How to Turn Students into Long-Term Repeat Renters

Finding new tenants is always difficult and costly, so the more that you can keep your current renters, the better it is for you. Many students originally start as short-term renters, but it’s very possible to turn them into long-term repeat renters either as students their next year in school or even as newly-grads. Ideally, when your student renters graduate, rather than moving out, you want them to stay and extend their lease with you. When you’re a great landlord or property manager and do the following things, students will be happy to turn into long-term repeat renters, as it makes their lives easier, too. Moving is hard!

via Pexels

Provide Great Customer Service

You want to be a great landlord and provide great customer service. While renting doesn’t seem like a customer service position, at the end of the day, you are providing a service to your tenants who are, by default, paying customers. Whether or not you believe that the customer or tenant is always right, you do need to work with that mindset.

For starters, this great customer service includes open and quick communication. You need to be available for any concerns your tenants have. If your tenants know that they can come to you with anything, they will feel more comfortable in their apartment. When there are plenty of landlord horror stories on the internet that your tenants can see, they want to make sure they live in an environment that’s the opposite of that.

This also includes addressing any concerns that your renters have promptly. If they have or need any maintenance requests, it’s important that you fix them promptly. Even if it is a small request, letting it sit can cause it to grow and fester into a bigger problem.

When you are a great landlord and provide a positive customer service experience, your renters are more likely to stay, so they don’t lose that great environment.

Offer Incentives

Consider offering incentives to these students to encourage them to stay and lengthen their lease. As students and newly-grads, they are on tight budgets and value things like convenience and sustainability. Use this information to offer them incentives that they would really appreciate and utilize.

One good example of this is to provide them a break on rent for a few months on the condition that they extend their lease for an entire year. To decide how much you want to give them, look at the other properties in the area and give them a good deal based on that to deter them from looking somewhere cheaper. Again, this doesn’t have to be for an entire year, but it could be a large amount off the first month or a few months. When you’re a college student, every dollar counts, so offering a discount of some sort will really encourage students to turn into long-term repeat renters.

In addition to that, students love convenience. If they have a car and you do not already offer parking, try to do so. If they have to pay you for parking, provide them with a discount on that, or if you have the space, give them a parking spot close to the rental property. This will make it easier for these students as they won’t have to spend time looking for parking, and they’ll be able to leave later once time to head out to classes.

These incentives should always be tempting so that your students want to stay with you for a long time.

Upgrade Amenities

Your rental property is an investment that should always be improving. Not only does this slowly increase the value of your property, but it will also encourage your student renters to stay. It also shows that you, as a property manager, care about your tenants by providing them with continuous updates and great amenities.

Some upgrades you should consider are upgrading the kitchen appliances if they are old, including high-speed internet in the rent, and laundry services. The Internet is especially important to students as they need to utilize it for research and turning in assignments. Many students will be happy with the deal if included in the rent. Students value these same amenities just as non-student renters do! Provide them with competitive amenities, and they will be happy to stay as the property will have everything they need.

By providing great customer service and helping your student tenants, offering great incentives to encourage them to stay, and upgrading amenities in your rental property to make your property even better, students will easily turn into long-term repeat renters. The longer you keep your student tenants, the more your landlord-tenant relationships will get stronger over time, and it will give you higher ratings and positive feedback when, eventually, those student renters do have to move away. Let’s keep them as long-term as possible!