5 Ways to Simplify Landlord-Tenant Communications

Communication is the cornerstone of all successful landlord-tenant relationships.

It helps to establish and build trust, prevent misunderstandings, and cultivates a partnership that is beneficial to both parties. 

However, ineffective communication almost always results in misunderstandings, disputes, delays, and even damage to the relationship and the reputation of one or more parties. 

In this post, we’re going to dig into 5 strategies for streamlining landlord-tenant communications, as well as some tips and general best practices for implementing the strategies in the real world, with real tenants.

The importance of effective landlord-tenant communication

Maintaining clear and effective communication between landlords and their tenants is critical for several reasons:

1. It helps landlords address maintenance or repair issues with speed and efficiency.
2. Tenants are more clearly aware of their responsibilities and expectations.
3. It cuts down on the occurrence of minor misunderstandings, as well as major disputes.
4. It contributes to a positive rental experience for the tenant as well as the landlord. 

On the other hand, inefficient or ineffective communication has its consequences:

1. It causes delays in addressing maintenance issues
2. It causes disputes over conditions, lease payments, and much more.
3. Often it leads to evictions and other legal actions.
4. Loss of future rental income and corresponding property value.

Strategies for streamlining communication

There are many different strategies for streamlining communication, and we’re going to take a look at the top 5 here today.

1: Utilizing a centralized communication platform

The first way to make communication easier is to use a centralized communication platform, such as Doorloop. 

With DoorLoop, you get access to:

• Automatic message tracking - The platform will keep a log of all messages sent and received, making it far easier to search and reference past conversations. This cuts down on misunderstandings considerably.
• Maintenance request management - When tenants have a maintenance request, they can submit it directly through the platform, which makes it much easier for landlords and property managers to organize, prioritize, and address various issues. 
• Document storage - Your communication platform will serve as an archive for many of your important documents, like lease agreements, addendums, inspection reports, and more. 
• Payment tracking - Rent payments and other payments or transactions can often be tracked and monitored on the platform, enabling a drastic reduction in the risk of discrepancies.

2: Establishing clear communication guidelines and expectations

There are multiple steps involved in establishing and maintaining clear communication guidelines with your tenants. 

Take a look:

1. First, you’ll need to draft a clear communication policy. This policy should outline your communication expectations in a written policy that is shared with prospective tenants before they move in. Additionally, this policy should be included in your lease agreement, and tenant handbook, if applicable.
2. Second, you will need to specify response time expectations for both parties. For example, the landlord may be required to respond to emergency requests within 8 hours, and non-emergency communications within 24 hours, while the tenant may be required to respond to urgent messages or requests within a few hours. 
3. Clearly define what “emergency” means. Setting clear guidelines on what constitutes an emergency situation and what steps are then required of the tenants can drastically reduce miscommunications. Be sure tenants have current emergency contact information, as well as any after-hours contacts that may be needed.
4. Finally, keep a regular communication schedule. Establishing a schedule for routine communications, such as lease reviews or periodic property inspections. This will help keep an open dialogue with the tenants and will help the landlord to address concerns promptly.

Getting all this across to tenants can be relatively ineffective.

With property management software like DoorLoop, however, you get all tenant communication in one convenient place.

Not only does it make it easier to keep track of incoming tenant communications, but you can communicate with your tenants in mass far easier. 

3: Encouraging open and timely communication

Since you’ll be establishing clear and consistent communication with your tenants, it’s going to be important for them to be encouraged to communicate in kind. 

Here are some suggestions for helping your tenants to feel more comfortable and confident when communicating with you.

• Create a welcoming environment - Make your tenants feel comfortable approaching you with questions, concerns, and issues by maintaining an approachable, professional, and empathetic environment in your dealings. 
• Strive to be proactive - By reaching out to tenants regularly and inquiring about their satisfaction, as well as addressing any concerns that they may have at the time, and gathering crucial feedback, you can build trust by showing them you place a high value on their input.
• When tenants bring up issues, immediately offer some solutions. Work with them to determine what solutions would be optimal for them, and find one that is mutually beneficial. In some cases, this may mean negotiating or compromising in some way, in others, it may simply be providing additional resources to help resolve the issue.
• Acknowledge and validate your tenants’ concerns. Too many times have landlords or property managers simply made note of a concern without actually giving it any credence or thought. If a tenant brings a concern to you, validate their concerns, and provide a general timeline for when they can expect to see a solution. This shows them that you take tenant concerns seriously and that you are committed to resolving them. 

