Having a good relationship with your tenants is key to having a stress free tenancy
It’s basic logic.
Treat your tenants with respect; be considerate of the fact that your property investment is their home, and they will (hopefully) show you the same courtesy.
Remember, these are the people you rely on to look after your asset.
Happy tenants are more likely to look after the property, pay their rent on time and allow random strangers to wander through their home at the end of a lease.
Communication equals cooperation, so you need to be amicable, approachable and professional in all dealings.
And as a landlord, you should be attentive to any reasonable requests from your tenants.
Managing rentals over the years, we’ve seen and heard it all.
But the following top things are what tenants hate the most when dealing with inconsiderate landlords.
- POOR TREATMENT
No one likes to feel disrespected.
If a tenant believes the landlord they’re dealing with treats them badly, problems are more likely to occur during the tenancy as the lines of communication start to disintegrate.
If you are using a property manager, find out how the property manager you engage handles conflict and complaints by throwing a few examples their way and measuring their response.
If you sense an unwillingness to work with you in resolving the issue during this line of questioning, chances are your tenants will too.
- LEFT HANGING
Being ignored is another common bugbear.
Let’s face it, we all hate being told ‘someone will get back to you’ and that just never eventuates.
If using a property manager every query presented by your tenants deserves a timely response. So make sure they do.
It’s just common courtesy.
- BAD MANAGEMENT OF MAINTENANCE REQUESTS
Quick and efficient processing of all maintenance requests received from tenants should be your priority.
Remember, you are legally obligated to maintain your property investment in safe, liveable repair, so this is an area you literally cannot afford to ignore. This is also the case if using a property manager, YOU are legally obligated as the owner.
Property managers need to have established protocol around how to proceed in addressing different issues, along with specific instructions with regard to repairs that can be organised on your behalf if you happen to be unreachable in an emergency.
One of the questions you should ask a prospective property manager is what process they have in place around the reporting and management of maintenance items, including expected outcomes and timings for completion.
- BEING KEPT IN THE DARK
In this day and age, it’s not difficult to send a quick email or text advising the progress and approval of a repair or other type of tenant request.
But again, this is an area where renters experience significant frustration in many instances.
If something is taking a little longer to organise than anticipated, or requires multiple visits from tradespeople to obtain quotes, it’s essential that your tenants be kept in the loop and informed as to what’s going on.
- RENT RISES
While you’re entitled to increase your rent in line with market fundamentals, how you approach an increase can either make it more palatable to tenants, or alienate them entirely.
By the time the question of an increase arises, you should have established a good rapport with your tenants and have the courtesy to call them before sending out written notification of a rent review.
You should know how to soften the blow by explaining about comparable rental prices in the area, making your tenant more likely to sign on for another year and less likely to pack their bags and head out the door, feeling hard done by.
Using The Right Tools is Key
Over many years I have tried it all, from using property managers, self-managing to using Online Property Management Software.
Property Managers, they just don’t care about your property, and why would they. No one is going to care about your investment property more then you, that’s just a fact of life.
Self-Managing your property is the best way to know what is going on with one of your biggest investments in your life and let’s face it, you should know everything about your investment properties. But without using the right tools when you are self-managing can get you into trouble and you may not even know about it until it is too late.
Online Property Management Software is the right tool for the job and RealRenta is the best one on the market. Tenants pay rent using Bpay or direct debit and the platform auto does the invoices and receipts, tracks the rent and auto sends text and emails when rent is not paid, hell if even sends out breach notices automatically. You can track inspections, maintenance and all communications and so much more.
JUST BE NICE
The bottom line is, treat your tenants how you would like to be treated and if using a property manager make sure they are doing the same.
Most of us have all been tenants ourselves at some stage, so use that experience to display a little empathy for your residents and you’ll find it goes a long way in maximising your portfolio’s returns.
