Owner Portal
Turnover is expensive for Atlanta landlords, and your best defense against the loss that comes with vacancy and turnover is tenant retention.
If you can keep your great residents in place and renew their lease agreements year after year, you’ll reduce the cost it takes to turn your property over between tenants. You won’t have to worry about making upgrades and updates, cleaning, and marketing the home to find another renter once your current lease term ends.
We are sharing five of our best tips on how to minimize high tenant turnover and retain your Atlanta tenants.
1. Provide a Great Atlanta Rental Experience
Tenants will stay longer when there’s good communication and a professional, respectful relationship in place with their landlord or property manager. Think of your tenants as your customers and make sure you’re giving them all the value and service they expect.
Tenant communication is critical when you want to keep tenants happy and reduce your vacancy and turnover rates. Be open about your expectations. Make sure your tenants know how to contact you. It’s vital to be available 24 hours a day in case there’s an emergency at the property. Send an email or make a phone call every now and then just to check in. Tenants don’t want to hear from you only when something is wrong. Find out if there’s anything they need that would improve their rental experience.
2. Respond to Maintenance Needs Immediately
One of the main reasons tenants decide to move out of a rental property is that their repair requests are ignored. You don’t want to lose a good tenant this way. Be responsive, even to routine repairs.
Emergencies obviously require an immediate response. But, a landlord focused on tenant retention will respond with the same sense of urgency when there’s something simple needed by their tenants, even a garbage disposal that’s stuck or an outlet that isn’t working.
Don’t forget about preventative maintenance. Pest control is important and you’ll want to have the HVAC system inspected and services annually. This will increase efficiency and your tenants will appreciate the lower utility bills.
3. Offer a Pet-Friendly Property
Pet-friendly rental homes do a better job of retaining tenants because pet owners don’t want to move and pay another pet fee elsewhere. With a strong pet policy in place, you can protect the condition of your property and avoid liability and risk while allowing tenants to move in with their well-screened pets.
4. Provide Incentives for Atlanta Lease Renewals
Be willing to negotiate for a lease renewal with your tenants. Maybe they’ve requested a new appliance or a fresh coat of paint in the living room. Demonstrate that you’re willing to offer these things in exchange for a signed lease renewal. You can offer other sorts of incentives too, such as a gift card to a local restaurant or a free gym membership.
5. Keep Rental Increases Reasonable
Most Atlanta tenants will expect their rent to increase when lease renewal time rolls around. You should go ahead and raise the rent, but keep it reasonable. Follow the market and show your tenants what homes like yours are currently renting for. They know that rents are increasing all across Atlanta and all across the country. Raise your rent but keep it below what they’d pay if they were moving and renting a new property elsewhere.
We’d be happy to share some additional ideas on how to keep tenants and avoid turnover. Contact us at Property Services of Atlanta.