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I spend a lot of time talking to property owners about tenant behavior. I believe it’s more important than anything else when it comes to ruining a rental property. When a tenant doesn’t pay rent, nobody is happy. Owners don’t get their rent and property managers don’t get their fees. It’s crucial that we manage tenant behavior.

Understanding tenant behavior starts the minute they walk through the door of the property and fill out a rental application. It continues through the lease signing process and throughout the tenancy, including the departure at the end of the lease term. If you are an owner who really doesn’t care about tenant behavior, I’d advise you to stay out of the business. You will ultimately spend more money trying to make things work after they’ve gone wrong. Proactive tenant management is much better and more cost effective. You have to be a responsible owner who carries out needed repairs and treats tenants with dignity and respect. You’ll find those tenants will stay in your property, pay rent on time and keep them in your property.

I believe that encouraging tenants to behave in a certain way takes years of experience. If you are talking to property managers who are not experienced, they may not understand the importance of tenant behavior. Here’s an example. We get a lot of tenants who suffered during the recession and may have poor credit. If you are an inexperienced landlord or property manager, you might turn those tenants away simply because of their credit score. But our experience has showed us that sometimes, they can be high earning tenants who are otherwise very responsible.

Several years ago, we had a bank executive who fell on hard times and had very poor credit due to a foreclosure on his rather expensive property. We talked to the tenant and checked out his situation. It turned out that tenant’s behavior was very responsible until the foreclosure, so we placed him in an executive rental in Baldwin Park. He’s been with us for four years and he pays his rent on time every month. Had we just looked at the credit score, he never would have been approved. We believe it’s important to discuss personal situations with tenants and manage the behavior from the outset.

This is why it’s important to understand tenant behavior and the importance of how it relates to rent and your investment. At Warner Quinlan, we are constantly training our staff in how to identify and manage positive tenant behaviors. It’s an evolving science, and something we’re very good at.

If you have any questions, please contact us at Warner Quinlan. We’d love to share more stories and tell you how we are proactive with our tenants and their behavior.