Whether you depend on tenants to pay your mortgage or provide a passive income, you want to ensure all your rental units are occupied. Although it’s impossible to guarantee a tenant will renew their lease, you can increase the odds by maximizing their satisfaction.

In this article, we will offer simple tips to help you up your game and retain your tenants, including everything from improving response time to hiring cleaning services in Toronto for the unit-turnover process.
Take Property Maintenance Seriously
Whether you have a single unit or several, property maintenance is not something you can ignore. When a resident complains about something that is broken in their unit, remember that this is their home.
Being responsive to reasonable resident requests ensures they see you take property maintenance seriously, and they won’t be left without running water, broken appliances, or mould damage from an ongoing leak.
Pay Attention to Repeat Complaints
If you are seeing the same complaints from residents, it might be time to reassess how you are resolving it. For example, if someone is constantly complaining about a leak and your repairs are not working, you should speak to a plumber to assess the problem and recommend a permanent fix.
Remember, although it might cost more than a makeshift repair, it will save you money in the long run in two ways:
- You will retain the resident, so your rent is not disrupted.
- You will avoid costly structural and cosmetic damage down the road.
Make It Easy to Reach You
Playing the mysterious landlord role is not the best way to improve resident satisfaction. Instead, you need to make yourself available for emergencies. This helps build trust while ensuring your residents feel they are being heard.
Consider offering several contacts, such as your cell phone for texts, an email address, and a phone number. Depending on your budget, you might also consider enlisting a property manager to take calls as an alternate (or main) contact.
Respond Immediately
It’s one thing to offer several ways to contact you and another to ignore residents when they reach out. Make sure you respond immediately, even if it is just to say, “I will be there, or call you at such and such a time.”
Although your initial response won’t solve most scenarios, taking the time to provide an answer with a more solid schedule for when you can address the issue helps set your residents’ minds at ease.
Have an FAQ Website
There are occasions when residents might have questions that have easy answers. For example, they might wonder if they can paint their apartment, which isn’t mentioned in their lease. Another resident might wonder what to do if they have a noise complaint.
Setting up a simple web page with an FAQ can provide quick answers, thus reducing the number of calls you are fielding. As a result, you can become more efficient in dealing with serious issues that need your attention and in answering questions, killing two birds with one stone.
Create a Worry-Free Move-in Experience
Moving is said to be one of the most stressful things we experience in life. You can introduce ways to make moving into your rental unit worry-free, so residents automatically feel satisfied. Some ideas that can help include:
- Leave a little gift in the unit with a welcome message, such as a gift card to a local restaurant, a bottle of wine, or a gift basket.
- Post your contact information on their fridge with a fun little fridge magnet.
- Make sure all requests are taken care of, such as painting the unit, replacing a broken appliance, cleaning the space, or repairing a broken cupboard door.
- Replace all the lightbulbs in the unit as well as in the range hood and oven.
- Make sure the smoke detector has batteries.
- Post instructions throughout the apartment, such as on the oven, security system, intercom, laundry machines, etc.
- Leave a few local takeout menus on the kitchen counter with a note saying: “Thought you might be hungry once you settle in.”
- Replace the toilet seat and leave a little note letting them know it’s brand new.
- Leave a list of amenities with a few tips like the pool tends to be busiest at such and such time, you need to wear flip flops in the gym shower, or barbecues on the rooftop have to be reserved at this number.
These simple gestures make it easy to settle into their new home and relax.
Make Sure the Unit Is Sparkling
Hire a professional cleaning company to come in and do a move-in ready clean. Nothing says welcome home more than a sparkling clean unit where all traces of the previous tenant have been removed.
A move-in clean touches every surface, nook, and cranny, including streak-free windows, scrubbed kitchen and bathroom grout, freshly-shampooed carpets, shining wood floors, and more. Cleaning services in Toronto create move-in-ready apartments that will set the right tone for new tenants.
Leverage Technology
Today, it’s all about self-serve options that make life easier. Here are some ways you can leverage technology to improve resident satisfaction:
- Requisition forms: Consider setting up an online requisition form for repair requests designed to collect all relevant information. When tenants know what information you need, you reduce back-and-forth calls and expedite the process.
- Auto-responses: Have an auto-response for emails and requests that lets residents know their request has been received.
- Direct deposit: Offer easy rent payment options, such as direct deposit, so residents don’t have to worry about cheques.
- Updates: Improve communication with monthly e-flyers and updates with information that will improve their living experience.
- Thank you notes: Send out an auto-response to thank residents for their rent payments.
Make Follow-Up Calls
Instead of simply conducting repairs and leaving it at that, reach out with a follow-up call, text, or email. Although it might open you up to further complaints, residents will know that you want them to be happy. If there are complaints, address them right away so they feel 100% satisfied with the results.
Although it can be hard to keep up with resident expectations, consider it like a relationship: it takes attention, trust, and ongoing communication to make it work!
Call the Cleaning Professionals
To ensure your residents are satisfied, use the professional condo and apartment cleaning services in Toronto at Maid4Condos. We specialize in move-in/move-out cleaning for residential units and can customize your service to suit your needs.
For more information on our services, you can call us at 647-822-0601 or contact us here.
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