“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." I John 4:7-8
Man, it’s nice when people are
nice.
We have a tenant, Monica, who
just goes out of her way to be easy to work with. If we need her to do something for us, she
does it. There is no complaining, back
biting, or procrastination.
Communication with her is a joy.
And she is soooo nice and gracious.
When we perform repairs (aka our job), she is so gracious and
thankful. Her rent is always on
time. She and her family go out of their
way to perform maintenance to the house.
And at the end of her positive and funny e-mails, she always includes
the Bible verse above.
We have another client, Mike, who
goes out of his way to compliment us for working on his home; once again, for
just doing our job. Small things don’t
escape his notice. His level of
graciousness is astounding. Truthfully,
we should be thanking Mike much more than he thanks us. We made a good amount of money working for
Mike: we helped him buy houses, repair them, manage them, and finally, sell
them. These are all things we collect
fees for. But he would let us know how
much he appreciated our efforts, even if the work was imperfect at times.
I think back to how our
relationships started. It would be easy
to say that they were “good folks” and that they get along with everyone (they
probably do!). But why?
They set a positive tone with us
early. Early conversations were easy,
paperwork was complete and accurate, and meetings were punctual. They were easy going about details as we got
to know each other. They got the things
they needed from us, but their requests were made in a graceful and kind
manner.
Property management
can be a difficult business. At the face
of it, a property manager is the middle man between two parties with divergent
interests, the owners and tenants. Both
would prefer that the other party pay for anything that breaks. The owners want the rules of the lease followed
precisely to protect their investments, while the tenants want to use the house
as they see fit. The property manager
is hired by owners and is tasked with protecting their investments, but can’t
get it done well without tenant involvement and buy-in. It’s a balancing act that produces many
colorful (and costly) stories of when the relationship breaks down.
But Monica and Mike also show
that it can be a rewarding business with warm relationships.
As the property manager, our job
is to always set the tone early with kindness, love, and gratitude. The tenants need to feel this from us, their
point of contact, from the moment of their first inquiry. Even if we wind up having to reject a tenant
application, we can do it kindly. But if
we wait for the clients to set the tone, it might not happen. And it needs to.
So set the tone early! This will allow landlords to reap the
benefits of a mutually fulfilling partnership and make property management a
joy.
Thank you to our clients (Monica,
Mike & many others) who make coming to work a pleasure.
Happy Landlording!
Brett Furniss is a property manager at BDF Realty (Charlotte Residential
Property Management), the trusted real estate advisor for Charlotte
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