It’s the holiday season, and no one wants to be the neighborhood Scrooge. Those tenants that want to go all out when it comes to decorating for the holidays can do so in their own units, but it’s also nice to incorporate subtle bits of holiday cheer to the common areas of your property. Think of it as one of those little touches that demonstrates your ongoing investment in and appreciation of your tenants. Holiday decorations are a great low-budget way to make your property more cozy and cheerful for tenants. After all, tenants who truly feel like their units are “home” will be far less likely to move.

Decorating doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, nor do you have to decorate with items that require a lot of upkeep (as we all know, Christmas trees, though fun to look at, can require a lot of regular attention when it comes to sweeping up and keeping them watered–not to mention the fact that a dry tree can be a fire hazard). Consider incorporating one or more of these simple items to jazz up your properties with some holiday cheer.

Light it Up
While hanging lights around the entire exterior of your property may be more effort than you want to exert, lights can provide a quick holiday fix when used in other ways–wind them around banisters or string them in pre-existing plants in common areas. A conservative amount of lights is extremely affordable at common chains like CVS and Target (a string of 100 incandescent white lights go for as little as $3.99 at CVS). If you want, you can pay a bit more up-front for LED lights, which are more energy-efficient than their incandescent counterparts, though according to MyMoneyBlog.com, LED lights will ultimately only save you less than a $1 a year on electricity costs.

Seasonal Smells
Don’t forget that infusing a sense of holiday festivity into your property doesn’t just have to be a visual thing—you can also incorporate evocative, cozy holiday smells like cinnamon, pumpkin, and pine into interior common areas. If you want a bit of a visual effect to accompany the smell, consider placing pine cones, potpourri, or a decorative scent warmer in a festive container in a common area. If you’re just going for smell, you can do something as simple as a holiday-scented fragrance-plug-in, available at most grocery stores for around $5. Remember, though, some people are extremely sensitive to smell, so be careful that whatever scent you select isn’t overly-powerful. Ultimately, you want to achieve a hint–as opposed to an onslaught–of fragrance.

Tasty Treats
The holidays bring out the sweet tooth in all of us. It sounds so simple, but just putting out a decorative bowl of holiday candy in a common area for tenants to enjoy can be enough to put a smile on their face at the end of a long day. Just remember to replenish the candy stash every few days throughout the holiday season.

Just a little bit of effort and nominal expense on your part during this merry season can be enough to keep your tenants smiling for months to come. What are some of your favorite ways to ring in the holidays at your property?


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