Rent Payments This Christmas!

Make sure tenants don’t over indulge and underpay rent this Christmas!

Christmas should be a fun time, and it is no fun suffering the stress and worry that comes with mounting arrears over the Christmas period.

For tenants there can be serious pressure to buy gifts and entertain friends and family over the holiday season. Given these pressures, it is an unfortunate reality that some households choose not to pay their rent so they can prioritise other spending. Research from Shelter UK shows that one in 12 tenants are prepared to forgo their rent payments over Christmas, there is a significant risk that your arrears figures could grow.

Everyone takes a different approach to arrears, some taking a harder no tolerance line, some taking proactive steps to help ensure their tenants get their rent paid to avoid eviction. Either way at the end of the day if we can avoid eviction it is better for all parties involved. Whilst the majority of your portfolio may be good rent payers, this is the time that some of them will slip, and this is also a time that a repeat offender is more than likely to re-offend.

Some options to combat arrears at this time to minimise our stress include:

• Running a marketing campaign in the build up to Christmas that aims to deter from tenants falling behind, to see some examples of Christmas arrears marketing campaigns click here.
• Offer a financial support and advice service through assistance with budgeting plans. Some company’s provide a flyer with budgeting advice, some will go so far as offering a financial planning helpline to call.
• Implement Rewards/Incentives to ensure all payments are on time:
• Running a competition for all who keep their rent up to date
• Offering movie tickets for all who are two weeks in advance over the period
• Providing special personal warnings to repeat offenders, almost to let them know that we’re going to be watching their arrears very closely over the period to make sure they stay on time.
• Some agencies even offer the tenants an option to pay extra throughout the year to help them get a bit ahead for these tighter times.
• Reminding tenants of importance of maintaining positive ledger, instead of threatening termination, let them know you want to help them maintain a positive rental ledger to assist with future rentals (and even mortgage repayments as these days some lenders are requesting this information)
• Utilise your blog, newsletters and social media to educate and share the message

Be sure to choose what works for your agency and your brand. Don’t forget to score some brownie points with the owners and let them know what you’re doing to ensure they don’t have missing payments over Christmas! What other ideas do you have for keeping your arrears low at Christmas time? Please share them below!

For our Real Plus members be sure to check out our Christmas Letter template on your portal and stay tuned for more Christmas tips in your daily property management hints.

Hermione Gardiner 

Property Investment Tips to Assist Your Landlords

There is a common perception that in order to own an investment property, you must be a wealthy investor with money to burn. The reality is that the opposite is more likely to be true, with many landlords overwhelmed by the actual cost of owning an investment property, which leaves many property managers wondering why the landlord was un-obliging over agreeing to a $100 repair.

As a property manager, it is essential to fully understand how much it costs an owner to own an investment property, and the type of investor they are in order to meet their needs, expectations and build the relationship (and of course provide better understanding and advice when convincing them to agree to the $100 repair).

There is fantastic 60 minute webinar within the Real+ membership called “Walking in the shoes of your investor” (presented by Fiona Blayney) to assist in training yourself and your property management teams on this important subject.

In this Real+ training webinar Fiona Blayney refers to the property management concept of Intentional landlords vs Accidental landlords.

• An intentional landlord made a decision to invest in property and has likely worked hard to own property, therefore has purpose and a plan.
• An accidental landlord may be one that has inherited property, has influence from parents, was unable to sell, someone who may be combining a household, or couldn’t afford mortgage.

Can you see that not only the needs of that landlord, but the financial motivations and challenges of the two will be very different? One group will understand the costs of investment much better, whereas the latter will not like or understand a lot of expenses.

We get amazing feedback from property managers on this training webinar – helping them to finally understand what it costs a landlord and see things from their perspective, making their lives easier not only in day to day dealings but also boosting their long term relationships with the client.

As a property manager it is important to understand what it actually costs the landlord to maintain an investment property, and the type of investor you are dealing with in order to build the relationship and have them trust in your service. But don’t try to figure it out on your own, next week, Real+ presents another property management live webinar on the topic. 

If you are Real+ member, click here to visit Real+TV where you can watch our webinar with special guest expert Chris Gray: Wealth Creation for Your Landlords.