Tenants come and go, but there are a lot of things that we can do as HMO landlords to keep our tenants happy and make them want to stay for longer.
If we can find ways to increase the average length of our tenancies and reduce the rate of churn in our HMOs, then we can save time and be more profitable.
Read about my 10 tips to help you keep HMO tenants for longer below or listen to the full episode on The HMO Podcast.
1. Know Your Tenants’ Names
Demonstrating that you know a tenant’s name and being able to strike up a fairly natural conversation will go a long way. It’s simple and it can make the tenant feel like you know them and like you genuinely care about them.
Of course, I can’t remember everyone’s name in our portfolio as we have a ton of tenants. But if I’m going into one of our HMOs for whatever reason, I’ll flick onto our system and remind myself of the tenants’ names. That way, if I do see them, I can have a conversation and drop their name in.
2. Insist on Longer AST’s
Where possible, avoid short-term ASTs, particularly of three or four months. For starters, that doesn’t help tenants in the house build relationships, and it will just contribute to a greater amount of churn.
If you can sign longer ASTs, that can forge much stronger connections between tenants, which can then create a really stable, sticky household. We often use 12-month ASTs as we want tenants who are happy to stay for longer and not move out.
3. Be Proactive with Tenant Renewals
Don’t just let tenancies lapse and hope that your tenants will stay. Be proactive when it comes to renewing tenancies and see if you can get them to stay for longer. If you have tenants signed up on 12-month ASTs, approach them about renewing for another year during their ninth month in the house.
By this point, hopefully, they’ve made some good friends, are enjoying it, and actually want to stay. This will reduce the risk of them handing their notice in two, three, or four months down the road.
4. Have an EPIC Tenant Matching Process
If you can find tenants who are of a similar age, have similar interests, and are there for similar reasons, then they’re more likely to build natural relationships and stay longer. When it comes to advertising your rooms, make it clear the sort of tenant you’re looking for.
There’s no exact science to this, and you won’t get it right every single time. But if you do put time and attention towards looking for people who have similar interests and ask them questions to pull that sort of information out, then it’ll be easier to put tenants together who will likely enjoy living together.
5. Introduce Tenants at Viewings
If you have a house with friendly, engaging tenants that actually sell the living accommodation, then it can be hugely beneficial to introduce prospective tenants to them during viewings. You should take responsibility for ensuring a prospective viewer will be a good fit and be able to strike up a reasonable conversation with your current tenants.
When introducing them, you may be able to see that they’re going to get along. I’ve seen viewers make decisions on the spot when this happens, and I can see our tenants appreciate it. Be careful with this though. If you have a household with prickly tenants, then you probably want to avoid doing this.
6. Prioritise Community and Property Specifications
When looking for properties and planning refurbishments, consider how you can create the right communal environment so that tenants can easily spend time together. Be smart about the way that you use and create open-plan spaces and how you place and use furniture throughout your houses.
If you can effectively incorporate this into your HMO properties, then tenants are more likely to stay for longer. Without this, it can be quite a lonely existence, which could lead to tenants wanting to move out sooner.
7. Take Care of Maintenance Quickly
While it’s tough to deal with all of the maintenance that you’re going to get with HMOs quickly, tenants place a huge amount of value on the speed and efficiency that you can deal with maintenance issues.
Try to get repairs and maintenance done as quickly as you can, and if it’s going to take some time, tell them why and keep them updated. Manage expectations with tenants and make sure that they understand what reasonable timeframes are for certain projects.
8. Be a Good Landlord
Be proactive, fair, understanding, and communicate well. Firstly, being a good HMO landlord is about being proactive and actually catching things before they happen. If tenants see you dealing with things before they become a problem, they’ll pick up on that and really appreciate it.
It’s also about being fair. Sometimes you have to say no, and sometimes you need to listen to your tenants. Be understanding, especially as a lot of tenants have had a difficult time over the past two years. This all goes a long way to making tenants feel valued.
9. Deal with Problematic Tenants Swiftly
No matter what, some difficult tenants will slip through the net. These tenants can be like a virus in the house. It can upset other tenants and even cause others to leave. If you have a problematic tenant, don’t just stand by. You might have to manage the expectations of the other tenants, or you may need to step in and deal with it.
If things are getting out of hand, then you need to show that you’re dealing with it. If you do that, the tenants who are upset are more likely to stick with you and have faith that you’re going to deal with this appropriately.
10. Surprise and WOW Your Tenants
To surprise and wow your tenants, give them an experience they’re not expecting. Little things like free pizza nights, entering them into a competition where they can get free rent for a month or sending them birthday cards can have a huge impact.
This is undoubtedly a way to put yourself on a pedestal and make yourself stand out from other HMO landlords.
Those are the top 10 ways to help you keep tenants for longer! These don’t take that much effort, time or cost to do. I guarantee if you employ all of these, you’re going to have more time, be more profitable and you’ll enjoy being a HMO landlord much, much more.
For more helpful tips and tricks on how to keep tenants for longer and make your HMO properties more profitable, sign up for The HMO Roadmap!
About the Author:
Andy Graham is the founder and the lead trainer at The HMO Roadmap! He is also the co-founder of The HMO Mastermind and Smart Property, a specialist HMO property investment and management company. He writes as a regular columnist in different magazines about a variety of HMO topics and is the host of The HMO Podcast! Follow Andy on Instagram!