It’s hard to stand out as a landlord and offer something unique.
Landlords don’t always have the best reputation amongst renters, occupying a relatively simple role that leaves little room to really make a mark. Beyond getting the basics right and not charging too much, what else can you do? Well, as it turns out, many things!
A personalized and creative landlord service can be a great way to boost your property business, streamlining your portfolio and strengthening your reputation. In this article, we’ll analyze what landlords can do to offer personalized services and why it’s something they should all consider.
What kind of services should you offer?
The best services to offer will always depend on the market you’re operating in. However, whether you’re trying to fill student properties or working exclusively with families on a short-term basis, there are some concrete considerations that will always improve your operation.
Some simple ways you can show you care about your tenants and their home include:
- Running consistent check-ups on the property for potential damages
- Making yourself available through multiple forms of contact
- Providing your tenants with information and contacts to solve maintenance issues themselves
- Hiring professional cleaners and gardeners for properties with specialist features
But what if you don’t live in the same area (or even country) as your properties? How can you offer a personalized service if you’re not personally there? It’s not quite the same thing, but hiring a trusted property manager (particularly if you have multiple lots in one building) can significantly improve your relationship and reputation amongst tenants.
A property manager brimming with expertise and enthusiasm for the location can make new and existing tenants feel at ease, safe in the knowledge there’s a professional and reassuring contact in the case of an emergency. Going the extra mile and working with property management insurance companies to provide tenant insurance for property managers shows you truly care about the building and providing a great service as an absent landlord.
How does a personalised service help?
So, now that we know how a landlord can go about offering a more personalized service, let’s take a look at some ways it will benefit you as a landlord going forward.
Spreads the word of your properties
As a landlord catering to generation rent, you should be ready for an ever-changing cast of characters inhabiting your properties.
Whether it’s a one-person apartment or a five-person houseshare, average rental times are generally quite short, reflecting the fast-paced lifestyles of young people and the popularity of short-term rentals.
In major metropolitan areas, in particular, this means you’ll be advertising fairly regularly for new tenants. In this situation, it helps to have a good reputation and people to spread the good word about your properties. The last thing you want is people complaining to their friends about how invasive you are and the issues with their rooms. A quick way to fill rooms is through personal recommendations, so you want to make sure not to lose that avenue.
When using rental platforms to advertise your properties, this becomes even more important, as a bad reputation can quickly spread to people frequently viewing them, especially as landlord rating sites grow in popularity.
Helps you retain tenants for longer
Tenant retention is a good way to reduce running costs on your business and cut down admin time.
Like any business, it’s significantly cheaper to keep a customer than to source new ones. Between the time it takes to find new tenants and run background checks on them, you’ll be cutting into your earnings for the next month pretty significantly.
Offering a high-quality, personalized service encourages your existing tenants to stay on longer. There are a lot of problem properties out there, particularly in popular areas, so many prefer to stick with the devil they know than risk potential issues and high fees.
Not only does this remove a lot of work and risk for you, but it’s great for your portfolio. A house full of long-standing tenants is a great way to convince first-time renters to choose your property and helps breed positive atmospheres in your properties.
Makes tenants more open to renovations
As a landlord, your houses are your business. Like any other business, you want to keep making small improvements to grow your enterprise and attract more customers.
This can be difficult to do when they happen to live there.
Although you have a right to make changes to your property, many tenants will rightly see this as something of an invasion of their privacy. As a landlord with dreams of developing their houses and apartments that leaves you with two options:
- Cancel the renovations
- Wait until the property is empty and miss out on rental income while you develop
In the case of a more personalized and attentive landlord service, there is a good chance you’ve built up enough goodwill that your tenants will be more than happy to let you come into the house for a week or two to give it a new lick of paint or survey for bigger projects. It’s a give-and-take relationship, and showing that you care and want to provide the best service possible makes tenants more forgiving of intrusions into their homes.
The role of a landlord seems like a simple one, and yet, so many get it wrong because they lack the interpersonal skills of compassion for their tenants.
Yes, this is a business arrangement, but it’s also a relationship you have to nurture. For the good of your tenants and your property, think about ways you can offer a better and more personalized service.
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