9 Tips for Welcoming New Tenants into Your Rental Property
Hi There! You’ve made it. With Koi. Credit help and guidance, you’ve properly screened tenants for your rental property and followed the steps for creating a rock-solid lease agreement. If you’ve asked the right questions, done your due diligence, and selected only the best tenants, the hardest part is over. Your tenants have filled out the online rental application, signed the lease online, they’re ready to pay rent online, and they’re about to move into your property. As landlords, this is an exciting time! You’ve put in a lot of work and it’s about to pay off. Your business (your rental property) is about to have new customers (tenants). While this is a great time for you, it is an incredibly stressful time for your tenants. With an impending move, just think about everything that they are worried about:
- Who are my new neighbors?
- What can I do to avoid ever moving again?
- When will I finally have time to go grocery shopping?
- Will my movers show up on time?
- How am I ever going to pack up everything?
- Why do I have so much more stuff than when I moved a year ago?
As landlords, there are a lot of things that we can do to help make the moving process a lot less painful for tenants. We have pulled together eight great ways for welcoming new tenants into your rental property.
Tip #1: Give Friendly Neighborhood Guidance
If your tenants are new to the area, they’ll likely feel overwhelmed trying to get a feel for the neighborhood (on top of the stress of moving!). You can help ease these feelings by providing a few tips/suggestions to help the tenants navigate the area around their new home. This is also an opportunity for you to develop a more personal relationship with your renters. In the past, I have always appreciated when landlords tell me about the nearest grocery store, which pizza spot is their favorite, and which dry cleaner does the best job for the lowest price. If you spot the tenants drinking coffee, you may want to point them to the best place in your area.
If you have provided your tenants with all of the information above and welcomed them into your rental property with a simple welcome package, you’ll have done a lot to minimize the stress that occurs around moving. By helping relieve the stress and anxiety of moving, you’ll be starting off your landlord-tenant relationship on the right foot. A strong relationship of mutual respect with tenants is critical for both parties, especially considering the average tenant stays in a property for more than 18 months.
Tip #2: Provide Parking Information
Do your tenants have vehicles? Do they need to do anything special to park at or near your property? If tenants will be parking on the street in major cities, such as Chicago or San Francisco, they will need to register their vehicles and obtain special parking stickers that allow them to park in certain areas of the city. If your rental unit is in a condo building, do the tenants need to register their vehicle with the building? Is there any information that your tenants will need to allow guests to park at or near the rental apartment?
From experience, figuring out the parking situation can be one of the most confusing parts of moving into a new rental property. You’re likely already familiar with everything and providing this information to your tenants ahead of time will help them avoid a lot of headaches.
Tip #3: Provide Other Important Contact Information
Before your tenants move in, you’ll want to make sure that they have all of the contact information that they may potentially need. You’ll want to clearly communicate to your tenants about who they should contact with questions about the property and who they should notify of maintenance issues. When you’re providing this contact information to the tenants, it can be helpful to set expectations with them about when they can expect responses from you or your designated maintenance person. When providing contact information, it’s a good idea to think about your new tenants and how they want this information. Some tenants will prefer this information in an email or to be sent to them via text, while other tenants pay to prefer this email to be printed for them to keep on the side of the refrigerator.
You can send all of this information (utilities, parking, renters insurance, contact information, and more) in a tenant welcome letter. In this article, we provide a templated letter for you to send to your tenants.
Tip #4: Provide Utilities Information
At least a week before your renters move into your property, it is a good idea to provide them with contact information for the local utility providers. Supplying your tenants with these details has two advantages. First, your tenants can call the utility companies to ensure that all utilities will be turned on and available when they move into their rental apartment or rental house. There’s nothing worse than moving into a new property and realizing that the gas isn’t on and the hot water heater isn’t supplying the shower with hot water. The second advantage benefits you. When tenants call the utility company, they will be able to set up their payment information. This ensures
Tip #5: Point Them to Our Guide to Renters Insurance
If you used one of our state-specific lease templates for your rental property, there is a clause in the lease that requires your tenants to obtain renters insurance. Most lease templates and attorney-created leases also require renters insurance. This lease clause is designed to protect your tenants in case anything awful were to happen to them or their possessions while they are living in your property.
