Fostering a good relationship
between all parties to a tenancy will allow everyone to get so much more out of
the experience.
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 sustain your asset.
Happy tenants are more likely to
look after the premises, pay their rent on time and allow random strangers to
wander through their home at the end of a lease.
Communication equals cooperation, so
your property manager needs to be amicable, approachable and professional in
all dealings.
And as a landlord, you should be
attentive to any reasonable requests from your tenants.
But
the following top five things are what tenants hate the most when dealing with
inconsiderate landlords and property managers.
1. Poor treatment
No one likes to feel disrespected.
If a tenant believes the property
manager they’re dealing with treats them badly, problems are more likely to
occur during the tenancy as the lines of communication start to disintegrate.
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.
2. 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.
Even if the response is, ‘We’re
sorry but the landlord isn’t agreeable to your request,’ every query
presented by your tenants deserves a timely response.
It’s just common courtesy.
3. Bad management of maintenance
requests
Quick and efficient processing of
all maintenance requests received from tenants should be your property
manager’s priority.
They need an established protocol
around how to proceed in addressing different issues, along with specific
instructions with regard to repairs that can be organized 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.
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.
4. Being kept in the dark
In this day and age, it’s not
difficult to send a quick email 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 organize 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.
5. Rent rises
While you’re entitled to increase
your rent in line with market fundamentals, how your property manager
approaches an increase can either make it more palatable to tenants, or
alienate them entirely.
By the time the question of an
increase arises, a professional property manager will have established a good
rapport with your tenants and have the courtesy to call them before sending out
written notification of a rent review.
They’ll 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.
Just
be nice
The bottom line is, treat your
tenants how you would like to be treated and make sure your property manager is
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 maximizing your
portfolio’s returns.
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