Because renting a property is a partnership, healthy communication should be present. It is not only a connection between landlords and tenants, landlords and agents, or tenants and agents. All parties involved have to communicate with one another efficiently.

A single ignored message can lead to misunderstandings and conflict. For example, the landlord sends an email about a scheduled electrical repair, and they need to turn off the primary source of electricity. Unfortunately, the tenant rarely checks his online mails and missed the message. The tenant may consider it an inconvenience as he was unaware. Whose fault do you think it is?

If the tenant is in their early thirties or younger, they may prefer texting over emails. It is likely a generation thing. They also spend more time on social media platforms and are likely to mislook online mail. I know you can very well call them, but it is probably not a good idea if it is not urgent. Trust me when I say there are other ways.

The best thing to do is figure out how to make sure the messages are received. What I am going to tell you is not exclusive to landlords. As a leasing agent, you also need to figure out how to be in touch with your clients. Here are a few suggestions that can help you a lot.

Preferences

You will have plenty of opportunities to meet with the tenants. They would also have to make contact with the landlord. During these meetings, you can ask them their preferred way of communicating. Some tenants do not check their messages religiously and would opt to receive calls instead, emergency or not.

If the tenants would rather text, then do that. Some may also give out an option to message them on Facebook, Viber, or Telegram. But if you think it will cause an inconvenience for you, discuss it with them and compromise. You do not have to accommodate all of their requests.

Rules

Once all of you decide on your way of communication, it is time to set some rules. Even though most people have their phones with them always, there is still an appropriate time to message them. It is the same thing for them too. Setting boundaries will help keep things organized.

For instance, the tenants can only call or send messages during specific hours. You or the landlord would not want to wake up in the middle of the night over something trivial. Unless, of course, there is an emergency.

Records

We all know how essential it is to document every transaction and significant conversation in this business. And that is the reason why landlords and agents choose to send out emails. It is because you can save them.

But if the tenant still does not respond to emails, there is another way to keep a log. You can screenshot text messages and have them emailed to you. You get to document and, at the same time, communicate with the tenants effectively. I would not advise making phone calls for relevant concerns because it is difficult to record them.

It’s easy, am I right? You only have to remember three things when talking about ways to communicate. You can apply this to all your clients and see how it can improve your correspondence with them.

If you think about it, we’re lucky because texting, and the internet, exist. They make things more convenient for us, like advertising your property listings. On websites like Padleads, you can broadcast rental vacancies and syndicate them all over the world wide web. It is one way of communicating as well.