As a Detroit real estate investor, you may count on your properties providing you with solid sources of rental income. You may need them to stay occupied and for renters to pay their rents on time each month.
To keep your properties occupied and compel renters to pay their rental amounts, you need to utilize some strategic measures as a landlord. By working with a service like Upside Investments and utilizing these tips, you can help you foster tenant loyalty and reduce turnover in the properties in which you have invested.
Vet Tenants Carefully
One of the primary ways to foster loyalty and encourage tenants to stay in your rental properties involves carefully screening your tenants before leasing to them. You should ensure the people who apply to live in your properties have respectable rental histories. You may also want to know they have a good history of paying their bills on time and have demonstrated that they live longer than just a few months in every place that they have previously rented.
Screening your tenants carefully can also help you feel more confident in their ability to live in and take care of your rental properties. You may feel more at ease engaging them as a landlord because you may they are more worthy of your trust and commitment.
Offer Prompt Service
Tenants also appreciate having landlords who are responsive to their needs. When your tenants request something of you, it may behoove you to act as promptly as possible to meet their needs.
For example, if your tenants alert you to pests inside of their apartments or houses, you should act quickly to hire a pest exterminator to treat the properties. When you demonstrate that you are responsive to reasonable needs or requests from your tenants, you show your tenants that you care about their comfort and well-being. They are more likely to continue renting from you rather than finding a new place to move to after their lease with you comes to an end.
Maintain and Repair Your Properties
Additionally, you should take care of your properties to show your tenants that you want them to live in safe and comfortable houses or apartments. When you put time and money into maintaining and fixing up your properties, you make them safer and more pleasant for your renters. Your renters, in turn, may feel like they are getting a good return on the money they pay you in rent every month.
Further, keeping your properties up to code and in a visually appealing condition can encourage renters to stay put rather than find another place to move. They may see no reason to look for a more aesthetically pleasing place to rent when you take good care of your properties.
Engage Your Tenants
Your tenants likewise may feel more at home and less compelled to leave at the end of their leases when you make a point of engaging them consistently. You can engage your tenants by asking for their input about how to make their rental homes more comfortable or safer, for example. You can learn from them and show that you value their input about the properties in which they live.
You can also utilize strategies like making your properties pet-friendly. Many renters today have pets like cats and dogs that they prefer to bring along with them when they move. To encourage people to rent from you and remain in your properties year after year, you can make your rental units pet-friendly.
Offer Lease Renewal Incentives
Another simple way to foster tenant loyalty and reduce turnover rates involves offering an incentive for tenants to renew their leases. These incentives can include a slight discount on their first month’s rent after renewal. It can also involve a free month of rent if they renew their lease with you.
These incentives help foster loyalty among your tenants and make them less inclined to look for a new property to which to move. They also demonstrate to your tenants that you appreciate them remaining in your properties and paying their rent on time each month. You may lower your turnover rate and generate steady revenue from your properties when you offer lease renewal incentives.
Charge Competitive Rates
Your tenants are more apt to remain loyal to you as their landlord when they feel like they are paying fair rental rates. Rather than drive them away and to another landlord’s properties, you should charge reasonable rental rates for the housing you offer for lease.
Many tenants research and stay aware of the going rate for rent in their local area. They may compare how much they are paying in rent to the rent on comparable properties.
While it can be tempting to charge premium prices for your rental units in an attempt to generate a high revenue from them, you may repel renters. You can encourage them to remain and keep your properties occupied year-round by charging competitive rental rates for them.
Communicate Clearly with Tenants
Finally, you can encourage your renters to continue renting with you when you communicate clearly with them. They may want to avoid guessing what you need or want from them or encounter challenges when trying to communicate with you. If they feel inconvenienced or overlooked, your tenants could choose to move at the end of their leases rather than remain in your properties.
You can foster loyalty with them, however, when you communicate via a newsletter every month or simply sending out texts or emails. You provide them with clear information and likewise may provide an easy way for them to communicate with you as well. This convenience can be enough to compel them to continue renting from you.
These tips are some to encourage tenant loyalty and reduce turnover in your Detroit rental properties. Identifying and utilizing successful landlord and property management strategies can be challenging. Contact Upside Investments and let us help you find practical and affordable ways to invest in and gain revenue from your rental properties in Detroit today.
