Multifamily investing offers the opportunity to profit tremendously when you sell your property, and a well-managed property will also throw off regular income throughout your ownership period. As a commercial real estate investor, you have devoted a tremendous amount of time, energy and money into the purchase of a great property. You want to do what it takes to optimize your return on investment, but successful commercial real estate investing involves more than buying and maintaining properties. Your tenants are the lifeblood of your investment, and they should receive just as much care and attention as property upkeep and number crunching.
While your multifamily property is a financial investment to you, it is the place that your tenants call home. Each of your tenants has unique factors to consider related to their lifestyle, finances, interests and goals, and these are often entwined with their living experience in vital ways. When you get to know your tenants as people rather than as names on a lease, you can offer them a higher level of customer service. In the process, you may decrease turnover and improve online reviews. These factors directly feed into a healthy bottom line. How can you serve your property’s residents as customers rather than solely as tenants?
Your property’s residents will be more likely to renew a lease and to recommend your property to their friends and family members when they feel valued and respected. In many cases, the relationship between a tenant and a landlord is purely financial, and it is entirely dictated by the terms of the lease. You must abide by the terms of the lease, and you must ensure that rents are collected in a timely manner. However, your relationship with your residents should extend beyond the monthly rent collection process. For example, you can send tenants birthday cards or call to check on their unit’s condition periodically. Small gestures like these can go a long way toward developing a positive relationship with your tenants.
The top brands today stay on top of their customers’ needs, and they anticipate behavior when possible. Your multifamily property is a business, and your tenants are your customers. With this in mind, you need to nurture relationships and proactively anticipate your customers’ needs. For example, reach out to your tenants a few months before their lease expires to give them renewal options. Implement a loyalty program that rewards renewals, transfers and referrals. A high turnover rate at your multifamily property can dramatically erode profits, so creating a reward system that encourages renewals can be cost-effective for your business. At the same time, the benefits of the reward system likely will be appreciated by your customers.
While some residents may move out of an apartment building that is poorly managed, others will vacate for reasons that are not related to property management at all. For example, they may need a larger space or may be ready to purchase a home. When your tenants decide to vacate, avoid creating stressful and unnecessary roadblocks. Consider collecting moving boxes and other materials from new tenants and offering these to tenants who are vacating as part of your service. Offer to do a walk-through before the tenants vacate so that they can recoup as much of their deposit as possible. You should support your tenants just as much when they are vacating as you did when they were moving in.
For the majority of your tenants, their monthly rental payment may be their largest expense. An unexpected increase can create immediate stress and anxiety, and this may be followed by a kneejerk reaction to look for a new and more affordable place to live. From your perspective, maintaining rents at market rates is essential in order to optimize profitability. How can you maintain market rents while also retaining happy tenants? Create a small report for your tenants that shows current market rents in the area. This report should substantiate the rental increase at the time of renewal. If you launch a rewards program for loyal residents, consider outlining any savings that they may enjoy by renewing their lease. This type of detailed and customized report could actually help your tenants to feel positive about renewing their lease at a higher rate.
Tenants commonly reach out to their landlord or property manager because they have a complaint or a repair issue that requires prompt attention. In many cases, tenants are provided a single phone number to call for assistance, and landlords may let those calls go to voicemail to screen them for urgency. To tenants, the inability to quickly and easily reach you when they need assistance with their home can be stressful. More than that, it could create the impression that your tenants are a bother to you. To counter this, offer multiple communication channels. In addition to a phone number for verbal communication, offer text communication, an email and a website. Make a point to always answer the phone when a tenant calls and to respond to all other methods of communication promptly.
Do you own more than one multifamily property? The apartment that a tenant lives in today may no longer meet their needs, but one of your other properties could be a better fit. If you have provided excellent customer service to the tenant throughout his or her residency period, the tenant may be happy to consider relocating to one of your other properties as long as the property meets their current needs. Likewise, consider extending the rewards for your referral program to all of your properties. These practices will help you to maintain higher occupancy rates overall, and the increased options can bolster customer satisfaction.
Your existing tenants will directly impact your bottom line from multifamily investing long after they move out. This is because potential tenants often read online reviews from past tenants to learn about important factors like property management responsiveness, rent increases, property maintenance and more. Because unhappy tenants may be more likely to post reviews than tenants who have loved living in your property, soliciting feedback from satisfied tenants is essential. Consider asking tenants to leave reviews at different stages in their experience. For example, you may ask for feedback about the move-in process after they get settled. You may also ask tenants to leave comments when they renew a lease or after they move out. In addition, use feedback from negative reviews to make improvements.
As is the case with other types of businesses, you will not be able to please all of your tenants at all times. However, because success from multifamily investing is intricately linked to tenant satisfaction, it is essential that you develop a sound customer service policy that touches your tenants throughout their experience. Properly managing tenant relationships may require more time and energy than you initially anticipated. Consider hiring a reputable property management firm if you are challenged in this or other critical areas of commercial real estate investing.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities or to make or consider any investment or course of action.