This is difficult with communication channels typically being scattered.

With DoorLoop, however, everything is centralized into one convenient platform where nothing gets missed. 

4: Utilizing automation for routine tasks and updates

Despite there being a digital solution for nearly every need, there are still landlords and property managers that are keeping handwritten notes, scribbled-on calendars, and other unreliable methods for staying on top of things. 

Leveraging automation for many of the routine tasks that you face can mean significant improvements in not only productivity but also reliability and accuracy.

Automation can be used to help issue rent reminders automatically. Many property management platforms offer configuration options to send automated rend reminders to tenants a few days before their rent is due. 

This helps provide a gentle reminder that rent is coming up and lowers the number of manual follow-ups that are needed.

Another thing that can be easily automated is the notifications for lease renewal. 

These can be set to go out in advance of the expected lease expiration date, to give both the landlord and the tenant plenty of time to discuss any changes, negotiations, or other issues, ahead of the lease expiration.

Regular maintenance alerts can also be set up to automatically notify tenants when there is an upcoming maintenance appointment. 

Not only does this give tenants notice of upcoming lawn maintenance, painting, pest control, or general maintenance that will be occurring in or around their unit.

Finally, status updates can also be automated. This allows simple updates for the tenants about things like in-unit maintenance requests and helps keep them informed on the progress of their request or any updates or changes to the expected timeline.

The only catch?

The only way to automate is by using property management software, like DoorLoop. 

Spreadsheets, emails, and simple accounting software are all no good at any of these automation tasks. 

In fact, they have virtually 0 automation capabilities and none of the above-mentioned ones. 

5: Providing multiple channels for communication

One final strategy for optimizing landlord-tenant communication is to provide multiple channels for communication. 

Even if you’re using software, you’ll still be using the conventional communication methods established with your tenants, only more streamlined and organized. 

Each communication method has its use:

Phone contact is often used to reach tenants in the event of things such as confirming appointments and it provides a personal touch when you make time to speak with your tenants. 

Email is another prime communication channel, and while perfect for archiving your conversations, you should establish a dedicated email address for your property management needs. 

Finally, integrating texting can give you a quick way of relaying time-sensitive information directly to your tenants, particularly those who may not be able to access email during the day or while at work.

Implementing the Strategies

Now that you have a considerable repertoire of strategies for improving and clarifying communication between landlords and tenants, those strategies need to be implemented. 

To make this step easier, or at the least, smoother, here are some tips and best practices for integrating the strategies into real-world situations:

• Introduce your preferred communication platform and usage guidelines at the beginning of the lease term, so that you ensure that everyone is on the same page.
• Make sure you provide training and support for tenants so that if they are faced with new software or digital tools, they will be prepared to use them.
• Be proactive in reaching out to your tenants for check-ins and updates. This will help create an open dialogue and builds healthy communication in the landlord-tenant relationship.
• Check-in with your chosen communication platform consistently, and issue replies promptly. This reinforces to your tenants that you are involved beyond simply collecting rent.
• Be open to, and accepting of, feedback from your tenants, and be willing to adapt and adjust your communication strategies as needed.

Bring It All Together with DoorLoop

As you can see, developing clear lines of communication between you and your tenants is a vital aspect of managing a rental property. 

By implementing easily actionable strategies like establishing clear communication guidelines, providing multiple communication channels, and using a centralized platform like Doorloop, landlords and property managers can simplify and streamline their communications with tenants. 

This helps make communication more efficient, overall, but it also helps foster stronger relationships and a more positive experiences for both parties. 

Don’t wait any longer to add powerful optimization and automation tools to your landlord-tenant communications. 

Check out Doorloop’s Property Management Communication Tools today to see how they can help supercharge your communication process and optimize your property management processes.