Addressing tenant maintenance concerns in a timely manner is often more important to your tenants than anything else you or your property management company can do. In fact, it can be more critical than reasonable rental rates, amenities, or move-in incentives like cash or discounts. As such, it’s important to keep your tenants happy by providing fast and reliable maintenance and repair services. This will give them an important reason to renew their lease with you at the end of each lease term. Today, we’ll review how prioritizing maintenance can help boost tenant retention and keep your renters satisfied.
Contents of This Article:
- Why Is Maintenance So Important in Rentals?
- How to Boost Tenant Retention With Maintenance
- Traits of a Good Maintenance Crew
- Finding the Right Management Team for Your Properties
Why Is Maintenance So Important in Rentals?
Maintenance in rental properties is crucial for several reasons. For instance, it helps ensure your property is safe, up-to-date, and compliant. Additionally, it can help boost tenant retention. After all, nobody wants to live in a rental property that’s neglected or improperly maintained.
Every property owner loves a strong retention rate, so today, we will look at some of the best ways to boost retention rates. We’ll review how landlords and property management companies in Northern Virginia can maintain satisfied tenants by attending to maintenance concerns most efficiently.
Additionally, we will look at what makes a maintenance crew exceptional. That way, when it comes time to address a maintenance concern in one of your rentals, you have the most professional, cost-effective, and customer service-oriented maintenance crew or contractor.
How to Boost Tenant Retention with Maintenance
You can do several things as a landlord to try and boost tenant retention. Whether you offer discounted rates, extra amenities, or other incentives, there are plenty of ways to get tenants to stay in your rentals.
But did you know promptly taking care of maintenance concerns is another excellent way to keep tenants happy? Here’s how.
- Take a Proactive Approach
- Implement an Easy Maintenance Request Process
- Conduct Routine Inspections
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 better 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 knowing they can rely on you to take care of the things you promise to handle throughout their tenancy. This is especially true if it concerns a health or safety issue, such as the fire and carbon monoxide alarms.
Staying proactive with routine maintenance services will go a long way regarding tenant satisfaction. After all, at the end of your tenant’s lease term, they will likely remember what you did (and didn’t) do. So, stay ahead of maintenance issues, handle the responsibilities that you agreed to take on, and watch your retention rate go up.
Implement an Easy Maintenance Request Process
The last thing your tenant wants to do amid a crisis is struggle to find out how to request a repair in your rental property. This will lead to frustration and cause the tenant to feel unappreciated as a resident who 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 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 instructions on submitting maintenance requests and who to call in case of an emergency.
- If possible, automate the process of submitting routine maintenance and repair requests online.
- Have a dedicated call service to take after-hour calls from tenants.
- Always keep tenants informed of the status of their maintenance requests.
- Work with a property management company with a 24-hour maintenance crew 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.
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 ensure your tenants fulfill their obligations by properly caring for your property.
By conducting routine inspections throughout the lease term, you can identify normal wear and tear maintenance and repair issues that will cost 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 the 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 a professional property management company to handle 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 who enters your property exhibits complete respect towards your tenant. This means respecting their personal belongings, privacy, schedules, and any other needs your tenant has.
- Your tenants have come to rely on you and your property manager for everything. Maintenance requests should be no different. So, even if you outsource the job to someone other than your property management company’s maintenance crew. Being on time, solving the issue the first time, and staying within reasonable rates are all important to tenants. In fact, these things can make or break a decision to renew a lease with you at the end of a lease term.
- Anyone you hire to enter your tenant’s personal space and handle a maintenance or repair issue must look the part. This does not mean the plumber must wear a suit and tie. However, your maintenance crew or hired contractors should have a proper name tag, clean clothing and shoes, and proper hygiene every time they enter your rental property.
- As the middleman between your tenant and the maintenance crew, it can sometimes become difficult to relay important information regarding a specific repair to your tenant. Maintaining a solid line of communication between you and your crew, the crew and your tenants, and you and your tenants will significantly impact 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 always happy.
Finding the Right Management Team for Your Properties
In the end, addressing your tenant’s maintenance concerns can impact whether a tenant decides to renew their lease with you. By providing satisfactory maintenance service, your tenant will 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 looking for a property management company to help you with the maintenance needs of your rental property, contact Bay Management Group today. Our 24-hour, round-the-clock maintenance crew handles all issues, not just emergencies.
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In addition, we pride ourselves in the strong relationships we build with our local vendors and contractors. Should your repairs need outsourcing, you can rest assured your property receives the best work at the lowest possible price.