When renting a single-family rental property, your tenants must have easy ways to contact you. This is not just helpful for keeping an eye on your valuable property, but it can also allow you to keep a personal relationship with your tenant. At the same time, there are 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, what are the best approaches for tenants to contact you? Let’s look at some of the ideal methods for tenants to get in touch with their landlords or Tigard property owners as advised by the specialists.
Phone and Email
At a minimum, 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 way for tenants to contact you. Having a dedicated phone and email can ensure that all communications are routed through the proper channels, that communications are documented, and that nothing falls through the cracks.
Emergency Maintenance Line
Another primary communication option to provide 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 clear to the tenant that this is an emergency line only. This will assist in guaranteeing that tenants only use this line for emergencies and are aware that there may be additional charges for using this service.
Tenant Portal
Setting up a tenant portal is another wonderful way to stay in touch with your tenants and ensure all communications are directed through the proper channels. A tenant portal is an online system that enables tenants to send non-emergency maintenance requests, pay rent, and contact you all in one place. A tenant portal is specifically developed for property owners and landlords, and most allow you and your tenants to send messages and information back and forth. You can be organized and guarantee that all communications are properly documented by utilizing a tenant portal.
Social Media
If you are comfortable using social media to promote your rental properties, you may also need to try utilizing it as a tool to communicate with your tenants. This is a terrific approach to provide tenants with updates on maintenance, changes to the property, or any other crucial information. They can also ask questions and allow you to reply to concerns. If you prefer to use social media for tenant communication, be sure to use a private messaging system or private page so that your conversations are not made public.
Set Clear Boundaries
Communicating effectively with tenants may demand more than one form of communication. But regardless of which options you choose, it’s advisable to set clear ground rules about when and why your tenant should contact you. It would be beneficial if you also had clear, pre-determined consequences for tenants who tried to circumvent your rules. One of the most important things you can do is to model and encourage respectful communication and consistently enforce your boundaries. By being explicit about your expectations, you can help guarantee that communications with your tenant are appropriate and sent through proper channels.
The bottom line is that whatever method or combination of methods you choose for tenant communication, you must be professional, consistent, and transparent. Another excellent option to handle tenant communications is to hire a professional property management company like Real Property Management Assurance 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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