FUNDAMENTALS
TENANTS
Rewarding Good Tenants
ADDRESSING OVERLOOKED ASSETS IN SINGLE-FAMILY RENTAL INVESTMENTS
by Michael Zuber
eal estate investing is a won- derful way to improve your
of tenants over the years, I can tell you with 100 percent certainty you should be focused on keeping good tenants. Why? Do you know what the greatest cost to most landlords is year over year outside of their mortgage? You guessed it—tenant turnover. I argue that the most expen- sive tenant turnover a landlord can endure is a tenant who pays like clockwork even if they leave the place clean after they leave. The loss of a paying tenant who creates no issues and is dependable is an asset to a landlord and as soon as you lose them, the odds are you might get a problem tenant.
Frankly, a problem tenant is easy to deal with as each state has laws and a process to remove non-paying or non-performing tenants. Instead of discussing and highlighting that process, why not talk about the ways to keep great tenants so you don’t suffer the loss of a true asset? If I take care of my good tenant and let them know they are special, they are very likely to invite their friends to enjoy the complex the next time I have a vacancy. Rewarding good tenants doesn’t take much time or money. The following simple means of saying thank you have encouraged my best tenants to stay longer.
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financial future and earn financial freedom. Unfortunately, there is a lot of bias and uninformed thinking that goes into real estate education. For example, how investors choose to focus on “good” tenants verses “bad” tenants can have a significant impact on their business. Although all investors would choose to get rid of bad tenants, perhaps that should not be their focus. Information shared on social media platforms and at real estate meetups tends to focus on getting bad tenants out. However, after having thousands
30 | think realty magazine :: july 2021
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