Your residents are out shopping other properties.

Haunting thought isn’t it? Well the truth of the matter is nine times out of ten your residents are not going to come and forewarn you that they are considering going elsewhere however they do tell their friends and colleagues in their casual day to day conversation.

Perhaps they are asking around about other properties or voicing their concerns about what’s not quite right at your property. Even worse some are going online into forums and sharing information or discussing it in their social media outlets such as facebook, twitter, yelp and apartmentratings.com.

Let’s face it; if you have no way of keeping an eye on these things your notices to vacate can catch you by surprise. Not only that, it sometimes leaves you with little to no wiggle room for trying to convince them to stay.

Have you ever considered putting practices in place that would allow you to be more aware of what your residents were thinking, what they desire and what they dislike about your property? Do you realize how this would allow you to be more proactive in your resident retention initiatives?

Let’s think about this. What if there was a resource that allowed them to vent in house rather than out to the world about how their leaky faucet has been such an issue? We also have to admit to the fact that lots of times people see the manager as “authority”. It is common human behavior to often times avoid authority all together. It could be that they fear that by speaking up they could be making things worse or they are just shy and or don’t know how to communicate their desires and needs.

What if you were innovative and strategic and put persons in place that did not come across so authoritative? What if these people were neighbors as well that strategized becoming acquainted with your other residents with the full intention of engaging them in very relaxed settings while getting the information out of them that could be the key to your getting their lease resigned?

Are your wheels turning yet? I certainly hope so. Yes you have a management team and yes you know your business but you’ve gotta admit that I’m onto something here. It is absolutely worth the small investment to implement these practices on your property.

For more tips about resident retention log onto www.residentkeepers.com and sign up for the mailing list.