Landlords, when’s the last time you called your tenants? When’s the last time you stopped by to check on the property? When’s the last time you went through their tenant file to make sure all paperwork was up to date and the lease had been properly renewed?
January is a great month to get paperwork housekeeping items out of the way and to perform some routine annual maintenance on rental properties. That might not mean a surprise inspection of the place, but a quick and cordial phone call to wish the tenants a Happy New Year and ask whether everything is going OK. Chances are there could be some minor things that need to be fixed or at least looked at. In the hustle and bustle of life, many tenants will overlook small things — a broken kitchen drawer, a cracked window, a leaky faucet — that they don’t have time to fix but don’t seem like a big enough deal to call the landlord for. But sometimes those small, seemingly inconsequential issues can turn into big problems if left unchecked.
So use the start of a new year as an excuse to get in touch with your tenants and see whether they need anything taken care of in the home. You’ll also want to find out whether they’ve made any changes to their household that aren’t reflected on the current lease. (For example, did anyone get a puppy for Christmas? Are there new family members on the way, or has an adult child come back home to live with his parents after failing out of school?) Start the new year off right with your tenants, and your property.
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