different Methods of Paying Rent
The world is changing. People are becoming more technology-driven as it makes things easier for them. Your tenants may also want to pay their monthly rents in different ways.
Some people may want to pay traditionally, like bank payments or checks. However, more and more people like to pay with cards or an online payment method. So, try to be up to date with the modern rent collection tools and provide as many options as you can.
- Reward Good Tenants
There are ways to make your tenants happy and satisfied enough to stay in your property. You can offer rewards to tenants or residents who pay rent timely. You can offer them things like lowering the rent or providing discounts on utilities like Wi-Fi.
These incentives will encourage your tenants to stay if their contract or lease is coming to an end. There will be a strong possibility that they will extend the lease.
- Effective Marketing
Sometimes no matter how hard you try, tenants will leave. There is no way to stop the tenant turnover. But if you are strategic, you can rent your vacant property right after your tenants leave.
For that, you have to do proper and effective marketing. When you get a notice from your tenants, start marketing the soon to be vacant apartment or house. Besides putting advertisements on listings websites, you can promote it on social media or various Facebook groups. This way, you can attract a lot of potential tenants within a short time.
- Use A Rent Management Software to provide the best rental experience
In this modern era of technology, there are many rent management software for landlords to manage their properties and tenants. The rent management software makes the renting business very easy by automating almost all activities for the landlords.
Usually the rent management software is used for doing necessary activities like automatically collecting rent payments, document sharing, maintenance issues management and registry, generating leases, getting reminders, and important notifications.
The software also helps to produce monthly reports and accounts of payments, earnings, and expenses. You can open your account here and use PROPERENTY for free to manage your rentals.
Conclusion
There are many ways you can minimize tenant turnover if you have been going through the problem of tenant change. These rent management strategies and rent management software can help you to hold on to your tenants. The number of right tenants will increase, and you will not have to worry about vacant units or apartments anymore. Good luck!