When there are not people in your units, renting from you, you are losing business (and money). If you haven’t shaped up your renter retention strategies, then you may already know how keen this loss can be. Rather than continue to take a hit while you’re trying to lure in new tenants or residents, consider some of the following that might help you more easily keep people around in the future.
How to Better Your Renter Retention Efforts
Keeping renters happy and staying with you may be the most important thing that you strive to do. “You need to prioritize key selling points to garner quality leads and then deliver with a positive living experience in order to maintain tenants and reduce turnover.” If not, then you are probably losing both people and revenue as the door opens and closes time and time again. Rather than leaving things up to chance, try and keep people around by employing some of these tips.
Would you call your building a community, or… well, just a building? If it’s the latter, then it may be that sense of disconnect that does the damage. On the flip side, however, if people feel as if they are close to – or simply know – those that they work or live near, then they’ll be more likely to stick around. Without those ties, it’s less likely. It helps if you have regular communication with them, too, whether through social media posts or e-mail newsletters. Whatever you choose, work to remind them that you are there to help them and that they are part of a larger group. It might have more influence than you think!
On that same subject: make sure that you have reliable, open lines of communication with your tenants or residents. People don’t like to feel ignored, or as if they have no way to share any complaints or concerns that they may have. However, ensuring “open communication and a place to voice concerns immediately make you stand out from your competitors, creating stronger renter retention.” If you can spare the bit of budget necessary, reward those who make payments on time, welcome those who are new to the building with a small gift, send out holiday cards, and so on. Remind people that you are there for them!
One of the most frustrating things for a renter is if they sense that their needs aren’t being met (or worse: that they’re being ignored). You should not only respond to requests in a timely manner, but also actively reach out to ask people if everything is going well. They may not have worked up to telling you yet about the broken A/C and will appreciate the reminder. At the very least, it shows that you are interested in their situation and that you want to make it the best that it can be. ” Even simple maintenance such as s changing air filters and light bulbs and cleaning rain gutters can go a long way.”
If yours is like most other properties, then it probably has “rules” that your renters are meant to follow. Don’t make it a mystery: try and ensure that everyone knows what these regulations are. That may mean posting them in some more public areas, or including them in a welcome pamphlet or e-mail. This info might also include details about their utilities and other services within the building, such as garbage and recycling, which is important for them to know. Within this sphere of information, too, you should give them a reliable way to contact you. Don’t give them an e-mail address or phone number where they’ll never receive an answer.
Finally, take things online! The internet is a valuable resource for property management and renter retention, without a doubt. Customers to be able to access their information whenever they want. That means have a reliable property management software, one complete with a payment portal, for them to access. This means Budgetrac Property Management Software. With Budgetrac, you can increase operational efficiency with online and mobile solutions, which your renters will love. And, back to the mention of maintenance from earlier, LEAD™’s Expense Recovery functionality is one of the most comprehensive and simple-to-use Common Area Maintenance (CAM) and Operating Expense reconciliation available today. Whatever tools and functionality you need to do your job right, Budgetrac can offer it!