11 Ways to Keep Renters Renting your Property

1. Invest in Good Quality Material for Building the Rental Property
A good quality house will make tenants stay much longer than a flimsily built makeshift accommodation. Think strategically and work at making your property something that people would love to call their home.

2. Cultivate Trust for Yourself in the Tenants
Be the landlord that tenants can rely on. Affability, responsiveness, and empathy will establish a great working relationship between you and your tenants. And if your renters trust you, they will be less likely to leave your premises and move to stay in someone else’s property.

3. Think Long-Term While Choosing Tenants
Part of being a good landlord lies in creating a friendly neighborhood for your customers (the tenants). This applies if you own more than one apartment in the same area. At all costs, do a background check on each of your prospective tenants before letting them move in; because, one wrong party can make things vastly unpleasant for the entire neighborhood putting the occupancy of your apartments at stake.

4. Resolve Disputes among Tenants
In case you find out about any conflict amongst two or more of your renting parties, resolve it before it becomes big. As a landlord, you are expected to maintain harmony among your tenants.

5. Take Special Care of Their Security
Safety is a primary concern for most people. Therefore, try to take precautionary steps for making homes and possibly even the locality safer for your renters. Install latest security equipment like CCTV cameras, card keys, burglar’s alarms in all your houses. Hire a reputed security agency to guard the place.

6. Have a Robust Maintenance System
Understand the level of severity of maintenance issues; resolve the critical ones immediately, and try your best to fix the others within 24 or at the most 48 hours.

7. Offer a Rental Collection Window, and Mention it in the Rental Agreement
Keep unpleasant disputes to a minimum by offering a grace period for collection of rents every month. Also, talk to the tenants about it beforehand and mention the same in the contract.

8. Take the Contract Seriously
Don’t think of the contract as a mere formality. Understand its terms well and stress that the tenants read it thoroughly too, before signing.

9. Think of yourself as a Service Provider and Them as Your Clients – Try to go the extra mile to establish a rapport
Please your tenants just as you would please a client in business. This, of course, doesn't mean keeping aside your own interests and self-esteem, but working at your relationship and finding ways for customer-delight will help you a great deal in the long-term. For example, a welcome present in the form of domestic supplies, Christmas greeting accompanied by a small gift, etc. will let your tenants know that you care for them.

10. Take an Appointment before Visiting Your Tenants
In case you need to visit the property for an inspection or a discussion, request the occupants at least one day in advance for a suitable time for visiting. For as long as they rent your place, they are entitled to privacy, and you must respect it.

11. Let Tenants Customize Their Space as Long as It is Causing No Harm to the Property
Painting a room in their favorite shade, installing new furnishings, making small gardens: these are some common requests tenants make, and as long as they do not cause any permanent damage to your property while doing so, let them have their way. In case you want to say no, do so politely. slee