I’ve always vacuumed the stairs going up to my rental unit. The tenants are the only ones who use them, but I figure its part of my common area responsibilities.
Until the new people moved in, and asked if there was an outlet in the hall, so they could vacuum the stairs.
Bonus! Self-cleaning tenants!
My old tenants are out. Mostly.
This girl Marcy, who subletted from one of them last summer, still has a hammock in the backyard, and a couple of boxes of things in the basement. The departing tenants called her the day they were moving out, and asked her to come get her things that day if possible, but she was a no-show.
Now, the hammock I don’t mind if she leaves here. I like having a hammock in the backyard. I’d hate for her to come and get it.
But what am I supposed to do with her boxes of stuff? I’ve called and left a message, letting her know its here, but haven’t heard back from her. How long do I wait, before…
GIFTS
I give my tenants a small gift around the holidays; just some chocolates or something simple and consumable in the $5.00 range. The purpose of this is to show them that I value the relationship; they are really my “clients,” after all. Also, it makes me look like the nicest landlord EVER. (When you were renting, did you ever get a holiday gift from YOUR landlord?)
IMPROVEMENTS
If something breaks in their apartment, I always try to replace it with something nicer than what was there. You wouldn’t believe how much some tenants will appreciate a new, stylish kitchen faucet.
When I moved into the duplex, there was an old coin-operated washing machine in the basement laundry room. It worked fine, except for that it left the clothes really, really wet. But only sometimes. I had bigger initial issues to deal with, and my first group of tenants brought most of their laundry to their parents’ houses, so I got used to using it as-is.
My current tenants recently asked me if I could have it looked at. I try to keep my tenants happy (I want them to stay forever!), so I looked into getting it fixed or replaced.
I bought a duplex as a single, 27 year old woman. I had gotten the real estate bug, just like everyone else, but my options were limited. Condo prices had skyrocketed, I was kind of creeped out by the idea of living in a single family house all by myself, especially in the neighborhoods that I could afford one in. Even then, my options were crackhouses and places smaller than the apartment I was renting.
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