Landlords and tenants have been on opposite ends of what is ‘normal’ and ‘expected’ for years, decades in fact.
So how as an investor can you tip the odds in your favour to win this war?
First off, if you look at your tenants as the enemy, you’ve lost.
Secondly, I trust there is no war. The ‘war’ is in your mind. What is really present is the ‘opportunity’ to set your business apart from everyone else.
Now I’m not going to dismiss there are unavoidable situations that no matter what you do, it’s not good enough, but if you really boil it down, maybe it is our fault the situation is at hand in the first place.
I can see the heads shaking in disagreement, but really the circumstances within our business is the result of choices we make. Yes, even the unavoidable ones; and that is a hard reality to face.
Think about this, many investors ignore their tenants once in place believing anything they do out of the ordinary is useless; that tenants will not appreciate, or even acknowledge the extra care.
That may be true as you don’t get a ‘thank you’ every time or at all from some, but it’s what they DON’T do that counts. They don’t bother you for minor things or expect non-emergency issues to be corrected immediately; they become more accommodating and they don’t treat the home like a ‘rental’. They value it as their home.
Employ high standards to your company and to the extensions of it including your properties and tenants & you will have a much easier time and create more free time for you.
My Tenants Are Set-Up To WIN
I set up my relationships from the start with open communication being very accommodating. I OVER-SHOOT what they ‘expect’… and that’s the key, what they expect is what everyone else has been delivering for years; crappy accommodations, disrespect and absenteeism.
Being a sophisticated investor takes a few extra steps, a bit more time and care from you but in the end…it really is worth it. I’ll admit, nothing is perfect, but how you look at and react to a situation determines your success.
Case Study
Last Friday morning I received a call from one of my tenants informing me the water heater had a problem with the pilot light. He had to go to the basement multiple times a day to reset it. He was very cool about it & just wanted it repaired or course. He didn’t DEMAND I be there in an hour.
The funny thing is, we had dealt with the same issue last year and I told him because it was Friday, it may be Monday before someone was able come. That meant he may have to deal with this inconvenience for a couple more days.
He replied “No problem Joe, it’s been going on for a few weeks anyway.” “A few weeks?” I asked, “why didn’t you call me sooner?” He told me “I didn’t want to bother you”.
Why My Tenants Are Like This
We (my team and me) strive to set up great relationships and treat every tenant with respect. I am no better than they are and what I want to provide in both a physical property and service is what I would like. That means I attract someone like me , and I don’t know about you, but I can deal with me all day long :).
Instead of looking at it as YOU doing THEM a favour by supplying living accommodations and EXPECTING someone to rent from you, maybe it’s YOU who is fortunate to have someone taking care of your asset.
What About Those Problem Tenants?
It’s hard to do, but look at this ‘tuition’ as how to choose better tenants. Maybe step up your first filter (questionnaire) and have more communication during their stay and do what you promised. Try not to be so desperate to fill your space with less than adequate candidates.
I think we tend to throw blame everywhere else but ourselves and we don’t like to be accountable for anything. If you saw my talk at the property show April 30th, you will know I didn’t particularly like to be accountable because it meant I made a mistake – the moment I proudly accepted accountability for every choice in my business and life, things began to change in my favour.
The Reward
I received a call from my tenant thanking me for dealing with the issue so quickly. All I did was what any of you should do; call the service company to take care of it and they were there in hours.
If you treat people like dirt and are upset when they don’t pay rent, have unrealistic demands, don’t take care of the property or worse, damage it, then you may want to look again at how you value your Real Estate business and the customers that pay you.