High vacancy rates are every landlord’s worst nightmare. Vacancy periods can result in you not being able to cover mortgage payments for your investment property. Even if you invested in the most obviously profitable property, sometimes you may just end up in a rut. Luckily, there are things you can do and strategies you can implement to avoid vacancies at your rental property. Let’s go through a list of the most popular options.
Avoid raising rent prices
Sometimes raising rent prices can be necessary. But, every time you raise a tenant’s rent, you risk losing them. If you do this too often or you increase the price by a lot at once, you’re going to face extremely high vacancy rates. The best option would be to stick to one price or at least avoid raising it for as long as you can.
Check if you’re overcharging
Competitive pricing is an essential part of successfully running your rental property. You might be overcharging if you notice that you constantly lose tenants after their lease is up. Your first step towards solving this issue is finding out what other landlords in your area are charging their tenants. Other landlords might be offering better services for less money than you are. Or you might simply be overcharging relative to your property’s neighborhood.
Offer to cover utility prices
A great way to avoid vacancies at your rental property is to offer to cover certain utility costs. Although it might not seem like it would help that much at first, even covering a small bill like Wi-Fi or cable can mean a lot to a tenant who is looking for affordable accommodation. This won’t just help you retain current tenants; it’ll also help you attract new ones.
Form a relationship with your tenants
Creating a positive relationship with your tenants will help avoid high vacancy rates. Learning about your tenants, being friendly and welcoming, and making them feel at home will motivate them to stay longer. There are many ways to do this, and you can get very creative with it.
A great way to start forming a relationship with your tenants immediately is to offer to cover their moving expenses. You can help them research local moving companies and storage facilities. After a while, you’ll learn the essential traits of a reliable moving/storage company, and you’ll be able to help future tenants choose the right one every time.
Maintain the property
One of the leading reasons why tenants move away is maintenance problems. If they have to deal with pest problems or bad plumbing throughout their lease term, they will likely leave as soon as they get the chance. Luckily, this is easily solvable. If you provide quick and quality service in terms of maintenance, you are sure to create tenant loyalty. Let’s break this up into three parts.
Periodic inspections
Instead of waiting for problems to come up and doing extremely costly repairs after your tenants are already frustrated, it’s much better to prevent these issues from coming up at all by doing regular inspections. The benefit of this is twofold. Firstly, you’ll avoid stressing out your tenants by fixing potential issues before they even create a serious problem. Secondly, you’ll have an excuse to periodically check up on how well your tenants are taking care of your property.
Fix issues as fast as possible
Of course, the method we just discussed is not going to work one hundred percent of the time. Issues can always creep up on you. If a tenant calls to report the problem, make sure you fix it as soon as possible. If you manage to do things like this in a timely fashion, you’ll easily be able to avoid vacancies at your rental property. Most tenants will forgive and forget that the issue ever came up.
Keep it clean
This is especially important if your investment property is a complex with multiple units and common areas. While it is not your responsibility to keep the units clean while you have tenants living there, it’s extremely important that you keep the common areas clean.
Introduce useful amenities
Another great way to set yourself apart from the competition is to introduce valuable amenities into your rental property. This can mean providing updated appliances, washers, dryers, garbage disposals, etc. It’s also important not to splurge on these too much. This is one of the most common mistakes first-time investors make. Remember to stick to a predetermined budget if you want to avoid vacancies at your rental property by adding amenities to it. You don’t have to get the most expensive, brand-new dishwasher for every unit. As long as it’s functional, your tenants will appreciate it.
Improve security
Another common reason why tenants leave a rental property after their lease is over is that they don’t feel safe in the area. Introducing a better security system into your property will help your tenants feel safer in your property. Additionally, it’ll keep the property itself safe.
Create incentives for staying
A great way to retain long-term tenants is to create incentives for extending/renewing their lease. You can offer a short-term rent reduction if they sign another lease. Experts from zippyshelldmv.com also recommend offering extra storage space to those who sign another lease by covering part of their storage unit rental expenses. You can get creative with this. For example, you could exponentially increase the percentage of the unit rental payments you’ll be covering relative to how long they stay (ex., one year = 10%, two years = 15%, and so on).
Make the place more inviting from the outside
Maintaining the exterior of your rental property is another excellent way to avoid frequent vacancy periods. Improving curb appeal and making the place feel welcoming from the outside will help make people want to live there. Aside from keeping current tenants, this will also help with attracting new tenants. This is also a great way to increase your property’s ROI. Even a simple, fresh coat of paint can increase your property value.
To wrap up
If you want to successfully avoid vacancies at your rental property, you’ll have to put some work into it. A little elbow grease can genuinely turn your situation around. Implementing these ideas and strategies is sure to help, but personalizing them is just as important. Every landlord’s situation will call for different actions, and it’s vital to be proactive and creative. Running a rental property doesn’t have to be stressful or frustrating. As long as you do your part, your tenants are sure to help make your rental property profitable and make running it an enjoyable experience.
https://unsplash.com/photos/vvah86ql8iM – featured image