Relative to the value it provides, renters insurance is an extremely affordable piece of financial protection. At some point when you are communicating with your tenants, you’ll want to point them to our Guide to Renters Insurance. In the piece, we discuss the importance of renters insurance and answer common questions regarding standard policy costs, what is covered and what is not.
that the utilities are in the tenants’ names and billing info upon move-in.
Tip #6: Provide Moving Day oAdvice to Your Tenants
As your tenants get closer to moving in, we recommend sending them the following two articles:
Tip #7: Put Together a Welcome Package
When new tenants are moving into your rental property, there are a lot of things on their minds. A small welcome package won’t cost you very much, but it can leave a long-lasting positive impression on your tenants. In addition to a personalized welcome note, some items that you could include in a welcome package include:
- A couple of rolls of toilet paper
- A couple of rolls of paper towels
- Bottle of multipurpose cleaner / Clorox wipes
- Scented candle or flowers
- A few bottles of water in the refrigerator
- A 6-pack of your favorite local beer (if tenants are 21+ years old, of course!)
- $5 or $10 gift card to your favorite local coffee shop
In addition to providing a one-time welcome package, some landlords I’ve spoken with will go as far as providing a monthly bundle of cleaning supplies to their tenants such as this one from Honest.com. There are certain costs associated with doing this, but the landlords who have done this believe that their rental apartments and rental houses are more commonly returned in great condition if they do this. Spending the $35/mo, or $400/year, could save you more than this investment in the long term.
Another thing to keep in mind regarding welcome packages is that some local businesses will be happy to give you coupons or special offers for your new residents. If you have the time or are just stopping in a local spot for yourself, it’s worth asking about.
Tip #8: Provide All Keys, Codes, and Openers
When your new tenants finally move into your rental property, it’s important to make sure that they have all of the keys, codes, and openers they will need. Some notes on each one:
- Keys — When providing your new tenants with keys to your property, it is always best if you can provide them with at least two keys to each lock. This helps minimize the odds that the tenant becomes locked out of his or her home by simply leaving the keys inside and locking themselves out. Also, don’t forget to include keys to any storage units, utility sheds, or other locations on your property that requires them
- Codes — Does your garage have a code that the tenant can use to access the property through the garage? Is there a security system that the tenants can use? Make sure to write down the security codes to anything requiring a code. If you’re okay with the tenants setting their own codes, provide instructions for doing so
- Openers — Is there an opener for accessing the garage? Before handing these over to tenants, it’s a good idea to make sure the device has new batteries
Tip #9: Thoroughly Clean the Rental Property
First impressions matter. When your tenants first move into their new rental apartment or rental house, you want this moment to be as worry-free as possible. One way to evoke this feeling is by ensuring that the property is thoroughly cleaned before the tenants move in. In addition to making the tenants feel at ease, there are two very practical reasons for ensuring the property is spotless. When you hand over the keys to your new tenants and the property sparkles, it sets the expectation that you anticipate the property to be in an equally great condition at the end of the lease. It’s also a lot easier for tenants to feel proud of, and feel a sense of ownership.
To ensure the property is clean, you’ll need to plan ahead a little bit. Regardless of how great the prior tenants are, it’s likely that the rental property will require some additional deep cleaning once it is vacant and all of the furniture is moved out. You can do this yourself, or you can hire a professional cleaning team to thoroughly clean the unit. If you are hiring someone to clean the unit for you, it’s important to schedule this in advance. Cleaning professionals become very busy around the end of the month, which may limit your options if you haven’t planned ahead.
The Tenant’s Ultimate Moving Day Checklist
This checklist will help tenants keep track of all the tasks that lead up to moving day, including changing their address, setting up utilities, updating their renter’s insurance, and more.
Our online rental software helps do-it-yourself landlords be more effective, fair, and honest with online tenant screening, digital leasing, online rent payments, and secure rent collection. Tenants find the software user-friendly and intuitive. Not only does Koi. Credit makes it so easy to collect and pay rent online, everyone will enjoy the transparency that Koi. Credit brings to the rental process. Don’t wait to make your life and your tenants’ lives easier. Check out how Koi. Credit works today!