The mission to retain good tenants is one of the primary goals for any respectable rental property owner and/or landlord. You may find that you are able to secure good, honest tenants at a fair rate, yet are unable to retain good tenants consistently. Whether you manage a single-family home, apartment, condo, townhome, or duplex, ensuring that your tenants are consistently happy enough with their accommodations to continue to rent with you can be a difficult task. While some tenant relocation reasons may simply be out of your control (E.G. – job relocation), there are some things you can do to increase your tenant retention chances. Here are 5 ways landlords can retain good tenants.

1. Make Necessary Repairs in a Timely Manner

 There is not an ideal tenant on this earth who wants to pay a landlord or property management company for a rental property that has an abundance of issues such as malfunctioning primary appliances, leaky faucets, lack of attention to landscaping, or more severe issues like failing roofs or prominent mold within the property. To prevent constant complaints and your tenants searching for somewhere else to live, it is best to fix any serious problems as efficiently and effectively as possible. By addressing problems quickly, you will also build trust with your tenants. This way your good tenants will know if any additional issues should arise down the road, that you will have everything taken care of in a reasonable amount of time without any further complications.

 Additionally, making timely repairs will also save landlords money in the long run. The longer you let an issue go unfixed, the bigger it typically gets and more costly it can become to fix. You can save yourself time, money, and tons of frustration with a regular preventative maintenance program and a quick response to tenant requests and complaints.

2. Make Relevant Upgrades to Your Rental Property

 As any landlord who has been in the business for an extended period of time will tell you, there is never a shortage of competition with regards to most rental markets. This is especially true in the Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada areas. While certain economic circumstances may influence rental property availability, there are always more apartment complexes, condos, and rental homes being built that tend to offer some of the most popular amenities to their tenants. These amenities can have a huge impact on your goal to retain good tenants and on a tenant’s decision to stay or look for another place to live once their lease agreement is up. One thing you can do as a landlord or property owner is to invest in your rental property with improvements and amenities.

 Besides listening to recommendations or requests from your current tenants, you can help improve tenant retention with these strategic upgrades:

• Install new energy efficient kitchen appliances.
• Update all patio furniture (if applicable).
• Try to create open floor plans for extra space within rental units.
• Provide a BBQ or picnic area (if applicable).
• Utilize unique and open bathroom designs.
• Offer your tenants covered parking spaces.

 While these types of upgrades do require an initial financial investment up front, they will ultimately help you keep your tenants happy and increase overall tenant retention, while also increasing the overall value of your rental property. This way you can avoid having your rental property sit vacant for extended periods of time while having to advertise and screen for a new tenant.

3. Offer Your Current Tenants Referral Incentives

 Offering your current tenants discounts or incentives for referring their family and friends when you have a rental vacancy is a fantastic way to increase overall tenant retention. When your tenants are happy and close to the people they care about the most, they are much more likely to want to renew their lease agreement year after year. This could also create a strong culture and overall positive sense of community with your other existing tenants.

 If you know some of your tenants have family members or friends who want to be close to them, you can use these situations to your advantage by offering a discount for referring people to your rental properties. Not only will this help you retain good tenants, but it will also help you advertise your rental vacancies while increasing your chances that your vacancies do not stay vacant for exceptionally long throughout the tenant screening process. As a landlord, you can garner potential renters quickly through this type of referral program.

4. If You Have to Increase Rent – Give Plenty of Notice

 Increasing rent costs is always a goal for landlords and a dread for tenants. However, as a landlord you are running a business and increasing your rental rate cannot be avoided at times. The most important thing you can do is to handle the increase professionally and respectfully by giving your tenants plenty of time to adjust to the change. At the bare minimum, you should always serve your tenants with a 45-Day Notice of Rental Increase to abide by Las Vegas/Clark County laws and regulations. Let them know ahead of time that you will have to increase the rent and communicate the exact reasons why it must be done (E.G. – homeowners association costs have gone up.

 Whether you are raising the rent a small amount or a significant amount, it is important to make sure tenants do not feel blindsided by the increase to their rent, and to also make sure you are giving the proper amount of notice time. Offering your tenants alternatives to keep rent costs down even with the rent increase is also a great way to offset any potential negative reactions from the news. This can be done by offering a discount on lease agreements signed that are two (2) years of length or longer.

5. Hire a Professional Property Management Company

 When the responsibilities of being a landlord become too much to handle and start to compromise the quality of your service to your tenants, it is time to think about hiring a property management company. In order to give exceptional customer service and respond to your tenants’ concerns and requests in a timely manner, you most likely will need some help from an experienced property manager. This is especially true in the competitive and ever-evolving Henderson and Las Vegas rental markets. Henderson and Las Vegas property management companies can assist landlords and property owners in the Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and Henderson areas with everything from tenant screening, collecting rent payments, property maintenance, and tenant communication. Contact our property management team today to see how we can help you with your rental properties!