You don’t want to scare a good tenant away by driving up the rent – but at the same time, you’ve invested in property to make money. So how do you strike the perfect balance between happy tenants and a healthy bank balance?
1. Little and often
The most successful way to hang on to good tenants and keep your rental returns increasing is to raise the rent by a small amount every six or 12 months, depending on the legislation in your state.
If you don’t increase the rent for several years, then hit your tenants with a $50 per week raise out of the blue, they’ll be understandably annoyed and you may find your next communication with them is when you receive their Notice to Vacate!
Instead, try tacking $5 or $10 per week onto the rental amount at a time. Each of these small, incremental increases will be affordable to your tenants, meaning they’ll be less likely to jump ship and leave you with a vacant property that’ll cost you money to maintain while you find new tenants.
2. Know what the tenants want
As a landlord, it’s easy to get caught up and throw good money after bad when it comes to making improvements to your property. Unless you know what tenants are looking for, you can’t possibly cater to it.
You could spend thousands re-painting or installing a dishwasher, when an air conditioner may have made the property much more appealing to potential tenants, at half the price.
Seek feedback from your property manager about the must-have items on tenants’ checklists. And if you’re unable to offer some of them, such as off-street parking (which you can’t manufacture out of thin air), perhaps you can make up for it with another coveted feature, like solar panels to reduce their energy costs.
For the full story including 7 proven strategies to boost your rent, read the complete feature article in the April 2019 edition of Your Investment Property magazine.
On sale at news agencies and Coles supermarkets 14th March to 11th April or download the magazine now.
