How To Manage Student Renter Expectations

By Victoria Robertson on August 13, 2015

When student renters have an apartment for the first time, their expectations are typically higher than they should be, and they’ll expect much more from the property manager than they probably should.

Property managers want to keep these residents for the coming years, but they also don’t want to be too lax with their rules and regulations so that the resident believes they can get away with whatever they want.

Keeping control while maintaining a positive relationship with your residents is seemingly impossible. However, with these five tips, you’ll be managing student renter expectations and guaranteeing yourself a resident for next year without a hitch.

1. Don’t be wishy-washy.

There’s nothing more annoying to a tenant than a property manager that’s inconsistent. Consistency is key here, especially when it comes to rules and regulations.

The best way to keep everything consistent for all residents? Contracts.

To have everything in writing not only eliminates any confusion, but it also discredits any student claims of “favoritism” or “rule-bending.”

Having contractual evidence of what should be expected of you and your tenants is one of the smartest decisions you can make, and one of the best ways to keep residents from developing negative feelings towards you or the property.

Having everything laid out for your resident from the get-go shows professionalism as well as a no-nonsense attitude that you’ll definitely want if you’re trying to keep control of your property.

If you have consistency, you’ll have far less problems when it comes to regulating your residents, making it much easier to re-sign them later on.

2. Be available, but not too available.

Students are great at abusing open-door policies. If there’s even the slightest inconvenience and you claim from the beginning that you’re always available, you’re not only asking for late-night phone calls, but you’re also asking for frustrated residents when these aren’t answered in a “reasonable” timeframe.

The best way to fix this? Have regular hours (clearly outlined to residents) in which basic maintenance and troubleshooting are dealt with.

Beyond these hours, have an emergency number (and clearly outline what qualifies as an emergency) and set up voicemail for residents to leave their request and expect a response when regular hours resume.

Giving a student a large amount of freedom right off the bat gives them the power to abuse it, which I promise, they will.

So rather than having that open-door policy, restrict your hours, leave options for after-hours, and be done with it. Then, there won’t be any response-time complaints etc., making for a better relationship between you and your tenants.

3. Be personable.

Just like any other industry in which you deal with people, the customer is always right, even when they’re not.

This isn’t to say you give the resident everything they’re demanding, but that you treat them in a manner that suggests you understand the complaint (even if you don’t) but clearly define why you will not/cannot help them.

It’s difficult to be polite in many circumstances in which residents are being unreasonable, but as any retail worker will tell you, if you want the customer back, it’s going to take a little butt-kissing.

So don’t be over the top with your niceties, but be polite in even the most hostile situations, stick to your guns, and you’ll be just fine.

Photo Via Flickr.com

4. Have a quality team.

One of the most overlooked of tips is to hire a quality team. This refers to maintenance workers, plumbers, electricians, landscapers – anyone that has any impact whatsoever on your property.

You aren’t just looking for people to get the job done – you’re looking for workers that are personable, reliable and more than anything, actually good at what they do.

Residents don’t want a worker walking into their apartment that they are getting a bad feeling from, which will reflect badly on you.

When you hire your team of workers, be sure that you’re hiring people that aren’t only going to get the job done, but that are going to do so in a quality way that will reflect positively, more than anything else, on yourself and your property.

Your workers are a reflection of you and your property – don’t forget that.

5. Keep housing more than just acceptable.

On this same note, many property managers make the mistake of doing the bare minimum when it comes to upkeep on the apartments they are leasing for the year.

This is a huge mistake.

When a resident moves into the apartment and is shocked at the living conditions, there’s a problem. Maintenance should be kept up with, clean apartments should be a necessity, and there should never be a lack of updates in any of your housing options.

Upkeep is one of the main reasons residents will come back to an apartment, and if you aren’t keeping up with this on your end, you’re losing potential residents for the coming years.

Trust me, it’s worth the extra expense to keep your housing pristine. If you skip out on it, you’re going to have quite a few unhappy customers, and even more angry maintenance calls that I promise you aren’t going to want to deal with.

If you keep these five tips in mind for the upcoming semester, you won’t have a problem with students understanding they need to respect your property and you also won’t have any issues when it comes time to resign their leases.

Good luck!

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