Topic In Software for Property Management
Use Resident Surveys to Improve Your Rental Property
Resident Surveys are a fast and easy property management system tool to find out ways to improve your property and at the same time show residents that you care about their opinion. However, it is important that you take the time to make a well thought out survey to ensure that tenants will be likely to complete it.
When constructing a rental property survey the first aspect to think about it what format you wish to deliver your survey in. With today’s technology it makes the most sense to create your survey online. Google Forms and Survey Monkey make it easy to create, distribute and analyze survey information. For property managers and landlords that have a website or email contact system, using online surveys is a no brainer. By simply emailing or posting your survey’s link you can have tenants fill out the survey fast and analyze the answers right away. However, if you don’t have a website or do not communicate through email than having the form online may pose a challenge because it might be difficult to send it to your tenants. Even so it would still be easier to distribute a printed link to the survey to tenants through a flyer or with their rent. Some landlords may think it may make more sense to type up the rental survey, make copies and have the tenants fill it out. However, even if tenants take the time to fill out the forms someone would have to enter the results in excel or tally up the responses which could take hours.
After you deicide what medium you will use to create your form then you need to formulate the questions you want to ask tenants. Remember to keep the survey short and focused. Asking tenants about staff and new or potential upgrades is a great place to start. Make sure that the questions include an area for the tenants to comment on their answers so you can know why they feel a certain way.
Once you developed the questions it is important to brainstorm on the best manner in which to present the survey in order to get tenants to fill it out. It is very important that you create an anonymous survey so that tenant’s answers are not biased and they do not fear that their answers could have repercussions. One suggestion is to give the survey to tenants that are leaving the rental property as they are likely to give honest answers. Remember your tenants are more likely to fill out surveys in the future if they think that you are actually taking their answers into account. So make sure you let your tenants know that you appreciate their feedback.
This post is provided by RISSOFT Residential and Commercial Property Management Software, the best commercial property management software specializing in innovative and cutting-edge property management software for all 50 states. Request a demo or contact us today to receive more information.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this post in not intended to be construed as legal advice, nor should it be considered a substitute for obtaining individual legal counsel or consulting your local, state, federal or provincial tenancy laws.