If you’re renting a single-family rental property, your tenants must have good and convenient ways to contact you. Not only is this the best for keeping an eye on your important property, but on top of that, it can additionally help you retain a great relationship with your tenant. But at the same time, there are solid reasons not to give your tenants your personal phone number and email, not least of which is the temptation for the tenant to abuse the privilege. So, having said that, what are the effective ways for tenants to contact you? Let’s look into some of the best means for tenants to get in touch with their landlords or Framingham property owners as advised by professionals.
Phone and Email
At the very least, you should have a dedicated phone line and email for your rental property business. This is true whether you have one rental property or a dozen. A phone number and email are the most professional method for tenants to get in touch with you. Having a dedicated phone and email can make certain that all communications are routed through the proper channels, that communications are documented, and that nothing will be forgotten.
Emergency Maintenance Line
Another significant communication tool to set up is an emergency maintenance line your tenants can call after regular office hours. This line should be answered by a live person, not a recording, and it should be made clear to the tenant that this is an emergency line only. This will help make it a point that tenants only use this line for emergencies and that they know there may be additional charges for using this service.
Tenant Portal
Another effective way to stay in touch with your tenants and secure that all communications are directed through the appropriate channels is to develop a tenant portal. A tenant portal is an online system that enables tenants to submit non-emergency maintenance requests, pay rent, and contact you all in one place. A tenant portal is meant particularly for property owners and landlords, and most let you and your tenants send messages and information back and forth. By utilizing a tenant portal, you can stay organized and make sure that all communications are perfectly documented.
Social Media
If you are familiar with and comfortable using social media to promote your rental properties, you may moreover desire to think of using it as a method to communicate with your tenants. This is an effective way to provide tenants with updates on maintenance, changes to the property, or any other essential information. They can likewise ask questions and permit you to react to concerns. If you opt to use social media for tenant communication, ensure to make use of a private messaging system or private page so that your conversations are not made public.
Set Clear Boundaries
Communicating effectively with tenants may need more than one form of communication. But, regardless of which options you choose, it’s significant to set clear ground rules about when and why your tenant should contact you. It would greatly help if you had clear, pre-determined consequences for when tenants try to violate your rules. One of the effective ways you can do this is to model and encourage respectful communication and consistently enforce your boundaries. By being clear as regards your expectations, you can help make sure that communications with your tenant are appropriate and sent through proper channels.
The bottom line is that disregarding what method or combination of methods you choose for tenant communication, it’s essential to be professional, consistent, and clear. Another best means to handle tenant communications is to hire a professional property management company like Real Property Management MetroWest-Worcester to do it for you. Contact us online to learn more about our tenant portal and other professional property management tools.
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