Addressing tenant maintenance concerns in a timely manner is often more important to your Aberdeen tenants that anything else you or your property management company can do.
Yes, even more important than reasonable rent rates, amenity packed rental homes, or move-in incentives that include cash, discounts, or other generous gifts.
With that in mind, it is important you make keeping your tenants happy a priority by providing fast and reliable maintenance and repair services. This will give them an important reason to keep renewing their lease with you at the end of each lease term.
Every property owner loves a strong retention rate, so today we are going to look at some of the best ways you can boost retention rates, and maintain satisfied tenants by attending to maintenance concerns in the most efficient way possible.
Additionally, we will take a brief look at what makes a maintenance crew exceptional, so that when it comes time to address a maintenance concern in one of your Harford County rentals, you have the most professional, cost effective, and customer service-oriented maintenance crew or contractor on hand.
Top 3 Ways to Boost Tenant Retention with Rental Property Maintenance
1. Take a Proactive Approach
If you or your property management company have agreed that specific routine maintenance services are to be taken care of for the tenant throughout the lease term (as dictated in the written lease agreement), you had better make sure you handle those services when they are due.
Some of the most common maintenance services you may find yourself responsible for include:
- Testing fire alarms and carbon monoxide monitors, and changing their batteries
- Changing out dirty air filters
- Managing the exterior landscape come spring or winter
- Routine inspections and upkeep on major appliances to ensure they work
Tenants love to know that they can rely on you to take care of the things you promise to handle throughout their tenancy. This is especially true if it is concerning a health or safety issue, such as the fire and carbon monoxide alarms.
Staying proactive with routine maintenance services will go a long way when it comes to tenant satisfaction.
At the end of your tenant’s lease term, it is highly likely they will remember what you did (and didn’t) do.
Stay ahead of maintenance issues, handle the responsibilities that you agreed to take on, and watch your retention rate go up.
2. Implement an Easy Maintenance Request Process
The last thing your tenant wants to do in the midst of a crisis is struggle to find out how to request a repair in your rental property. This will lead to lots of frustration and cause the tenant to feel unappreciated as a resident that pays for your investment property.
In short, a difficult maintenance request process may result in your tenant looking elsewhere to live.
Here are some of the best things you or your property manager can do to ensure your Aberdeen tenants always know what to do in the case of an emergency maintenance or repair issue:
- Provide a tenant welcome package at the time of move-in, complete with how to submit maintenance requests, and who to call in the case of an emergency
- Automate the process of submitting routine maintenance and repair requests online, if possible
- Have a dedicated call service to take after hour calls from tenants
- Always keep tenants informed of the status of their maintenance request
- Work with a property management company that has a 24-hour maintenance crew on hand for all requests, no matter how minor
Altogether, this type of customer service shows your tenants from the start of their tenancy that you take their maintenance requests seriously, and are dedicated to handling them as quickly as possible.
3. Conduct Routine Inspections
All good property owners know that routinely monitoring their rental properties throughout lease terms is a good idea. This is especially true if you want to make sure that your tenants are fulfilling their good-tenant obligations by properly caring for your property.
By conducting routine inspections throughout the lease term, you have the opportunity to identify normal wear and tear maintenance, and repair issues that will end up costing you much more should you wait to handle them at the end of the lease term.
In addition, a routine inspection gives your tenant a chance to speak up about issues they may not have felt warranted an actual maintenance request.
From there, you will be able to satisfy your tenant’s need and avoid a costly repair that may have resulted from issue going unattended.
Traits of a Good Maintenance Crew
It is not uncommon that the face of your rental property business is the maintenance crew you have on hand to address tenant maintenance and repair concerns. This is especially true if you employ Harford County’s best property management company to take care of these requests for you.
Here are some critical things you should ensure your maintenance crew and hired contractors understand before taking on one of your tenant’s maintenance requests:
- Make sure that any repair person that enters your property exhibits complete respect towards your tenant. This means respecting their personal belongings, privacy, schedules, and any other needs that your tenant has.
- Your tenants have come to rely on you and your property manager for everything. Maintenance requests should be no different, even if you have to outsource the job to someone other than your property management company’s maintenance crew. Being on time, solving the issue the first time around, and staying within reasonable rates are all important things to tenants. In fact, these very things can make or break a decision to renew a lease with you at the end of a lease term.
- It is important that anyone you hire to enter your tenant’s personal space and handle a maintenance or repair issue looks the part. This does not mean the plumber must show up in a suit and tie. However, a proper name tag, clean clothing and shoes, and proper hygiene are all things your maintenance crew or hired contractors should have going for them every time they enter your rental property.
- As the middleman between your tenant and maintenance crew, it can sometimes become difficult to relay important information to your tenant regarding a specific repair. Maintaining a solid line of communication between you and your crew, the crew and your tenants, and ultimately you and your tenants is going to have a significant impact on how your tenant feels when the repair is completed. These feelings, whether positive or negative, may spill over come lease renewal time. Don’t take any chances – make sure your tenants are happy all the time.
In the end, addressing your tenant’s maintenance concerns can really impact whether a tenant decides to renew their lease with you. By providing satisfactory maintenance service, your tenant is bound to be happier, and want to stay in your rental home. After all, a rental that experiences routine upkeep by its owners is a big bonus for any tenant.
If you are currently in the Aberdeen area and looking for a property management company to help you with your rental property’s maintenance needs, contact Bay Management Group today. We have a 24-hour round-the-clock maintenance crew to handle all issues, not just emergencies.
In addition, we pride ourselves in the strong relationships we build with our local vendors and contractors, so that should your repairs need outsourcing, you can rest assured you property is receiving the best work at the lowest possible price.
