Resident Retention

7 Tips to Keep Renters

By Erica Rascón on Mar 6, 2019 in News

Resident retention plays a major role in easy lease renewals and favorable reviews. Maintaining existing leases also cuts costs: no turning units, new marketing campaigns or strategies to covert new prospects. Doesn’t that sound awesome?

The following seven strategies for resident retention can help you make the most of existing relationships.

1. Begin at move-in. A positive move-in experience is a key factor in renter retention. Welcome packages are an easy way to help residents feel at home. Depending on your brand, you may choose to spoil your residents with wine, decadent treats, and certificates to fine local restaurants. Perhaps you go for thoughtful and practical like light bulbs, toilet paper, and instant coffee. Either way, the gestures leave a positive impression with residents.
2. Be proactive! A survey by J Turner research reveals that maintenance issues top residents’ lists of complaints. Staying on top of maintenance requests promotes resident satisfaction. Preventative measures, such as regular spring cleaning and winter maintenance, also keep dissatisfaction at a minimum.
3. Respond quickly and professionally to negative feedback. Negative reviews and feedback are inevitable. Your staff must respond quickly and professionally to resident feedback to keep bad situations from getting worst. With the right perspective, even negative feedback can be transformed into an opportunity to shine!
4. Encourage resident engagement with the property and staff. Create opportunities for residents to have positive interactions with staff members and the property itself.

Is your property’s demonstration kitchen collecting dust? Is your community garden suffocating under weeds? Highlight the site’s marketable features through events and activities. Remind residents why they moved in!

Don’t forget to leverage staff creativity. Encourage your social media person to offer smartphone photography classes. Got a craft beer snob working in your office? Let them coordinate a bar hop for residents in the neighborhood. Such occasions are natural ways for team members to build purposeful relationships with residents. Good relationships influence a resident’s decision to sign a renewal.

Don’t have time to engage with residents? By streamlining day-to-day processes with property management software, you can free up staff time. Staff availability is vital to forging positive relationships with residents.

5. Get the most from your lobby. If residents must pass through the lobby, use the opportunity to make a lasting impression each day. Be sure that the staff member on duty genuinely greets residents. Create opportunities for longer engagements with a free beverage bar, grab n’ go breakfast, or community raffles for fun prizes and services. Keep costs low with an encouraging quotation of the day board.
6. Remind residents of what to love about the community. Use social media to showcase great things about your community and the neighborhood. Post about resident events, helpful services, cool amenities, and community involvement. Each is a fun way to reach existing residents and prospects.
7. Keep residents informed of and involved with changes in the property. Imagine that you’re rushing out the door to work. You hop into your car and arrive at the community gate just to see a detour sign. The gate is under maintenance. You’re already late and now you’ve got to exit through the other end of the community. You won’t be too pleased with your leasing staff.

Renters want to know what’s happening in their community. Many will even want to cash in on upcoming changes—which can be a good thing! Consider hosting occasional forums where residents can provide input on the property. Use automated emails and resident portals to keep residents up-to-date on changes.