5 Tips to Communicate Effectively with Your Tenants!
The last thing you want as a landlord is a communication breakdown with your tenant.
Not to mention the problems that would go unnoticed because of this.
One of the issues you are probably most concerned about is knowing everything that is going on with your property, and how smooth the tenancy period is going with your tenant. While you can’t always be there to micromanage your rental property, the best thing you can do is communicate effectively with your tenant. Communication with your tenant is important. It builds trust between yourself and your tenant, so you get the opportunity to help each other resolve issues whether in the property or in the tenancy in the long run.
Not sure how to do that? Here are five tips to communicate effectively with your tenant.
Understanding & Patience
The first tip you would want to keep in mind when communicating with your tenant is being understanding and patient with your tenant. This tip is essential to all communication with any tenant you may have who is renting your property. Just as each individual person is unique with their own personalities, likes, dislikes, and tendencies, it’s just as important to get to know each tenant you encounter and learn their preferences, tendencies, a little bit about their background, and anything else you may find relevant for the needs of managing the tenancy. With what you have known about them, when issues arise, you will know how to deal with them accordingly with a little bit of understanding and giving tenants the patience they need to help sort things on their end. Lack of understanding your tenants on your end may be detrimental to your effort to communicate with them, as doing so may lead to further discrepancies or confusion, slowing things down and getting nothing resolved. A lack of patience on the other hand, would make tenants uncomfortable with you, leading them not to cooperate with you and worse, would caution other tenants against you.
Multiple Lines of Communication
The second tip to effective communication with your tenant is to establish multiple lines of communication. It basically means to have more than one way that your tenant can reach out to you. For example, your tenant can reach out to you via email, WhatsApp, a normal phone call, etc. This action does two things for your tenant. Firstly, it gives your tenant the impression that you are accessible and reachable. Secondly, it gives your tenant the option to communicate with you on their method or platform of choice. Of course, you may also have preferences of communication so do take the liberty of discussing with your tenant your main mode of communication and take the regular conversations and check-ins there.
Open Door Policy
The third tip to effective communication with your tenant is to establish an Open Door Policy. This means that you’re always available to have any conversations and be able to answer any questions they would have. Having this policy in place is supposed to ensure your tenants feel comfortable approaching you when anything regarding the property and tenancy arises, what more making them feel valued. The lack of an Open Door Policy, or basically just not answering their questions could lead to a build up of issues for you and your property later on. For instance, the tenant could encounter a sudden pipe burst in the bathroom or cracks in the ceiling, but you would not know about it because your tenant would be too scared to tell you about it immediately – all because you’re not open to conversation. Hence why open communication should flow consistently so as to avoid any situations like this from ever happening.
Before a Repair, Give a Heads Up!
The fourth tip to communicate effectively with your tenant is to always give your tenant a heads up, that is, an alert or notification that you will be sending a contractor to do a repair or scheduled maintenance. Tenants would hate to have surprise visits from contractors especially at inconvenient timings when tenants are in the property during the day in the middle of work or chores. Tenants who are not expecting contractors may become suspicious too, as cases of scammers or thieves who pose as contractors entering various homes have happened in the past. In order to get your repair work or maintenance done, and so that the tenant is not suddenly surprised, inconvenienced and loses their trust toward you, it is always better to inform your tenant prior so that they are aware and receive the contractor well.
Encourage Feedback
Last but not least, the fifth and final tip for communicating effectively with your tenant is to encourage feedback from them. This could look like conducting a survey online, suggestion box, or just something to ask during your check in with your tenant when communicating with them. Getting to know your tenant’s feedback gives you insight into what areas would need improvement. Acting on those feedback to improve your services, amenities, parts of the property, or just the whole tenant experience shows your tenant that you care enough to address their needs and worries. This makes your tenant trust you more and comfortable to communicate with you as their landlord.
Remember, when it comes down to managing your property and tenancy with your tenant, communication is key to ensuring that all of this runs smoothly. Through effective communication, you will be able to build a long, positive relationship with your tenants which enables you to solve issues faster, and ultimately provide the best tenancy experience for your tenant, bringing you success and peace of mind as a landlord.
But of course, there’s only so much you can do on your own. So why not let us help you manage your property?
