With businesses growing more transparent and bending over backwards to cater to their clients’ needs, is there still a place for the old-time customer survey?

As a property owner, do you really need to ask your tenants to rate your building and your service? When renters are so eager to post their reviews online, do you still need to go fishing for feedback?

The answer is a resounding, yes! You might get all sorts of comments and reviews on your website and social media pages, but a tenant survey is an invaluable way to keep your finger on the pulse of your tenants’ needs. You need to know what your tenants think of your building. You want to determine how happy they are with their units. You’d like to verify the competence and cordiality of your management staff. And the best way to get an honest look at this information is by using tenant surveys.

A tenant survey is a simple, efficient way to gather crucial information and to let your tenants’ voices be heard.

Here are 4 reasons you should be using tenants surveys:

1. Gain Focus

 Getting feedback from your tenants is the perfect way for you to identify the areas you need to focus on and improve. Are your tenants frustrated by the lengthy response time of the maintenance team? Do your tenants think the rent collection process is inefficient? Is there a major safety or compliance concern you are not aware of?  The survey’s results will tell you where you should be spending your time, energy and resources.

A tenant survey will ultimately help you keep your building running in top form.

2. Hold onto Your Good Tenants

Every property owner wants their units filled with respectable, long-term tenants. A high turnover rate can be expensive to fund and absorbing the cost of an empty unit isn’t cheap either. Also, when trying to fill vacant units, you run the risk of ending up with undesirable new tenants who can drag down the appeal of your entire building.

Hold onto the valuable tenants you have by using surveys to keep them satisfied.

3. Improve Your Reputation

People like to share good tidings. Keeping your tenants happy with their units will prompt them to share these pleasant feelings with their family and friends. They’ll yap about their incredible building on the phone and they’ll brag about their awesome apartment on their social media pages. Best of all, tenants who see their concerns taken seriously are more likely to recommend their building to their friends.

Use surveys to keep your renters happy and let your tenants be your best marketing gimmick.

4. Show Appreciation

Everyone wants to be heard and understood. By providing your tenants with a medium to share their impressions of your building, you are showing them how much you value and appreciate them. It’s your way of saying thank you for choosing your building as their home.

Using tenant surveys is a great way to strengthen your relationship with your tenants.

How to Create a Tenant Survey

Are you convinced that you need to use tenant surveys? We’ll show you how! Simply follow these five steps:

Create a questionnaire. Ask about your tenants’ satisfaction with various aspects of your property, including management responsiveness, payment policies, the appearance of the interior and exterior of the property, safety concerns and more.
Use an online survey tool like Survey Monkey to help you create a digital survey. Email the survey directly to your tenants.
Let your tenants know about the survey and offer an incentive for timely participation.
Collect the responses and run a statistical analysis on the results to identify the key areas that need improvement.
Notify your tenants about the changes you will be making because of their survey responses and be sure to follow through with your pledges.

Lots of property managers ask exiting tenants to complete a survey, but the best way to conduct tenant surveys is to send them out annually to all current tenants. This will enable you to make the changes necessary to keep your tenants happy.

If any of your tenants use the survey to alert you about a safety or compliance issue, be sure to give us a call. At Jack Jaffa & Associates we’re all about helping you keep your buildings safe!

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Raising the rent requires a delicate blend of marketing research, legal compliance, and public relations. It is also key to earning the true value on your property.

How often should you raise the rent, and by how much? Is there a specific procedure to follow? The process can seem overwhelming and confusing, with so many variables at play.

No worries; as always, Jack Jaffa & Associates has got your back! We’re here to make all aspects of tenant management easier for you – and raising the rent is no exception.

To that end, we’ve compiled a handy guide that will take the stress out of raising the rent. In this article, you’ll find all you need to know on this topic, including NYC’s laws on how and when you can raise the rent, along with actionable tips to keep the process simple.

When to Raise the Rent

If you own rent-stabilized units, you can’t raise your tenant’s rent during a rent freeze, regardless of how long it’s been since the last increase. Luckily, NYC’s two-year rent freeze on more than 1 million rent-stabilized units throughout the city, has just been lifted.

