You’ve got your single-family rental ready to go, now it’s time to find the perfect tenants. In a volatile market, you need every trick up your sleeve to retain your tenants and keep cash flowing in. Need some tips? Here’s how to attract and keep rental tenants.
Be Responsive with Tenants
It’s very important to be responsive with tenants to strengthen the landlord-tenant relationship early on in the renting process. Be sure to establish a clear level of communication and give out your contact info to ensure tenants can reach out with requests or questions in a comfortable manner. Being responsive with your tenants builds trust in the relationship that will make them more likely to stay in the future.
Promptly Attend to Maintenance and Repair Issues
Throughout the time you own your long-term rental, you should stay focused on property upkeep if you want to reduce stress and avoid frequent turnovers. Maintenance duties are an essential task for landlords, as if you fail to take care of your property you could lose tenants quickly and even face legal complications.
Be Flexible with Rental Policies
If you wish to attract long-term tenants, you should aim to be flexible with rental policies like having pets or painting the property to make your rental feel more like home for tenants. Prohibiting things could be the push that makes your tenant find another space once the lease is up. Being flexible with rental policies can offer extra advantages like opening your pool of renters up to more buyers and the ability to add extra fees such as pet deposits or pet rent to your monthly income.
Enhance Your Rental’s Security
Safety is one of the most important features when looking for a home. As a landlord, you should consider adding safety features to your property to make tenants feel more comfortable at your property. Adding safety features can encourage renters to stay longer at your property on top of both you and your tenant feeling more at ease when it comes to safety concerns. Consider adding features like a security system, outdoor security cameras, or additional security locks if you wish to attract and keep long-term tenants.
Collect Rent and Other Payments Online
Let’s face it, the revolution of digitalized payments has arrived. Although collecting rent by check is still an option for many, it’s recommended to start collecting with diversified payment systems to open up your pool of renters and help keep tenants for the long-term. If you want to take it a step further, offer the ability to take maintenance requests digitally, as well.
Offer Incentives
Gaining and keeping long-term tenants is not an easy task, that’s why many landlords offer incentives to give tenants a reason to stay longer. Consider offering a discount on next month’s rent or an all-in-one cleaning service to give tenants the incentive to stay. Although you may think you’re taking a financial hit in the short-term, incentives like such can decrease your financial risk in the long-term as you will prevent having a vacant unit between tenants.
Attractive Curb Appeal
Your front yard is the first thing a tenant sees when approaching your property, it’s important to remember that these first impressions will matter with a tenant’s final decision to rent your property. While preparing your property for renters, you should assign priority to your curb appeal and find time to clean up your exterior space so it looks welcoming to potential renters. Focus on cleaning up your yard, trimming bushes, and adding outdoor accessories like a porch swing to your property to attract and keep long-term tenants.
RCN Capital
RCN Capital offers short-term and long-term financing options for real estate investors. Whether you are looking to fix & flip properties or hold properties for rental income, RCN has flexible options that are suited to your needs.Connect with us todayto discuss your next real estate investment.