Adapt to Your Tenants' Needs

Anticipating tenants’ ever-changing needs and being flexible during disruptions in their lives will make it easier for a property manager/owner to retain good tenants and to attract new ones.

“Our goal is to minimize turnover,” says Bill Geoffrion, vice president of Equity Management Inc. in Laurel, Md.

Betty Fletcher, MPM, president of Little Rock, Ark.-based Fletcher Property Management Inc., says minimizing turnover cuts down on lost revenue from vacancies as well as make-ready costs. “New tenants cost way more money than existing tenants do,” she says.

Thus, when dramatic changes occur in your tenants’ lives, it benefits you as a manager to be accommodating whenever possible. “If you can help a tenant get through a crisis, then you have an opportunity to retain that tenant,” Fletcher says. “Anything that you can do to hang on to that tenant, I believe is a good thing.”

Flexible Leases
Often a big change in the life of your tenants, be it an addition or subtraction to a household, or a change in income, makes itself most apparent when it starts affecting the tenant’s ability to pay rent or honor his or her lease. Instead of being caught off guard in these situations, it is helpful if you already have processes in place that can help tenants adjust to their new circumstances.

Payment plans are one option. Fletcher says she offers her tenants a payment plan in which they pay half of their rent every two weeks, so that at the end of a 12-month period, the tenant actually has paid up a month ahead of time. This provides the tenants with a cushion should they need it in an emergency and also helps them budget when times get tight. “For me, it allows a tenant to get ahead of the game,” she says.

For those managing apartment complexes, Geoffrion has a different solution. Equity allows tenants to move between units in the middle of a lease, granted they sign a new one-year lease upon moving into the new unit. This could allow you to retain tenants who have a sudden need for more room, or who would be best served by moving to a less expensive unit.

Physical Needs Change
Accommodating your tenants’ needs is not restricted simply to helping them fulfill their end of the lease. Some changes involve helping them function within your property.

Equity manages buildings that include senior housing, which gives them a tenant base whose needs can change suddenly. To better accommodate its senior residents, Equity now provides space on each floor of their senior residences for the parking of motorized wheel chairs, a need that they would have never foreseen just a few years ago.

Geoffrion points out that when a policy is changed to accommodate tenants’ needs, you have to be prepared to meet all of the requirements created by the new policy. For example, Equity observed a need for companionship in many of its senior tenants and, in response, relaxed its no-pets policy. That change brought with it a number of necessary physical changes, as Equity installed pet stations with plastic bags and receptacles to make it easier for tenants to clean up after their pets, and provided dog runs for tenants to take their pets for exercise.

Be Fair
Regardless of the changes you make to accommodate your tenants, the most important thing is that whatever accommodations you make are part of a written, uniformly applied policy.

According to Geoffrion, “All you need is the appearance of impropriety to be accused of unfair practices.”

No matter how tempting it may be to make individual exceptions, don’t, Fletcher adds. “It needs to be offered to everybody across the board,” she says.

And if the agreement between yourself and the tenant is changed, always get the new agreement in writing.

Word of Mouth
Although accommodating the needs of your tenants may sound like a lot of work, remember that one of the most important advantages to doing so is the positive word of mouth it generates, which, as Geoffrion points out, is the cheapest form of marketing.

“If we don’t make accommodations for our tenants, the next day they’re going to be talking about it at the water cooler, and complaining about our service,” he says. Whereas, tenants who are impressed by your willingness to help will recommend your buildings and your company to anyone who asks.

“In today’s market, tenants have so many more choices now than they did five years ago,” Fletcher says. “It’s beneficial, I think, for managers to be aware of that and to position themselves so that their properties are the best choice.”