Finding good tenants is always one of the top priorities on a landlord’s checklist. Renting your property out to good, responsible tenants can save you time and effort in the long run - who wants to be constantly looking for new tenants or chasing up arrears?
The public often believes that most landlords are driven by money and unfair, which is a common misconception led by television programmes and media sources. With tax changes and new legal regulations, being a landlord is a challenging job. To compete in the market and attract better, qualified - and potentially, long term - tenants, being a good, welcoming landlord is definitely a key factor.
Here are 5 of our best advice for making a good impression with potential tenants and maintaining a healthy and positive relationship with your tenants.
Being nice and amicable always plays a significant part in maintaining a good, healthy business relationship. But it’s important to draw a line and keep a professional manner when it comes to landlord-tenant interactions. The landlord and tenant have a business relationship, not friendship. You should treat your tenant respectfully and fairly as how a business owner would treat a customer. Maintaining professionalism can lower the risk of rent arrears or violation of lease guidelines.
A high-quality landlord responds to complaints and requests promptly and professionally. As mentioned above, this is a business relationship, which means business etiquette should be shown during your interaction with the tenants.
Good, clear communications can minimise misinterpretations. Little things can go a long way - small gestures like walking through the lease with the tenants before they sign it, communicating the rights and responsibilities clearly and thoroughly, and keeping important conversations in written format can avoid misunderstanding and any potential legal actions.
Whether you’ve been using a letting platform or an estate agent, having a positive profile and healthy relationship with previous tenants are important for landlords. There are a number of sites for tenants to post reviews of your property. Although reviews are not on the top of your priorities, it is advised to monitor these reviews from time to time and make sure bad reviews have been addressed.
Using trusted, user-friendly third-party services is a great way to make tedious tasks smoother and more convenient for both you and your tenants. Services like online lease signing, third-party rent collection and deposit collection are simple tools to make tedious processes easier and safer.
Renting your property will be more attractive to tenants because of the convenience and simplicity - never underestimate the power of seamless rent collection and technology!
Using online services for payment and document signing can avoid misunderstanding and help keep track of receipts and documents. Going digital means documents and records can be easily accessed by both landlords and tenants, whilst being kept in a safe space managed by a professional third party.
One of the most commonly used online service used by landlords and tenants is rent collection, as the letting platform or agent will help chase up any rent delays and deal with arrears if needed. Tenants can also benefit from online rent collection as every rent transaction is securely made and recorded in a trusted database.
Apart from online services, keeping electronic copies of every document makes organisation easier. Landlords and tenants can put documents on a cloud for easy access and future reference, without having to worry about missing paper documents - you never know when that one crucial document accidentally got lost somewhere!
There you have it. Ready to be a good (or better) landlord and let your property out? Compliance and tenant reference checks don’t have to be a hassle - we’re here to help!
Our new Good Landlord package takes care of your documents, reference checks, viewing arrangements and beyond for just £12pcm. Learn more at MakeUrMove now. You can also try our Standard Package for free.