10 Tips on How to Keep Good Tenants

My husband and his immediate family (parents, brothers, and sister), along with their spouses own a real estate investment company. We specialize in rental homes and units. We have learned that being landlords and overseeing things ourselves can sometimes be very challenging. From the day we put our units up for rent- advertising in craigslist.org, as well as printing flyers and posting in public areas...to the day we open the house for prospective renters...and then finally signing that contract; we have faced so many obstacles and challenges. One of the biggest challenges that we have is, first of all, finding good tenants, second to that is keeping them. Forget about recurring maintenance and calls to fix broken things in and outside of the rental properties, those are what you can call expected challenges that are easier to deal with. One thing that really concerns us is keeping good tenants.

Nowadays, it is becoming tougher to find a tenant that is good, who pays rent on time, and who also takes care of your property. Finding good tenants is a lot easier than keeping them.

Through or dealings and some years of experience when we had our own individual rental properties, I can say we have pretty much done everything that are expected of landlords. But it is always good to go that extra mile, to give them reasons to stay, especially now that our real estate market is really bad and a lot of homeowners, who cannot sell their homes, decide to rent their homes at below market rate. But how can landlords compete in this type of economy?

Here are some tips that can help you if you are a new landlord or is thinking of becoming one:

1) Be responsive: This is a very important factor in dealing with your tenants. If they call you for problems, be responsive. Do not ignore their calls. Make sure to answer their calls or return their calls immediately. There is nothing worse than a feeling of being neglected or ignored. So make sure you answer their calls right away.