Real Estate Tips |6 min read

11 Best Landlord-Tenant Professional Relationship Strategies

by NOVA Bay Property Management Group

To protect your professional relationship with your tenant, you must master how to be a good landlord. As you know, every working relationship is built on trust and transparency. Below, you’ll find actionable tips on fostering just that.

Main Takeaways:

To develop a good landlord-tenant professional relationship, you must follow the classic rules of your role, like understanding the law, communicating consistently, and maintaining the property.

However, beyond that, you also can go the extra mile with welcome packages, flexible terms, tenant feedback forms, and other unique solutions.

Table of Contents:

Warmly Welcome New Tenants Upon Arrival

Kick off your working relationship on a positive note by making sure the property is clean and well-prepared. As one example, our property managers in North Virginia might suggest giving a welcome package with key information about the property and the local area.

Also, this is a good time to nip any tenant questions or concerns in the bud. For instance, you might want to sit down and discuss any comments tenants may have. While you’re at it, you should go over the lease agreement to make sure they’re informed. These moves can prevent problems from forming and let tenants know you’re here for them.

All these gestures show you really care about tenant experiences. They start your professional relationship off on the right foot.

Communicate with Customer Service in Mind

The key to a healthy working relationship is consistent, timely communication. It shows that you are invested in the quality of their experience and respect their time. Most importantly, it builds faith that you can sufficiently take care of their health and safety.

One way to do this is to offer your phone number as a resource. To prevent tenants from abusing their access to it, you can set up specific office hours. Then, create a policy that tenants must limit their calls to that time frame unless they’re facing an emergency. That way, your tenants can have an open line of communication with you on your terms.

However, if you live far from your property, it’s one sign you may need to hire a professional property manager. By doing this, you won’t have to worry about urgent concerns that you can’t tend to yourself.

Know Your State and Local Laws

To know exactly how to be a good landlord, landlords and property managers must understand all rental-related laws. Not only will breaking the law lead to conflict in your working relationship – it could also land you in court.

Needless to say, you can’t follow the laws if you’re not aware of them! In that vein, you should pore over all applicable laws, like the Fair Housing Act. This way, you can make sure your business practices comply with federal, state, and local policies.

Consistently Maintain the Property

Homes will inevitably encounter issues, and if you don’t address them, they’ll snowball into disaster. So, you should get on repairs as soon as possible.

Also, undergo regular inspections to catch any problems before they worsen. After all, a well-maintained property not only ensures a good working relationship but also safeguards your investment’s value.

Respect Your Tenants’ Privacy

You wouldn’t like it if someone barged into your home unexpectedly. Undoubtedly, it would shake up your sense of security. Your tenants likely feel the same. Furthermore, many states have laws that you must provide varying amounts of advance notice before entering their premises.

As such, to follow the law and save your professional relationship, always provide advance notice.

Offer Incentives for Long-Term Tenants

Encourage tenants to stay for years by providing incentives for long-term tenants. For example, you might offer discounts for renewing a lease. Or, you could provide other perks, like a free membership to a local pool site.

These are good marketing tools because they’re unique. They make your property stand out, and they increase tenant loyalty at the same time.

Keep Rent Increases Affordable

While rent increases may be necessary, try to make sure they stay at a level your tenants can keep up with. If you don’t, tenants may leave in droves and your income will suffer.

Make Sure Your Unit Has Competitive Offerings

Always keep track of local and national rental market trends to make sure your property stays competitive. This way, you can upgrade your property to match—or exceed—the offerings of other similar properties.

After all, you don’t want to be left in the dust while other rentals become a more well-rounded deal. For your reputation’s sake, too, you don’t want your property to be seen as out-of-touch and tattered while others stay tapped into the times.

Listen and Be Empathetic

Life happens. Even the most responsible tenant can fall on hard times and struggle to pay the rent. It happens to the best of us, so you should show compassion. It’s the ethical thing to do as a landlord. Most importantly, doing so cultivates mutual empathy and understanding in your working relationship.

You may want to give the tenant some extra time to pay rent or work with them to find a different solution. This may not be ideal, but it’s likely much less intensive and costly than going through the legal eviction process. What’s more, it’s less of a pain than having to find a new tenant.

However, this does not mean that you should allow all your tenants to take advantage of your goodwill. If a tenant pays late repeatedly, at the end of the day, eviction might be necessary.

Have Flexible Terms

Also, consider negotiating lease terms or accommodating special requests. This fosters a sense of cooperation in your professional relationship. Moreover, it gives tenants a sense of control over their rental

experience.

Proactively Seek Tenant Feedback

Consider reaching out to your tenants about any problems or suggestions they might have. Some tenants may not feel comfortable discussing their opinions openly, so you may want to have anonymous online forms or other lines of communication.

If you don’t implement any of this feedback, it could make tenants feel as if you’re full of hot air, nothing but lip service. False promises are sure to destroy even the best landlord-tenant working relationship. On the other hand, if you do try to meet tenants halfway, it shows how proactively you cater to tenant needs.

Get Help from a Professional Property Management Team

If you’re struggling to maintain your landlord-tenant professional relationship, perhaps you’re simply overworked. That said, if you want to improve your experience as a landlord, consider Bay Management Group’s professional property management services.

Our team can help you with many different tasks, including rent collection, maintenance, and tenant screening. That way, you can save time, reduce costly tenant turnover, and gain all the other benefits of professional property management.

If you’re interested in working with us or learning more about how we can help your rental properties in Northern Virginia, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, contact us today!

 

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