Relationships are hard sometimes, but the relationship you have with your Las Vegas tenants shouldn’t be adversarial or difficult. They should be respectful, professional, and based on trust and transparency.
Ultimately, you want your tenants to be happy living in your home.
Happy tenants lead to happy rental property owners, and establishing and maintaining a good relationship with your residents is critical to your investment success. When you have a good tenant relationship, you have higher chances of retaining those tenants. Better retention leads to less vacancy and lower turnover.
Let’s talk about how to invest in better tenant relationships.
Good Tenant Relationships Start With Communication
Communicating honestly and openly is the best way to improve your relationship.
Good communication starts before you even have a tenant. The groundwork needs to be cemented during the marketing and showing process. If you’re available to tenants, willing to answer their questions, and eager to provide any of the support or resources they need while considering your property as their next home, those tenants are going to feel like you might make a good landlord.
The need for excellent communication isn’t unique to real estate and property management. Communication is the foundation of any good relationship. It’s actually impossible to have a great rental experience with your residents if you can’t communicate with them. You can improve your relationship by being available and accessible to tenants when they have a question or a problem.
Make sure you’re transparent and accommodating when they need to talk. Don’t hide from them when you know they have a complaint, and don’t try to sugarcoat the truth when something unpleasant needs to occur. Communicate in a manner that’s direct and always be willing to listen.
You’ll also do a better job of communicating when you’re willing to be available on multiple platforms. Some tenants will want to call you when something is wrong. Others prefer to send their questions via email and you might have some tenants who refuse to do anything other than text or chat. Be prepared for this, and have the technology in place to support your communication accessibility.
Be Clear About Expectations. Especially During the Move-In Process
Moving can be stressful for even the most organized new tenant coming into your home. When you make the move-in process clear, easy, and without hassles, you’re going to have a better relationship with your tenant. They’ll begin the tenancy feeling good about who you are and the property they’re living in.
Put together a move-in process that’s direct. Answer every question you can about the lease and what the tenant will be responsible for. Make sure the home is clean, functional, and ready for them. Provide an introduction to how things work – show them how to turn the appliances on and where to find the air filters. These things will make a big difference during the early part of the tenancy.
This is also a good opportunity to improve your relationship by talking to your tenants about expectations. Your residents need to know how they should pay rent and what they’re responsible for in terms of maintenance and landscaping. All that information should be in the lease, but if you talk about it, you can reinforce those things and demonstrate your willingness to communicate.
Keep talking about these things. Reinforce the things you assume they already know. Tenants want to hear from you, and they want to feel secure in what their responsibilities are. No one likes surprises or misunderstandings. Setting a tenant up for success leads to a good working relationship.
Good Relationships Require Good Maintenance Responses
If there’s one thing that will damage your tenant relationship, it’s a delay or refusal when it comes to maintenance and repairs.
Prompt attention to things that need fixing is important. You want to make sure you hear their needs and respond. Put a solid process in place that allows them to report routine issues and make yourself available if there’s an emergency repair that’s bound to leave them frazzled and upset.
Never make promises that you cannot keep. If you say you’re going to fix something, fix it. After the work has been done, follow up with a call or a text to make sure the tenants are pleased with the results.
Even if you cannot fix something right away, make sure your tenants know that you have a plan and you’re working on it. Maintenance is going to matter a lot to your residents. Improve your relationship by showing them you’re committed to keeping their home in excellent condition.
Make sure you’re working with good vendors, too. Many Las Vegas property management companies either have their own in-house teams or they have outstanding relationships in place with high-quality, cost-effective repair people who can be trusted to respond immediately. This is a major benefit to professional management.
Put together your own list of preferred vendors so you don’t miss a beat when something is needed at your property.
Be Respectful and Give Your Las Vegas Tenants Privacy
It’s a property you own, but it’s not your home when you have tenants moved in. It’s their home, and they are entitled to the quiet enjoyment of the place. They don’t need you showing up every month to check in or inspect the home, even if you’re well-intentioned.
Respect their space and their privacy. You won’t be able to maintain a positive relationship if you’re a pest. You want to communicate and be available, but you don’t want to overdo it.
There will be times when you need to be at the property to inspect, respond to maintenance, or take care of something yourself. If you have a good relationship in place with your residents, they’ll understand that. Just provide as much notice as you possibly can. Work with them and be respectful and accommodating of their schedule and preferences.
Make Sure Rental Increases Are Reasonable
Before you raise your rent, study the Las Vegas rental market.
Most tenants will expect a rental increase when it’s time to renew the lease agreement. If you want to ensure they do renew and you care about your relationship, don’t go overboard when raising the rent. Increase it enough to cover your own rising costs, but make sure your tenants understand that it’s at or below the current market rents. This will show them that you care about keeping them, and they’ll also feel like they’re getting a lot of value for their rental home.
Why Do Tenant Relationships Matter?
Maybe you never thought about whether it’s important to have a good relationship with your tenants. If you’re wondering why it matters – positive tenant relationships can save you money and even help you earn more on your Las Vegas rental property in the long term.
Consider this:
1. On-Time Rental Payments in Las Vegas
Tenants who like and respect their landlords are going to pay rent on time. They’ll care about their own reputation and they’ll want to make a good impression. Not only will you be able to collect rent on time consistently, with a good relationship in place, your tenants will be comfortable coming to you if they’re facing a financial mishap one month and need some flexibility. This is far more manageable than chasing down late rent or not knowing when it can be expected.
2. Tenants Will Help With Maintenance
A good relationship with your tenants means less concern about deferred and unreported maintenance. A tenant who is not comfortable communicating with their landlord will often neglect to report maintenance issues. They’re likely worried about being blamed or charged for the repair. They’ll worry that their landlord will be angry. That their rent will go up. This is a problem for you, because those minor maintenance issues that are left ignored will only lead to larger and more expensive repair needs.
With a good relationship in place, you’ll also be able to count on tenants to fulfill their own maintenance responsibilities. Those air filters will be changed on time and the property will be kept clean and orderly. There won’t be trash in the front yard or a mess in the common areas of your multi-family rental.
3. Avoiding Lease Violations
Lease violations are uncommon when you have a good relationship with your Las Vegas residents. You won’t have to worry about unauthorized pets, long-term guests who turn into residents not on the lease agreement, or property damage left behind when they move out. If you do encounter a situation in which the lease has been violated, having a professional and working relationship with your tenants will make it easier to talk with them and resolve the issue. They’re more likely to come into compliance.
4. Avoiding Tenant Turnover
One of the most important benefits to a good tenant relationship is lower tenant turnover. You want to keep your good tenants in place.
Working with a Las Vegas property manager means not having to worry about tenant relationships. We take care of responding to tenants and ensuring they have a positive rental experience in your property.
If this sounds good to you, please contact us at New West Property Management. We’re passionate about the services and value we provide to the owners and investors who trust us with their properties. Our team expertly manages residential rental homes in Las Vegas and throughout Clark County, including Henderson and North Las Vegas.
