Landlords: Want Better Tenants? Treat Your Tenants Properly

If you’re a landlord, should you let your tenants walk over you and have them do as they please?

Of course, not!

If you screen people properly and have your paperwork covering you the way that it should, then I give this bit of advice.

 

Innocent until Proven Guilty

If you’ve done your homework BEFORE you hand over the keys to your home, then trust yourself.

In fact, trust your client.  Make it easy for this person to contact you.  It’s not really a good idea to become “friends” with your tenants, but people tend to do business with people they like.  They also tend to be more lenient toward you if you make a mistake.

It is true that some people see kindness as the easiest door to weakness and will take that opportunity to try “working the system.”  If you see this, then you no longer are trying to win over this person’s influence.  Either, you have to control them, or find a way to remove them.  In the worst case, you just bite your tongue and wait out their lease term.

However, most people are NOT like this.  So treat everybody the way that MOST people are.  Show them respect by showing that you trust them.  Don’t make unsolicited visits.  Don’t make sudden demands.

Don’t question them immediately if something breaks, and they ask you to repair it.  Don’t raise their rent by a whole lot when it’s time to renew the lease.  Remember, you want these people to pay you–not the losers that might move into your place after them.

Show them that you are approachable, and they will likely approach you with small things before they become big things.

Listen to what they have to say, and investigate any problem they bring to your attention before jumping to negative conclusions.

 

Benefits

Doing these small things will make you one amongst few landlords who take these steps, making you a more desirable landlord.  This should reduce turnover (read: vacanacies) and potentially allow you to charge a little bit higher rent since everyone will want to live in your properties.

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If you would like to learn more, you can contact Section 8 Pros at (248) 757-0926 or go to www.Section8Pros.com.  Section 8 Pros helps landlords and tenants meet each other’s needs, focusing primarily on the Detroit city and surrounding areas.  They help out of town investors keep their properties productive.

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