Question On Making Happy Tenants
Hello all,
I'm gearing up to take possession of my first multi family property - it's only a three family but I'd like to do something extra to make the tenants happy without spending a bunch of money (which I now don't have) - I know of a guy out west that installed a wireless internet hub in his building (of about 20 apartments) and just told his tenants to get WIFI cards and enjoy the free internet. (that made them very happy I hear) -- and as we all know, happy tenants make for happy landlords!
Any suggestions on things a little less expensive from you seasoned landlords out there?
Thanks[ Edited by dtaylor on Date 04/30/2004 ]
Just send a letter to each tenant and assure them there will be no immediate rent increases. Tell them that you want to run a clean and safe place and if they have any concerns to please contact you. Do not ask for "all suggestions", or "we really want to make this a great place", etc. You do not want to ask for all sorts of suggestions and then not be able to implement a single one because of cost. Be careful what you ask for.
If can replace a peice of worn hall carpet, paint the front of the buildling, cut the grass, plant some scrubs, etc. But do not do too much are be too friendly. You are the landlord, not their buddy. They should respect you as being fair and honest, not necessarily like you and want to be your buddy. Take an honest look at your building and realize the class and type of tenant that it attracts and act accordingly.
Brenda
Hey,
"Happy tenants make for happy landlords"...please get that nonsense out of your head. You want happy tenants...tell them they don't have to pay rent for 6 months. They will be so happy, they will throw you a big party, but I doubt you will be very happy.
Brenda had a lot of great ideas.
Make sure all items in the property are clean and in good working order, and always respond quickly to maintenance calls. That has been our number 1 praise from our tenants. We've had people come from large rental communities and the 2 biggest complaints we've heard over and over is that rents increase too much, too often, and it's like pulling teeth trying to get anything fixed in their unit. As long as the request is not something frivilous, we almost always respond to a call within 24 hours. We leave a small supply of lightbulbs at move in, but tenants must change them themselves (unless of course it's a person that because of age or disability cant do it). We recently had a former section 8 tenant move back into one of our properties after being gone about 4 years, having 3 different landlords during that time, and said each and every one performed basically no maintenance of the property.
I'd say minimal rent increases (or in our case, none for very good tenants) and prompt maintenance make tenants happy.