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How to attract long term tenants

How-to's

Attracting long term tenants isn’t just about drawing them in but rather KEEPING them. It is easy to offer a long lease or advertise your property as pet-friendly to pull long term tenants is but once you have found a good tenant or a tenant that you think has potential to be a great tenant, you want to keep them. Keeping your tenants is all about building a good relationship with them and allowing them to have a good relationship with the house so they can call it their home for a long time to come.

Tenants are often on edge, thinking their home isn’t completely their home, constricted to what they can do with their home, tiptoeing around their own home. Whether these feelings are just in the back of their mind or are a much more constant fear of insecurity, it is not just about offering them a long lease it’s about making them comfortable, secure and happy in their home so they know they can trust you and not have to fear you are going to kick them out.

Fairness and being reasonable

You can increase the rent for your property however it is your choice whether you actually DO increase the rent and if you decide to increase it and by how much. Rent is not just a number that goes into your bank account. Not only do tenants need to figure out how they will pay the increased rent but they decipher a message within the rent increase. For example if it a small and fair increase there won’t be too much thought about it whereas a larger increase might be taken personally ‘was it something we did?’ ‘Do they not like us?’ ‘Should we look for a new home?’

Consideration

Actually taking into consideration tenants requests to change things. You can easily say ‘yes, I will take that into consideration’ but do you really think about the request? For example, what does allowing them to hang their TV on the wall really mean to them and what position does that put you in. How much does it affect them vs how much that affects you? Even though hanging the TV on the wall seems to be a fairly small thing there is every chance that allowing them to do that will make them feel like this house that they are in is slightly more their home almost, making it feel that much more permanent and reducing that back of the mind, fear of losing the home.

Perhaps you don’t particularly want them to hang the TV. Say your reason is that you don’t want it to mess up the wall. Now compare the reason for the TV being hung up from you, the landlord, and the tenant. How important is this change to the tenant vs how important is it that you don’t want them to hang the TV? Just taking a few minutes to dig a little deeper can mean a lot to people and display a lot of humility.

Caring

Be quick with repairs. Not only does this keep the house maintained and liveable for your tenant but it also is a huge factor in building a good your relationship with your tenants. Being on top of repairs shows that you care and that your property and your tenants are a big priority for you.

There are so many incentives you can offer to attract and keep long term tenants but they will not be willing to sign another longer-term lease if they don’t feel at home.

Being an online renting platform, Cubbi can help you nurture your long term tenants in ways that reduces a lot of the stress and hassle that comes with letting your property. If you have any questions or wonder how Cubbi could help you, feel free to email us at hello@cubbi.com.au or comment below.

 

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