Broken leases and miscommunication can cost you valuable time and money. Nurturing a respectful
relationship between yourself and tenants can be the key to smoothing out costly turnover issues.
The following are
4 tips that can help you find the best renters for your property.
1. Facebook, Google and other social media
This small exercise may save you headaches in the future. Social media sites such as Facebook can
help screen possible tenants. Take a few minutes to look at the impressions future tenants give; you
may be surprised at what you find. Are they showing respectable behavior?
2. Create a competition
Landlords can host an open house (
apartment) in order to create healthy competition among
potential tenants as well as save you time by eliminating multiple showings. By keeping the time
frame short, such as an hour on a Sunday afternoon, you will receive a larger turnout. Viewers will
be more likely to fill out an application form on the spot and pay their damage deposit if they know
others are interested as well.
3. Have compassion
Remember that no one is perfect and, on occasion, bad things happen to good people. Instead of
sending a cold “letter” when rent is late, have and office employee call them to make an acceptable
arrangement as well as outline future expectations. As a landlord, you don’t want to risk losing loyal
and respectful tenants to “cold” behaviors or miscommunication.
4. Do not become friends
This may be more difficult then it seems, especially to property owners with few units. If your
relationship crosses the line from “landlord” to “friend”, you may be asking for trouble. A landlord
can have problems enforcing the lease and collecting payment on time from their “friends”.
All in all, spend time clearly outlining your expectations and the consequences when agreements
are broken. If you want your tenant to respect you, respect them. Be quick when responding to
possible repairs and keep them in the loop. If you let things slide, so will they.
Lorinda Porter is the On-line Marketing Manager at Prop2Go. Prop2go.com is committed to providing
an online presence for property owners and a user friendly search engine for property seekers.
To find out more information about Prop2Go or to list your property for free, please visit http://
www.prop2go.com.