Making your HMO a home – Go the extra mile this Christmas
As businesses up and down the country prepare their corporate gifts and Christmas cards for customers and clients, are landlords doing the same? After all, buy-to-let is a business and tenants are customers, and potentially long-standing ones at that.
Of course, the cost-of-living crisis has hit hard, and economic challenges have extended beyond tenants and to landlords themselves. In the last few years, HMO landlords have had to contend with rising energy bills as well as mortgage interest rate rises.
But if previous research is anything to go by, which suggests that 70% of tenants who receive an act of kindness stay in their property longer than those who don’t, going the extra mile at Christmas could benefit occupancy as well as boost morale.
Although many single-tenancy landlords opt to keep the relationship with their tenants strictly professional, many self-managed HMOs see regular interaction between housemates and landlords. So, spreading some seasonal cheer this festive season could build better relationships, encourage average tenants to be better and retain great tenants for longer.
Inspired by our Partners’ generosity, we have some great gift and thoughtful gesture ideas for landlords.
Decorating the property
Most privately rented properties are let to a single household, limiting a landlords’ access. So while you won’t be able to enter the property and decorate it yourself, you could make it clear what kinds of decorations are permitted, or perhaps even provide them with a box of bits and pieces?
Lots of people enjoy hanging paper chains on the walls or exterior lights. Allowing tenants to do this, while stressing that no damage should be made to the property, will show goodwill.
However, if you’re an HMO landlord with several tenants in one property, you could surprise tenants by making communal areas look festive.
Giving gifts
We’re not saying that landlords should give a month’s free rent or top up gas and electricity meters, but just a small token of appreciation can go a long way.
From as little as a Christmas card or chocolates to glorious hampers filled with goodies or shopping vouchers, it’s up to you how much you spend and how much thought you put into your gift.
For Gertie Owen, another Platinum franchise partner, giving surprises is one of her three key principles of running her buy-to-let business:
“I like to go the extra mile for my housemates. I love Christmas, so as well as sending everyone a card and small present, I always make sure I decorate the houses with a tree and garlands on the stairways and communal mirrors. I send each house a hamper made up of wine, beer, chocolates and mince pies. The amount of emails I get back thanking me makes it all worth-while.”
Winter health checks
So far, we’ve had a very wet winter, and while material gifts are likely to be greatly appreciated by tenants, no one wants a leak, broken boiler or burst pipe over Christmas.
Scheduling an inspection and winter health check on the property can avoid unwanted calls in the early hours of Christmas day and guarantee you and your tenant a warm winter.
Just taking some time out of your day to check boilers and central heating systems, door and window fittings and damp or leaky roofs could save you a distressing call from a tenant, and also some money!
Create a Christmas community
The very nature of shared housing means there are often many tenants living far from home, away from family and friends. To them, their HMO is not just a room, but a home and a chance to meet and connect with new people.
The wider concept of co-living has been around for a few years now, and one of the now Directors of Platinum Property Partners (PPP) and franchise partner, Mike Hedgecox and his wife, Clare, have created a community among their tenants:
“We have developed a strong local community of housemates across our houses and organise regular local social events with them. It’s great to see the different houses meeting up together as they have formed strong friendships during the year and love to meet up in larger groups.
At Christmas, we deliver gifts etc to the houses well before the 25th, as many housemates travel home a few days before Christmas Day. We like to vary the types of gifts we drop off so that it feels more personal - sometimes we may provide a gift to the whole house and at other times individual gifts for each housemate.
We also check in with each house to see who is staying in our houses over the Christmas and New Year period. This means we know which houses may be empty and can arrange to visit to ensure everything is safe and secure, but also allows us to ensure nobody is left alone when there are other housemates in nearby houses.”
Being an HMO landlord need not be all management mayhem and conquering compliance issues. Servicing a large group of professional tenants can be extremely rewarding and making the most of opportunities to show appreciation and bring people together, like at Christmas, can be very fulfilling.
