You’ve done all the right things to secure a high-quality tenant. You have a great resident in your property who pays their rent on time, is not disruptive and follows the rules. Now, the question is, how do you keep them?
Ways to Retain a Resident at Renewal
While surprising to some, studies suggest that most residents already make up their minds about renewal within the first several weeks of moving into a property.
Even if they end up staying a year, or two, or whatever the lease term is, they’ve pretty much made up their minds within the first few weeks of getting the keys as to whether they’re going to stay long-term.
This puts a lot of pressure on you as a property manager or landlord to do everything you can early (and often) to maximize your chances of getting them to renew.
First Impressions Matter
There are a couple important things you can do to make sure your resident stays put. The first is to set your market rent correctly. You can read more about how to do that here and here.
The other thing you need to do is make sure your property is ready for them to move in. Of course, there are obvious things like having the unit cleaned, making sure any painting is taken care of or the carpet is replaced if needed. Additionally, there are other things you can do to improve the resident experience. Take advantage of the vacant unit to do things like replace old or outdated appliances that are on their last leg, improve the landscaping, and hire a professional to deep clean the property.
Your task is to have the property in pristine shape so that when the resident moves in, they have a great first couple of weeks instead of finding a bunch of dirt or encountering issues like broken appliances, beeping smoke detectors or burned-out light bulbs.
A resident picks up on these issues, especially if there are multiple, and they can really inform their outlook on a property. You can create a great first impression – and increase the likelihood of the resident renewing – by taking basic steps to make sure the property is in great shape on day one.
To hear more from us about how to reduce vacancies in your rental properties by creating strong first impressions, you can also watch our webinar replay on the topic.
