4 Ways to Boost LIHTC Resident Retention
Affordable Housing
As the biggest source of affordable housing financing, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program allows you to offer a comfortable place for low-income families while also growing your business. However, as a property owner, manager, or part of the property rental industry, you may face the challenge of enhancing affordable housing property management to keep your units occupied and ensure residents’ satisfaction.
Otherwise, you’ll spend more time, money, and other resources to attract leads and tenants. Below, we’ll talk about the top ways to increase resident retention for LIHTC and HUD properties, including using effective property management software, so keep reading.
Prioritize Maintenance Concerns
While blended occupancy seems beneficial for property owners and residents, maintenance should remain a priority among affordable housing property management organizations. A prompt response to maintenance requests or concerns tells your tenants they are valued and treated well, regardless of the amount they’re paying. As a result, they’ll be motivated to stay in your rental property.
With the property management maintenance software available at ExactEstate, you can easily prioritize urgent requests, process work orders that can be customized based on residents’ needs, and monitor their statuses. Scheduling and connecting with contractors are also made smoother.
By ensuring a streamlined maintenance response through our property management software, you can save on the cost of labor and avoid repetitive problems. Quickly addressing high-priority problems of residents also means preventing more extreme damages that require expensive repairs and renovations. In addition, the software helps increase your team’s productivity and the residents’ trust in your LIHTC properties, thus significantly improving resident retention.
Strengthen Communication
Effective communication is one key to maintaining a strong landlord-tenant relationship. Residents should feel heard, understood, and supported. They should be able to raise their concerns without fear or hesitation, and you should be able to communicate your concerns with them.
However, make sure the communication is relevant. If there’s unnecessary communication, residents will feel uncomfortable and think you’re overstepping boundaries, which could be a reason for them to leave the property. Rather, ask yourself whether the residents have to hear what you’re about to say. Is it for their good? Is telling them as soon as possible better, or do you need to gather more information before you share your thoughts and concerns with them?
Is a particular tenant communicating with you more often than expected? Are you having difficulty determining their problem or what action they expect from you? If so, review their communication history. Identify the reason behind continuously raising their concerns so you can find the best solution. Some residents are unreasonable from the start. Depending on the gravity of the offense, this may require a written warning.
Using ExactEstate’s property management software can make this review faster and easier. First, you have to view the resident’s activity log, and then you’ll see a table of interactions with a particular resident.
Then, consider setting up a meeting with them. Send a survey, especially to those who can’t attend in-person meetings. This way, they can answer the surveys at their most convenient time. You might also want to share small incentives, like rent discounts, with tenants who accomplish the survey.
At ExactEstate, we have a Resident Portal that lets your tenants share their concerns using the proper channels. It’s also mobile-friendly, so tenants can conveniently use the portal anywhere they go. Moreover, their concerns can be prioritized with such a fast communication channel.
Create a Sense of Community
Another way to increase resident retention at LIHTC or HUD properties is to develop a sense of community. Host various social activities, like bingo, a movie night, a weekly food truck, or any game with exciting prizes. Some property managers also organize charitable works, like back-to-school donations and food drives.
Then, show your tenants that you appreciate them with simple gifts, like a box of chocolates, homemade pastries, potted plants, cleaning supplies, and more. Next, give them greeting cards like birthday cards to help build a stronger and more personal connection with them. Even giving them a new doormat with notes thanking them for their renewal or being loyal and kind tenants makes a huge difference. Finally, make your residents feel they belong to a safe, harmonious, and welcoming community so they won’t have a reason to leave.
Maximize Technology
In today's fast-paced digital world, you’ll need to embrace and maximize the use of technology when running LIHTC properties. This includes optimizing sites and making digital channels mobile-friendly. You should also adopt creative ways to distribute information, like sharing videos.
Through the housing property management software at ExactEstate, you can make everything easier and more efficient for your staff and tenants. For instance, processing costs are significantly lower. You can also set up automatic rent collection. Residents can quickly check their balances and submit their payments online. ExactEstate ensures safe and secure online payments through end-to-end encryption.
Ensuring your staff is well-trained also helps improve resident retention. Residents will have more confidence in your organization if they know that the staff attends to their needs promptly and effectively. At ExactEstate, you’ll have access to comprehensive staff training modules to keep your staff up-to-date and learn the best practices for resident retention. Moreover, you can easily customize your staff training system based on the situation and needs of your property or company.
With ExactEstate’s online portal, you can keep your residents happy, too. For example, they can submit, track, or cancel work orders without hassle. Then, you can maintain open communication with your residents through online notifications and messaging. In addition, the portal is optimized for mobile use, so they can raise concerns wherever they are.
ExactEstate makes tenant screening smooth and simple for you through Online Tenant Screening. You’ll quickly get a report that will let you see the most qualified leads and make them your official residents with just a single click of a button. Managing reports is also a walk in the park. You no longer have to manually create and compile reports and wait long to receive updates. Instead, you’ll obtain reports from live data. These include late fee reports, income summaries, and delinquent accounts.
Boost Resident Retention with Property Management Software
With LIHTC properties and blended occupancy rental properties, you can offer affordable housing to low- and moderate-income families. However, this doesn’t mean the quality should be compromised. Instead, it would help if you actively created ways to improve resident retention, such as using reliable, affordable housing property management software like what ExactEstate offers. Request a demo today to see how our platform can satisfy your business and residents’ needs!
