Landlords, Let’s Make December Celebration of Good Tenants Month

Landlords, Let’s Make December Celebration of Good Tenants Month

9:35 AM, 18th October 2011, About 13 years ago

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Next year I will have been a landlord for 40 years and I am going to throw a boomerang at each of my good tenants via twitter (@landlordtweets) during the month of December. I am fed up of hearing tenants from hell stories, most of my tenants over the past 40 years have been great tenants and I am going to thank them all, past and present, for giving me financial freedom. Will you join me in throwing a boomerang at your good tenants?

If the boomerangs come back we might begin to hear stories about all the wonderful landlords that I meet everyday. Those who respect their tenants, those who know that it is because of their tenants that they have financial freedom, those who work hard to make tenants feel at home, those who perform little acts of kindness when tenants need support and friendship, those who take risks with tenants who would otherwise be homeless, those who tolerate tenants mistakes…

The media are so fond of publishing the problems in the private rented sector and I think that it is time that we landlords turn this around. We all know that there are bad tenants and bad landlords, but we all know that they are in the minority so why do we allow them to hog the limelight?

Please support me in this campaign to celebrate the Private Rented Sector by tweeting a thank you naming your good tenants.

I am going to spend the next couple of weeks going through my records and compiling a list of all my good tenants, so watch out for my tweets in December and please retweet them. Add your own to encourage other landlords to join in.


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Ben Reeve-Lewis

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17:24 PM, 18th October 2011, About 13 years ago

What an explosion of enthusiasm.Lets be radical Mary, instead of highlighting rogue behaviour lets look at good practices among landlords, tenants and agents and see what can be gleaned from that.

I am a qualified NLP trainer and NLP is all about modelling excellent behaviour and isolating the elements that work so that others can learn it.

I sense a movement in the air. Promote the good, dont over-analyse the bad

Ben Reeve-Lewis

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17:30 PM, 18th October 2011, About 13 years ago

Sorry to double post but the government arent going to do it, Shelter arent going to to do it.....lets do it!

HMOLandlady

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18:40 PM, 18th October 2011, About 13 years ago

Compiling my list already!! Good idea to bring some PMA in (Positive Mental Attitude!).

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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18:53 PM, 18th October 2011, About 13 years ago

Count me in Mary!

What a fantastic idea. This totally fits with the ethos of us building a Testimonials based Directory for providers of services to landlords.

Mary Latham

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19:20 PM, 18th October 2011, About 13 years ago

We ARE doing it Ben and with help from all the good guys perhaps we can make Government and Shelter take notice.

Good Landlords and good Tenants are voters too.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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19:51 PM, 18th October 2011, About 13 years ago

I've shared this blog to a few Facebook walls of other landlord groups. I'm also going to share it via LinkedIn.

Ben Reeve-Lewis

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5:45 AM, 19th October 2011, About 13 years ago

Maybe later have a good landlords month and even a good agent's month too, out of all this can come a template or blueprint for best practice

Mary Latham

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11:07 AM, 19th October 2011, About 13 years ago

If the boomerang comes back Ben perhaps tenants will begin to thank their good landlords and bring some balance to the "rogue" stories. Yes I think that landlords should also thank those agents who do a good job and make our lives much easier but that is another story.

I agree it is time that we had a template because I really do believe that many landlords really don't know how to do the right thing. The things that I see going wrong most often are caused by attitude and we need to bring about a change of thinking, this is why I want to encourage landlords to think about their good tenants and what makes them good tenants. If we always concentrate on the bad tenants we may put in place business practices that make good tenants uncomfortable. The sort of things I see are landlords who are so nervous that they inspect their properties far too often, this upsets good tenants who feel that they cannot relax in their homes for fear that the landlord will think that they are untidy/bad tenants. I have never seen any evidence that inspecting regularly makes any difference to the condition of the property when it is returned. Some tenants live neat and tidy throughout the tenancy and on the day before the move out they have a party .... we all know what happens next. Others may have a more relaxed attitude towards housekeeping but before they move out get cleaners in and return the property in good condition. I have highlighted other issues that can send negative signals to tenants here http://www.property118.com/index.php/the-boomerang-effect-for-landlords/18587/

Mary Latham

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18:02 PM, 19th October 2011, About 13 years ago

The point has been made that naming a tenant without permission may be considered unfair I thought it worth saying that this is the type of thing that I intend to tweet in December

Thank you John for being a great tenant in 1995

Thank you to Roy and his family for being great tenants in 1986 - actually this is a real one and one of the best tenants I ever had.

If "John" or "Roy" read this tweet he will know its about him and if he doesn't I have not named him on the web just pointed out that a man called "John" was a good tenant in that year. The point being that when landlords tweet these messages we will show how much we value our tenants past and present AND tell the www that there are many many good tenants in the PRS

I hope that this clears up any negativity around what is going to be a celebration?

I am really enjoying going through my records and remembering some of my past tenants there are some funny stories attached to some of them and it is giving me such a boost - I hope that other landlords are having the same experience? I am finding little notes on some of my files and remembering long forgotten happenings. I can feel a new blog coming on - so many stories

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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20:08 PM, 19th October 2011, About 13 years ago

Hi Mary

It would be great to read about some of those funny stories. Perhaps the Tweets could link back to a series of blogs?

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