Welcoming your tenants

Sounds lame?  You’ve worked hard to get them – spent time and money preparing the property and searching for the perfect tenant – you’ve found them and you want to keep them.  No, they won’t be your best friends, but they will be clients and you want to establish a good working relationship with these people.One of the best ways to lay the ground work for a good tenant/landlord relationship is thoughtful and inexpensive – simply put together a “Welcome to Your New Home” letter.  No groans from those of you who own multi-family units, like I said, this is easy to do and inexpensive to produce.  Included in my letter is:·         New address
·         Emergency phone numbers: Mine, property manager
·         Date rent is due:  1^st of month, etc
·         Non-emergency phone number of police:
·         Trash pickup days, recyclable information, where to place containers for pickup
·         Neighborhood Schools & addresses – elementary, middle, high school; location of parks & playgrounds
·         Parking requirements (not on the lawn), etc
·         Laundry room usage/rules
·         Storage requirements
·         Closest medical clinic

Pet Rules – this can be a separate sheet with the pets’ name listed – include items such as pet food must be in closed plastic containers; litter boxes must be emptied into a plastic bag before disposing in trash can; fecal matter must be cleaned up and disposed of appropriately; leash laws (yours and the neighborhood); location of pet parks and nearest vet, etc