Moving is often considered one of the top life stressors, right next to divorce, the death of a loved one, starting a new job, and getting married. As a landlord or property manager, you have an opportunity to ease the stress of a move by providing your tenants with helpful information about the neighborhood that will reduce stress on day one. Providing this information will further establish your credibility and be an initial step toward tenant retention.
When trash day is and how much trash you can put out.
- Moving involves a lot of trash, boxes, etc. Do not tell your tenants in the middle of a move to ask a neighbor for information on trash day. Most likely, they do not know the neighbors yet and are very busy moving furniture and unpacking. Additionally, many trash services will not take excess trash than the bin, so give your tenants a heads up. Take it a step further by providing your tenants with information on other ways to dispose of trash.
Which mail box is theirs if there are cluster mailboxes.
- Nobody wants to be in the middle of a move and trying every single cluster mailbox to see if the key you provided them with works. Tenants also generally would prefer to avoid a trip to the post office when they are still unsettled.
The utility providers and contact information.
- Particularly if the tenant is responsible for paying utilities, do not make them jump through holes to find out who the provider is and how to contact them. It would further be mutually beneficial to provide utility transfer instructions.
Ultimately, if you take a short amount of time to find this information and provide it to tenants, it can go a long way.
