How Would You Rate Your Rent Review Process?

We all know an essential part of our property management process is the rent review. At this stage we are generally finding out what the tenants plans are and if they want to stay on, then letting the landlord know the current rental value. But what if we took this simple rent review s step further and conducted a complete tenancy review with the landlord?

What if next time the rent review comes up we conduct the tenancy review as if we were sitting at a new listing presentation with them to discuss their needs by asking questions such as:

• “Paul, before we review the rental value on your property I just wanted to have a chat about you. What are your plans for the next 12-24 months?
• How have you found the tenancy so far? What do you think of the tenants?
• What is going to be most important to you in reviewing this tenancy? Increased rental value? Or tenant security?
• When would you like us to next review the rent?
• Do you have any plans to move back in or sell in the foreseeable future? As we can work on a plan towards that together.

Perhaps the landlords wants, needs and expectations have changed since you appraised their property 12 or more months ago. Things change so quickly in all of our lives, we need to remember that our landlords are people like us and things change in their lives too, therefore we need to consider their needs which are constantly changing just as our own are.

Originally your landlord wanted a family in their property, but are quickly realising that perhaps that professional group would have been better. Perhaps they were planning to stay away for 3 or more years but now plan to return home in six months time. Perhaps they are thinking of selling in a year but may not realise increasing the rent now risks the tenants vacating closer to the sale time.

This new process of reviewing not just the rent, but the tenancy itself will enable you to best recommend options to the landlords based on their needs (and not what we assume their needs are based on our process). Most importantly, just by opening up this whole new world of communication you are improving the relationship between yourself and the landlord by showing you actually care about their wants and needs. Imagine the possibilities.

If you are Real+ member, click here to visit Real+TV where you can watch our webinar: Systemise for Success - Rent Reviews.