Tenant retention in Howard County is serious business. If you or your property management company do not look for ways to boost tenant retention, chances are you will experience more rental turnaround than you wish to see. Even worse, you may have to deal with extended property vacancies, which will cut deeply into your annual income.
Luckily, there are several things you can do as a property owner to boost tenant retention in your Howard County investment property. And today, we will be sharing five exceptional ways of doing just that. So read on, share this information with your property manager, and begin your work towards better tenant retention rates this upcoming year.
Top Ways to Keep Tenants in Your Howard County Rentals
When you have a plan in place to prevent existing tenants from leaving your Howard County rental property come the end of the their lease term, we call that tenant retention.
It is crucial you take tenant retention seriously because it is cheaper to keep existing tenants in place year after year than it is to outfit your property with new tenants at the end of each lease term. After all, property listings and advertisements, tenant screening procedures, lease drafting, and property tours all cost money. Not to mention the loss of monthly rent income you will experience during a vacancy or the time you will have to set aside to place new tenants each time your property becomes available.
Here are some excellent ways you and your Howard County property management company can aim to keep current tenants satisfied and willing to renew their lease at the end of their term.
1. Be Available
If you employ Baltimore’s best property management company to manage your rental properties, you can rest assured that your tenants will be able to communicate with someone from the company at all times. However, for those that self-manage their properties, you must give your tenants a way to get in touch with you.
Whether it is a simple inquiry about when rent is due or an emergency about a broken water heater, your tenants need to know who to contact at all times, even after hours. If you ignore your tenants over the course of their lease, they are bound to go elsewhere in search of better customer service.
2. Be Flexible
Everyone that is a property owner knows how much hard work and money it takes to purchase the perfect rental property, maintain it over the years, and allow others to live in it. And that’s just the thing. Your tenants live in your property. They call your property “home.” They raise children, celebrate holidays, enjoy visitors, and even nurse themselves better when sick – all in your property.
Being able to personalize their home, even though it is a rented space, makes a world of difference to tenants. This is especially true if a tenant is planning to stay long term in your property. Your tenants may wish to add additional shelving to the garage area, paint a mural in the new baby’s room, or even put some nails in the wall to hang family pictures.
By allowing your tenants to make what you feel are reasonable changes to the interior of your property you allow them to feel more at home. And, with a quality property management team on your side, drafting an airtight lease that addresses how these changes are to be dealt with both during and after the lease term will guarantee that you never have to worry that your property is being damaged in any way.
3. Maintain the Property
One of the best ways to make sure your tenants remain satisfied during their lease term is to maintain the property they are renting from you at all times. However, this should go beyond your legal obligation to make the property a safe and hazard-free living space and the fact that it is your responsibility to fix any leaking sinks, broken windows, or even non-functioning appliances. Rather, you should aim to go above and beyond your tenants’ expectations and care for all maintenance-related issues in a timely manner.
Here are some creative ways to provide your tenants with exceptional customer service in the form of property maintenance:
- Offer landscaping services or pool cleaning free of charge
- Upgrade the flooring, window treatments, or appliances come lease renewal time
- Have a 24/7 on call emergency repair staff for any after hour issues
- Consider getting online when it comes to maintenance requests
- Add a working security system to keep tenants feeling safe
- Regularly monitor your maintenance staff to make sure they are treating tenants in a professional and kind manner
- Always follow up on any maintenance requests and ensure tenant satisfaction
Following these tips will help you build a lasting relationship with your tenants. And, if you are lucky, it will encourage them to sign on the dotted line at the end of their lease term.
4. Ask for Feedback
Asking your tenants for feedback can be a scary thing. Oftentimes companies feel they are doing everything right, only to find out their customers are livid about something they were completely unaware of. However, negative feedback can be helpful in retaining current tenants, or at least those you place in your property in the future.
Try sending out a simple survey to all of your Howard County tenants asking them various questions about their experience leasing from you and your property management company. Not only will tenants likely highlight things you are doing right, they will also point out your faults. Additionally, it will also help you determine whether your Howard County property management company is up to par.
In the end, tenants like to feel heard. As a property owner, you can use this feedback to better your tenants’ experience as well as show existing tenants you care enough to be proactive and make changes, thus fostering their desire to renew for at least one more lease term.
5. Make Tenant Screening a Priority
Something we at Bay Management Group strive to do is keep tenant screening as one of the main priorities when it comes to tenant placement in your investment property. This is because placing quality tenants in your property from the start will likely lead to multiple lease renewals.
By properly screening tenants from the start, you weed out those likely to miss rent payments, damage property, become disruptive to neighbors, and even engage in criminal behavior. In addition, if you have high quality tenants in your property (those you want to retain) you are more likely yourself to do what it takes to keep them satisfied and wanting to renew their lease agreement.
Altogether, even following just one of the above-mentioned tips for boosting tenant retention has the potential to significantly impact your rental property’s vacancy rates. Better yet, having an experienced Howard County property management company such as Bay Management Group to help you retain tenants will help lower the stresses that come with extended property vacancies.
If you are in the Baltimore area and are searching for the leading property management company, look no further. Contact Bay Management Group today and see how we can help you with your tenant screening procedures, lease drafting, and tenant retention plan. Offering top notch customer service, a 24/7 maintenance crew for issues of all sizes, and the ability to forge lasting relationships with your current tenants, Bay Management Group works closely with you to boost tenant retention and give you the peace of mind everything is running smooth in your rental property.
