I’m sure that most of you have read or at least heard of the book written by Gary Chapman titled “The 5 Love Languages”. It’s a great book and an easy read, I highly recommend it. When I read it I definitely had a few “aha moments” where some things about myself and past partners started making sense. Well, landlords also have love languages, and ways that they like to be shown love and it mirrors the love languages in the book in many ways as you will see below.
1. Clean Credit and Criminal History (Words of Affirmation)
Nothing is better then running a prospective tenants credit and criminal reports and finding out that what they put on their application was truthful. These reports serve as your words of affirmation. This affirmation is a vital component to determining if this (tenant/landlord) relationship is meant to be. There are things that you want to know before you jump into the relationship, you don’t want to find something out that makes you incompatible 6 months or 6 years down the road. Always pre-screen, without question before allowing a tenant to move in to our property.
2. Pay Rent on Time (Receiving Gifts)
We all enjoy receiving gifts from time to time. In the tenant/landlord relationship a monthly gift, aka the rent check, is vital to the success of the relationship. Not only does the gift need to be given once a month but it also needs to be given within the time-frame agreed upon. This love language is generally a landlords primary love language, it is straight forward so I’m not going to spend more time on this simple yet important component.
3. Treat Property as there own (Acts of Service)
When tenants commit acts of service such as keeping the property clean and maintaining the yard the landlord/tenant relationship improves. By doing these acts the tenant is showing respect for the property and for the landlord. Wear and tear is reduced and in some cases tenants even take it upon themselves to improve the property. As long as the landlord OKs the improvements and communication is clear this helps the tenant have more pride and keeps the property well maintained.
4. Kind to Your Landlord and to Neighbors (Physical Touch)
This love language doesn’t quite translate to the books love language of physical touch BUT being kind and being warm and loving to others can feel like a sweet embrace. If tenants are kind to their neighbors, lend them a hand with something or at least a smile or wave hello then the neighbor and landlord is going to be much more tolerant and easy to get along with.
5. Stay Forever (Quality Time)
When the relationship is good we want it to last forever. We want our good tenants to never move out because they’ve outgrown us or are buying a home of there own we want them to stay and take good care of our investment. Vacancies are costly because when there is no one to speak our primary love language of receiving gifts (monthly rent payment) we are soon bankrupt financially in this case instead of emotionally.
I hope you and your tenants can engage in some healthy interactions and that your tenants speak your love language.
---
Dulcey is a member of Rentec Direct who provides Property Management Software, tenant ach payment processing, tenant credit check, and criminal reports for property managers and landlords. The information in this post is just that, informational and should not be used as a substitute for legal advice.
Comments(2)