As a landlord, the difference between making a respectable return on investment or barely breaking even often comes down to lowering tenant turnover. Constant tenant churn is more than just an inconvenience, it's also a considerable expense. The average cost to find a new tenant can exceed $1,750.
Clearly, lowering your vacancy rates is important, but that's easier said than done. Are you investigating how to adjust your leasing management strategy to convince more tenants to stay long term? Read on to learn more.
Offer Great Customer Service
There's nothing tenants hate more than an unresponsive landlord. Maintenance issues, such as problems with the HVAC system, should be addressed quickly. Going for days without something as essential as heating and cooling isn't a pleasant experience, and if it frequently happens, tenants will almost certainly start searching for a new place.
Effective real estate management means answering all maintenance requests as quickly as possible. Ideally, your tenants should never wait longer than 24 hours to get a response. To achieve this, you'll need to maintain open lines of communication.
If you're not available, it's crucial to have someone available to promptly address tenant concerns.
Regular but Unintrusive Inspections
While open and effective landlord communications are crucial, you can reduce the number of calls by doing effective property inspections. Inspections help you spot potential concerns early on, so you can address them before they inconvenience your tenants. Frequent inspections of an HVAC system, for instance, could reveal significant wear and tear, but by calling in a technician, you can fix the system before it breaks down.
The key to inspections is to make sure they're not too intrusive. Tenants generally want regular inspections, but they won't appreciate them on short notice.
Offer Competitive Rental Rates
Of course, one of the main concerns of almost every tenant is the rental rate. After all, no one wants to spend more than they need to. If a tenant can save a significant amount of money without lowering their quality of life by moving, chances are they'll do it.
One of the best ways to convince tenants to stay long term is to offer competitive rent rates. You should frequently review and adjust your rental rates based on current market conditions.
It's also possible to offer financial incentives without lowering the rent directly. For example, offering things like professional cleaning services are flexible rental terms is a great way to indirectly offer financial benefits.
The Best Property Leasing Strategies Require Expert Leasing Management
Keeping your tenants happy is a delicate balancing act. Tenants leaving can ruin your investment returns, but being too accommodating also affects your bottom line. Many landlords enlist professional property management assistance to help with this dilemma.
Are you looking for this kind of expertise in Plano, TX? PMI Frisco is here to help. We have decades of experience helping landlords get the best returns on their investment property. Contact us today and let's discuss how we can use our leasing management to help you.
