Keys to Keeping a Good Tenant in Your Rental Property | Morris Invest (2024)

If you’re already invested in real estate, then you know the importance of keeping a good tenant in your rental property. Finding and retaining a tenant that’s respectful of your property, pays rent on time, and plans to stay for the long-term can make all the difference when aiming for a high ROI. Knowing how crucial this is, you’ll want to dive into a few strategies for getting your preferred tenants to settle in and call your rental property their home.

Essential Strategies for Retaining Quality Tenants in Your Rental Property

Retaining quality tenants is the main ingredient to maintaining steady cash flow, as well as protecting your investment. In addition to this, when you have a high turnover rate, the costs can certainly add up. This includes expenses such as cleaning, repairs, loss of income, as well as advertising fees. Because of this, it’s important to put the proper strategies in place to minimize turnover. Below, you’ll find some of the most effective ways of keeping exceptional tenants in your rental property year after year.

1. A Great Long-Term Tenant Starts with the Screening Process

Identifying the best tenants is the first step to maintaining them. It’s a task that safeguards a property owner against individuals who may default on payments or neglect the rental property. With this in mind, it’s crucial to establish certain eligibility criteria and apply them consistently, ensuring every tenant is measured against the same benchmark. Below are some elements that tenants are typically screened for to help weed out the bad apples:

• Credit Score
• Income Verification
• Rental History
• Background Check
• Bankruptcies and Evictions

In addition to this, a personal interview should be part of the process to gauge their character and determine if they want to set up camp in your rental or use it for a short-term stay. After extensive screening and personal interviews, you’ll be better equipped to select a model tenant who wants to stay for the long-term.

2. Ensure Your Tenants are in Good Hands with a Professional Property Manager

Hiring a professional property manager can greatly enhance the value and appeal of your real estate, keeping them well-maintained to attract reliable, long-term tenants. In addition to this, they take care of the daily operations of the property and manage tenant relations, which includes the initial screening process that was discussed earlier.

When it comes to choosing the ideal tenant, a professional property manager can do all the legwork for you, and they’ll have the industry experience to easily spot trustworthy and dependable tenants. Once a tenant is in place, a property manager is equipped with the knowhow to maintain their occupancy. Great communication, prompt repairs, and upkeep on curb appeal are some of their strategies that can go a long way.

Property managers also take those unexpected calls that come after midnight when the pipes burst or the heater stops working in freezing temperatures. When emergency situations like these are not taken care of right away, a tenant can become unhappy and consider leaving, which can create a costly vacancy situation – we touch on this in our related article on the financial advantages of utilizing a property manager.

At Morris Invest, we assign a professional manager to each rental property we provide to our clients, and a reliable tenant is placed as well. This means you won’t have to search for a good tenant or worry about the ins and outs of taking care of the property or the tenant’s needs – it’s all taken care of for you.

3. How to Keep Your Tenants Longer with Strategic Lease Renewals

Offering a lease renewal that’s longer than the typical one-year time frame is a great way to keep a good tenant in place. A longer lease benefits both property owners and tenants. For landlords, it helps ensure a steady income stream and, therefore, can allow the real estate owner to avoid the costs associated with vacant properties. For tenants, it provides stability and peace of mind, knowing they won’t have to search for a new rental anytime soon.

Landlords can incentivize longer leases by offering perks such as a lower monthly rate for two-year leases. A property manager should reach out to the tenant 90 days before the lease expires as an early push to get them to renew before they have a chance to contemplate moving.

4. Tenants Won’t Want to Leave When Living in a New Construction Rental Property

Tenants love living in new rentals that sport a modern look, updated appliances, and often include comforts such as central air conditioning, in-unit laundry, and the like. The allure of living in a brand new space is a significant draw, and will provide a nice place they can call home. Morris Invest offers new construction properties, so be sure to schedule a complimentary call if you’d like to discuss what makes our build-to-rent properties stand out from the rest.

In addition to this, new construction properties typically require less maintenance compared to older rentals, which makes them more appealing to tenants. The likelihood of dealing with issues such as broken appliances or electrical problems is considerably lower. Furthermore, new construction properties are often in highly desirable locations, close to hospitals, transportation options, shopping centers, thriving businesses, and good schools.

This combination of modern comforts, reduced maintenance, and excellent location makes new construction rental properties a preferred choice for many tenants, leading to higher tenant retention rates. Be sure to dive into our latest article on the benefits of new construction properties for more information on this subject.

Morris Invest Financial Resources & Programs

• The Freedom Number Cheat Sheet
• Financial FreedomAcademy
• The 90-Day Financial Empowerment Bootcamp

Investors know that the tenant pays the mortgage down for them, which is one reason why keeping good tenants in your rental property is so important. Did you know you can pay your mortgage down quicker than the average timeframe if you put certain strategies in place? If you’re interested in learning more about how to do this, then make sure to dive into a book I wrote on the topic. You can pick it up on Amazon – How to Pay Off Your Mortgage in 5 Years.

A Good Tenant Equals Steady Cash Flow and a High ROI!

A good tenant who stays year after year is a valuable asset when you would like to avoid vacancies and, instead, have a consistent cash flow rolling in each month. As mentioned, having a professional property manager in place is one key to retaining your ideal tenants. If you have any questions about the property managers we place for our clients, specifically what they do to care for the rentals and the tenants, feel free to schedule a call. Additionally, for those who would like to discuss investing in a new construction rental property, we are here to answer all your questions – from how to get started to funding options, and more.

Check out our video below which contains some great tips on finding tenants for your rental property:

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