When you have a good tenant living in your rental, you want to keep them for the long term! Good tenants are invaluable. They pay rent on time, don’t cause property damage and don’t cause problems with other neighboring tenants.
Frequent tenant turnovers means you spend more money on marketing and property maintenance, and more time on tenant screening.
So, you want to encourage good tenants to continuously renew their lease. To do so, you need to keep them happy.
In this post, we are going over some ways you can keep your tenants happy.
Ways to Keep Tenants for the Long Term
Here are some ways to keep your tenants happy and renting for the long-term:
1. Be Responsive to Property Maintenance
If a tenant reports an issue, schedule time to have it inspected. Renters want to live in a comfortable living space. They also appreciate when their needs are prioritized.
Practice preventive maintenance so renters rarely experience maintenance problems. Regular inspections allows you to find minor issues so you can address them right away.
When renters are considering renewing the lease, they’ll take into account whether you are attentive to property problems. If they see that you’re quick to coordinate repairs, hire professional cleaners, and make improvements on the curb appeal, they’ll want to stick around longer.
2. Strive to be a Good Landlord
Tenants appreciate friendly landlords. They’ll likely continue renewing their lease if they don’t feel intimidated by you and if they feel as though they can talk to you anytime.
You can also focus on being more responsive and reachable to the renters. When you encourage open communication, any misunderstandings are resolved and you’ll cultivate a good landlord-tenant relationship.
Finally, you want to be polite and respect the privacy of your tenants so they’ll feel at ease staying in your rental unit. If a renter feels a sense of home in your rental property then they won’t want to rent anywhere else. Always show respect and treat all renters fairly. In return, they’ll also show the same respect and treat your property well by extension.
3. Study what Amenities Renters Desire
Know what amenities contribute to the renters’ decision to stay. For instance, most tenants appreciate high-speed internet, extra outdoor areas for relaxation, a reserved parking area, more storage spaces, and updated kitchen appliances.
Study the demographics you’re serving. Different tenant groups will want different things. Younger tenants are particular about lifestyle amenities, such as having a pool, fitness center, or common recreation area.
Families will focus more on extra outdoor areas, access to a dishwasher, washing machine and dryer, and storage spaces.
If you’re able to provide the important things that your renters prefer, then they’ll be happy to stay longer as tenants.
4. Be Proactive with Lease Renewals
You can contact your tenants 90 days before the tenancy ends and inquire whether they want to extend their stay through a lease renewal.
Being early allows them to entertain the idea sooner and share their plans with you so you’re better prepared in case you need to market your property. Should the renters choose to leave, you still have some time to launch a marketing campaign and gather prospective renters. This ensures that income interruption is kept to a minimum.
However, do your best to keep your good tenant. An incentive you can apply is to keep the rent rate the same, rather than raise it. Also, you can ask the renters what amenities they would need to consider staying in your unit.
A good relationship with the renters allows open communication and lets you discover the incentives they favor.
5. Encourage Longer Leases
You can also take a straightforward approach and request tenants to sign a lease with longer terms, but at discounted rental fees. For example, if the renewal period is every 6 months, you can consider adjusting it to a year. If the rental period is one year, you can extend it to two years.
The profit may be smaller in the short term since there are no rent increases but having great tenants is priceless for rental owners. It’s best to have someone pay the rent regularly rather than assigning high rents but dealing with missed payments or vacancies every couple of months.
Bottom Line
In order to run a successful rental, you must make your tenants happy.
As an overview, here are some of the things you can do to keep them happy and staying in your rental long term:
- Be responsive to property maintenance
- Strive to be a good landlord
- Understand what amenities they want
- Be proactive with lease renewals
- Craft longer leases
If you need assistance in managing your Union City, Milpitas, or other California rental home, contact East Bay Property Management today!