Effective October, 2017, landlords of rent-stabilized units can increase rent from 1-3% on 1-year leases, and 2-4% on 2-year leases.

If you haven’t raised your rent because of the freeze, now is the time to determine your new rent amount.

If you don’t own rent-controlled units, you’ll need to check your tenant’s lease. On the lease agreement, the rent amount and lease term are clearly indicated. You will not be able to raise the rent if your tenant is currently signed onto a lease.

If the tenant is on a month-to-month agreement, where there is no written lease or an expired lease has shifted the rental to a month-to-month tenancy, you can raise the rent at any time, so long as you give sufficient notice. Keep in mind, though, that most tenants find smaller, more frequent increases more manageable than dramatic increases over lengthier periods of time.

If the end of a tenant’s lease term is approaching, now is a good time to consider a rent increase. When drawing up a new lease, be sure to include the new rent amount in the lease.

TIP: If you stipulate that there will be an automatic rent increase at the end of the lease term, you’ll prevent any unpleasant surprises for your tenant.

How to Determine New Rent

Now that you’ve decided it’s a good time to raise the rent, you’ll need to determine the actual raise amount. Raise it too much, and you risk losing your tenants. Keep it too low, and you’re not earning the profit you deserve. So how do you find that perfect amount?

First, you’ll need to gather information on five comparable rental properties in your area. Find out what the going price is so that you can be sure you’re charging a reasonable amount. You can get these numbers by searching actual listings, asking local tenants, or simply by checking Craigslist, Zillow, and Rentometer. Make sure, though, that you are looking at rentals as similar to yours as possible, including numbers of bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, outdoor space, amenities and parking spaces.

Determining the market price is a great starting point, but it shouldn’t be the sole factor in your decision. Be sure to take into account any advantages your property offers over the competition, as well as disadvantages it might have.

TIP: Rent increases of 2-3% fall within the average range.

How to Raise the Rent

Before taking any steps towards raising the rent, make sure that you are in compliance with state law.

Of course, if your properties are rent-controlled, you are not allowed to increase the rent.

But it gets more complicated than that.

Raising the rent in a discriminatory manner, or as an act of retaliation, can land you in court and create a nightmare of litigation and fines. It is not difficult for your client to prove that you’ve raised the rent for one of these reasons – all they need is to demonstrate a slight correlation between a recent event and a rent raise. That’s why you should not raise the rent if you’ve just discovered a client’s race, gender orientation, national origin, religion, disability or familial status. Similarly, do not increase the rent if your tenant filed an official complaint with a government authority, has been involved in a tenant’s organization, or exercised a legal right within the last 180 days. Raising the rent in these situations can constitute an act of retaliation.

If you are certain your raise doesn’t fall into any of the above categories, make sure you are in compliance with NY’s notification requirements.  NY law requires landlords to give 30 days’ notice before implementing a raise in the rent.

Notify your tenant of the rent increase with an official letter that includes the new rental amount and the date it becomes effective. Sign and date the letter and keep a copy of the document for your records. It’s best to hand-deliver the letter or send it through certified mail so you can be sure that your tenant received it. It’s also courteous to send a follow-up email or phone message reminding your tenant of the new rent amount, immediately before the rent is due.

Be prepared for the tenant to get a little annoyed at the rent increase and maybe even try to negotiate the price. Remain as professional and polite as possible. Calmly explain that you are simply raising the rent to reflect the current market rate, and that you value your tenant.

Hopefully, you’ll tenant will agree to the raise with minimal fuss. In this case, when drawing up a new lease, make sure it reflects the increase. Of course, there is always a possibility that your tenant will use the rent increase as an excuse to up and leave. If this happens, be sure to part on cordial terms.

TIP: It always pays to be courteous. When tenants feel cared for, valued, and respected, they are more likely to stay.

Raising the rent doesn’t have to be complicated. So long as you’re not locked into a lease or held back by a rent freeze, your increase falls within market parameters, and you are in compliance with all relevant NYC laws, it can be a simple, stress-free process.

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