What methods do you use the keep good tenants? I've done a bit of this in the past, but I need to be more "process oriented".

A few things I have done:

1) Good tenant had a baby recently.... we sent her a card signed by everyone in "the office" and then delayed the re-roofing of the house to give her a couple weeks with her baby before we started banging on the roof

2) I have sent notes to "good" tenants towards the end of their lease and said something like..."we are in the process of evaluating rent rates on our properties for next year. You have been a good tenant and we'd enjoy having you stay. If you are willing to sign a lease extension (we allow MTM leases after one year), we will cease the evaluation of your rent and guarantee no increases for an additional year. In addition, we will let you choose one of the 3 following upgrades to the property...1) New ceiling fan in the back bedroom 2) Repainting of the bathroom 3) Additional attic insulation to save you energy costs"

3) I have also done some improved landscaping for a good tenant who obviously cares about the way the house looks. The lease makes them responsible for lawn/bushes, but I added some mulch and hired a company to trim a few tall trees that may have damaged the house if they had fallen.

The way I look at it, all the things I've done or offered increase the value of our properties while minimizing risk (such as the tree falling on our house). In the case of offering to paint the bathroom, it was getting bad anyway and I had planned to paint it anyway if they moved out soon.

Your thoughts and ideas?

Hoosier, from seeing my mom's Class B rentals it seems the best way to keep long term tenants is not to raise the rent or at least not much.

Thanks Gene...I agree...I raise rent more on tenants that are "marginal". Regarding the one I agreed to not raise if they signed an extension...they've been with me 4 years and I felt like should raise rentl slightly, but when I got them to sign on another year I didn't raise it. I really like them as tenants....they are as good as it gets.

I do what my tenants want! I respond to tenants issues in a timely manner. I've trained tenants to leave me a text'ed message early enough in the day so I can get right on it. With traffic and prior commitments, without enough notice I then have to take care of things the next day.