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Seattle Resident Retention Strategies

Seattle Resident Signing a Lease on a New Rental PropertyScouting for a long-term resident to stay in your rental property can be an enduring task. Apply effective Seattle resident retention strategies to gain sustainable residents that you can trust to remain for a longer time. Some residents stay for the sense of community, others would stay for lower costs come lease renewal time. Others might be fascinated by the stunning landscape or maintenance requests process being completed efficiently and timely by a property management company.

Despite the reasons residents might stay or go, landlords and property managers should include the move out costs associated with allowing your property to become vacant. This cost can be enormous and cost you the profit you would have gained if you had retained the resident or had procedures ready to replace the resident quickly. Having definite Seattle resident retention strategies can help you have a close relationship with your residents. For example, if one of your residents was planning a move, they would trust you and let you know of their plans. Getting this information beforehand can give you plenty more time to find a replacement.

Customer Service

Among the first Seattle resident retention strategies to carry out is to properly understand what your residents want. Some property managers are dumbfounded to hear when residents have unkind or opposing things to say pertaining to them. This can happen for a number of reasons. One of these reasons is insufficient communication with the resident. Residents want to be heard. While customer service is significant in meeting the resident’s needs, property managers tend to not focus on what’s important when talking with the residents. Some property managers might be irritated towards such phone calls or interactions as it adds more work to an already busy day. However, what property managers ought to understand is customer service is the most important part of the day.

Open Communication

Customer service can be a broad topic. Seattle resident retention strategies include deeply exploring what your customer service experience means for your residents. Mainly, customer service shouldn’t be viewed as a task. It is an interaction and relationship building step. A beneficial and open communication relationship will not happen overnight. When the resident signs your rental property lease, you engage in an unceasing testing phase with them. Residents will test you to see what your updating process is, your communication style, how fast you reply to requests, and how open you are: where you can either be strict with your job procedures, or relaxed and open to conversation. Some residents can be preoccupied and unable to take phone calls. Consider sending texts or short notes about things rather than accumulating all of it into one random long phone call.

Listen and Take Action

Seattle residents want to be paid attention to. Whether their side of the story is credible or not, there is a reason that they are reaching out to you. So, consider whatever they have to say. A resident will feel validated when you give them an opportunity to voice their opinions. Listening, as in any relationship, shows that you care more about just doing the task. It shows them that you care about them as a person. Avoid saying, “no, we’re unable to do that” or starting out your sentences or responses with “no.” Always give a solution or alternative to going along with their ideas even if your solution will cost the resident money or not be the same as what the resident feels is right or has in mind as the solution.

Complete in a Timely Fashion

Residents tend to be grateful when service requests are resolved promptly and effectively. Even if you follow their preferences when you do your job, if it takes too long— over several months— they may still resent you. When you finish all the work, and you did it really fast, your Seattle residents would give you more of their trust as a property manager. Even though you have a busy schedule, spend some time to quickly finish the task. Even if it’s just ten minutes, you’ll realize that the attention you give to a service request, especially one that was asked for recently, is going to do wonders for keeping your residents around lease after lease.

A good resident retention strategy is basically listening carefully and performing service requests as soon as possible. Imagine all the possibilities that will open for you as you focus on developing the relationship you have with your residents. Do you want to learn more about Real Property Management Eclipse? Contact us online or call us at 425-209-0252 and request a free assessment for your Seattle property.

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