A Guide to Managing Your Rental Property and Keeping Tenants Happy in 2024

Own or manage a property, or want to look into investing in a property in 2024? Here is a short guide on some tips on how to correctly market and manage your rental property, keeping tenants happy in the process. For potential tenants, there are also some pointers of things to look out for when renting.

Appealing to a tenant

The first step in impressing, gaining and maintaining a happy tenant is to appeal to them with the property and make it stand out to them above others on the market so that they actually want to live there. Here are a few different things to consider as part of the initial viewing and marketing of the property:

• Kerb appeal – First impressions count, and so while the interior of a property and what it can offer to a tenant is important, it’s also quite important the external look of the property is appealing too. If the kerb appeal of your property is something that you can make a difference to, then it might be worth looking into. This also feeds into the next point.
• Marketing the property – Again, making your property to look as good as it possibly can doesn’t really cost anything, other than a bit of effort on your part, and perhaps some nice pictures, too! Publicize your property’s unique selling points as much as possible, including what points of interest are nearby, and what facilities it offers that others on the market don’t. Putting the property on as many online listings as you can also help to increase its visibility, to ensure that it gets viewed as much as possible by the right people.

For a good example of marketing a property to the right potential candidates, if you’re trying to attract the student demographic, for example, you might want to point out how easily accessible their chosen university and place of study is. This, after all, is one of the most important things that students need to consider, and so having transport options figured out for them already will help massively, and will make the property stand out against others. Remember, you know your property better than anyone else, and so use this knowledge and expertise to your advantage.

• The perfect viewing – When showcasing your property to potential tenants, try not to get too ‘handholdy’, and allow them to explore the property as much as they want to. Try to be open with any shortcomings or issues that are there that can be fixed, and be open to questioning.

Tip – Still thinking of ways to make your property stand out to tenants above some of the other competition out there? Why not take a direct look at your competitors, see what they’re doing well, what they could be doing better, and go from there. Many listings also have the key points of their apartments or flats listed in a clear and concise bullet point format, and so you should consolidate what you want to get across about your offering in this way, as it will keep its unique selling points at the forefront of potential tenant’s minds when they look around.

Keeping a steady level of communication

It goes without saying of course that an important part of being a successful property owner or landlord is to maintain a consistent level of communication with your tenant, keeping them up-to-date on any ongoings in their property/apartment building, and reassuring them as soon as possible whenever an issue arises.

Tip – Don’t have the time to oversee the day to day in your rental property? Many property investors now opt for more of a hands-off strategy, providing a small percentage of the regular rental yield income to a management company that then handle the day to day minutia professionally and on their behalf. RWinvest are a good example of an investment company that offers this sort of bespoke service in some of their Liverpool and Manchester properties. With dedicated agents on hand to deal with each specific property, they are better equipped to deal with the details than any third party service.

If you’re someone that has a lot going on with their main career, perhaps working remotely or far away from your rental property, and just don’t have the time to manage everything first-hand, then this might be a point worth considering for the future.

For tenants

Tenants also should be putting pre-emptive steps in place to ensure that they don’t get paired with the wrong landlord, in or in a flat that doesn’t suit them. If you’re a prospective tenant looking to find your next place to call home, here are a few pointers to look out for:

• On the opposite side of the coin to the advice given to landlords, try to get as much as possible out of the viewing process as you possibly can. Check over every corner, ask a bunch of different questions on things that you might need to know, and be aware of anything that your landlord might choose to omit.
• The relationship between a tenant and a landlord is a two-way street. While they should be there to help you deal with any issues and complications that might arise throughout your tenancy at the property, you also need to ensure that you don’t abuse that relationship and call them out every time a minute issue pops up that you could perhaps handle yourself. At the end of the day, it is your home, and so you have a duty of care as much as the landlord/owner does.
• When renting, to ensure that you stay in the best chances of retaining your deposits, take good care of the property and the things within it, if furnished. If you’re worried about an issue in the property coming back on you down the line and having an effect on your deposit, make detailed notes on what the issues are as they are happening, and let your landlord know as soon as possible, too.