Lifestyle

10 Steps to Improve Your Property’s Tenant Retention

Published

4 years ago

December 13, 2020

After choosing the right property, tenant retention is arguably the most important factor for a rental property’s success. Higher tenant retention means you’ll see more consistent revenue, you’ll spend less time looking for new tenants, and you’ll suffer far fewer losses from vacancies and turnover.

However, improving tenant retention isn’t always straightforward. If you want to maximize retention, you’ll need to think critically about your approach.

How to Improve Tenant Retention

These are some of your most valuable strategies in improving tenant retention:

Find the right tenants. One of your best strategies will be finding the right tenants for your property in the first place. Tenants often leave because they’re a bad fit, in one way or another. They may only be looking for a short-term space to live, or they may not have a stable job they can rely on to pay for rent. Invest in a thorough, proactive tenant screening practice so you can secure the best candidates for your rental properties. It takes a bit more time to get someone in, but it will be worth it in the long run.
Build tenant relationships. Next, go out of your way to build relationships with your tenants. You don’t have to be close friends with every person you bring into your property—in fact, friendships can get in the way of the tenant-landlord relationship. However, you should be on amicable terms. Get to know your tenants, including their goals and long-term prospects, and make sure they’re comfortable reaching out to talk to you. If tenants like their landlord, they’ll be far less likely to leave.
Keep rent reasonable. Depending on where you live, it’s probably legal to incrementally increase rent prices every year. But this isn’t always the best move, even if it increases your cash flow. It’s important to keep your rent prices in line with other properties in the area; otherwise, your tenants will simply leave. Increase prices gradually and periodically.
Be flexible (when possible). Try to give your tenants extra flexibility whenever you can. For example, if a tenant is late on rent payment because they’re having an issue with their employer, consider giving them another couple of weeks to come up with the money—with no penalty. Be forgiving if they make a mistake, or accidentally damage the property. This leniency can go a long way in securing their loyalty.
Take care of requests immediately. Similarly, it’s important to take care of reasonable tenant requests right away. If a tenant complains about a leaking roof or a malfunctioning appliance, send a technician or visit the property right away. Fast fixes lead to happy tenants—and happy tenants tend to stick around.
Be responsive. There will be times when you can’t fix an issue right away. This is okay, but you still have to be as responsive as possible. Let your tenants know that you’ve heard their requests, and that you intend to take action on them. If you can’t get to a fix right away, let them know why and tell them when they can expect a fix. This proactive communication is vital for tenant satisfaction.
Respect privacy. Try to respect your tenants’ privacy. Don’t show up unannounced, and don’t enter their apartment without permission or awareness (even if it’s legal to do so in your area). Give tenants the feeling that this is their space and make them feel comfortable.
Listen to feedback. Occasionally, you’ll get direct feedback from tenants. They may complain about the way you manage the property or give you compliments about the way you handled a specific issue. Listen to these pieces of feedback and learn from them. They could provide straightforward direction on how you can be a better property manager, or how you can make other tenants happy in the future.
Invest in periodic upgrades. Most landlords want to keep upgrading the property with new appliances, nicer fixtures, and other quality of life improvements. Try to make these upgrades while the tenant is occupied (if you can), so the tenant can benefit directly from them. It makes tenants feel like you genuinely care about their quality of life. It will incentivize them to stick around.
Reward loyalty. Finally, reward tenant loyalty however you can. That could mean giving tenants occasional discounts or sending them a Christmas card in the mail. Even small gestures can go a long way in boosting retention.

Perfecting Your Strategy

Maximizing tenant retention isn’t something you can handle overnight. If you want to see the best results, you’ll need to adjust your strategy gradually, over time. Listen carefully to feedback from your tenants and be flexible enough to keep adapting your long-term approach.

Lifestyle

Derik Fay: The Quiet Architect of Impact-First Entrepreneurship

Published

21 hours ago

May 8, 2025

Michelle Langton

In an era where noise often overshadows results, Derik Fay is quietly shaping a different kind of legacy — one built not on showmanship, but on undeniable substance. For more than two decades, Fay has engineered the rise of over 30 companies across industries as diverse as real estate, technology, healthcare, and entertainment. Yet his name rarely leads headlines — not because he hasn’t earned it, but because he never needed it to validate his success.

Growing up in Rhode Island, Fay learned early that the world rarely hands out opportunity; it must be seized, created, and multiplied. While many of his peers pursued traditional paths, he took a risk that would define the rest of his life: at just 22, he founded 3F Management, a venture firm with an entirely different mission — to build companies that would outlast trends, outperform markets, and, most importantly, out-impact their competition.

Instead of obsessing over short-term wins, Fay approached entrepreneurship like a craftsman. Much like Henry Ford, who famously said, “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business,” Fay built companies that weren’t just profitable — they were purposeful. Every venture was designed to create real, sustainable value, both for shareholders and for the communities they served.

Through his relentless focus on structure and leadership, Fay’s ecosystem of businesses now touches thousands of lives daily — from employees finding new opportunities to entrepreneurs gaining the mentorship they never had before. But unlike typical moguls who boast about headcounts, Fay views every job created as a ripple in a larger mission: empowering individuals to write better futures for themselves.

Where others have scaled fast and crashed harder, Fay’s model thrives on foundations few are patient enough to build anymore. His method is slower, smarter, and almost surgical: find what others overlook, fix what others fear, and grow what others abandoned too early. It’s this principle that led him to not just build companies — but to resurrect them, reimagine them, and sometimes even walk away if the mission no longer aligned with the impact he envisioned.

Fay’s philosophy extends far beyond boardrooms. Philanthropy isn’t a checkbox at the end of his success story — it’s embedded into the way he scales. His ventures are built with giving back written into their DNA, from local community initiatives to broader mentorship platforms that help emerging entrepreneurs get their first real shot at success. His life’s work is proof that wealth and generosity are not mutually exclusive — they are, in fact, essential partners.

Today, while newer generations of entrepreneurs hustle for likes and magazine covers, Fay’s name is whispered in rooms where real power moves. His reputation — built quietly but relentlessly — is that of a man who delivers, builds, and elevates without the need for public validation.

In a business world increasingly built on spectacle, Derik Fay reminds us that the most lasting legacies are forged not in the glare of the spotlight, but in the thousands of lives changed quietly along the way.

For more insights into Derik Fay’s ventures and philanthropic efforts, visit www.derikfay.com and follow him on Instagram @derikfay