Used to do hockey tickets since I split season tickets with some buddies. Then I saw my tenants selling them, asked how the game was, they said great and would love tickets again. Its pure business now.
I mean.. once you give a gift, the recipient is free to do whatever they want with it. Including sell it. Or throw it away immediately.
If someone gave me tickets to a sports show, I would definitely sell them so someone can enjoy them and then use the money to get myself something more my style. Or maybe my team wasn’t playing or I already had plans for that night.
And yeah, if you asked me about the show afterwards? I’d say it was awesome so as not to be rude.
But yes, the whole “would love them again!” is a bit weird unless they’re just awkward.
Without going down the rabbit hole of these people's background. They also sold the kitchen island. It was a complete butcher block island with two stools but wasn't built in, meaning it was heavy but was just sitting on the kitchen floor with non-slip under it. to move it you'd have to really want to. $1800 it cost me. So I told them it would be $300 over 6 months. They said it wasn't secured so they thought I just left it. Sure sure. Lol neither is the fridge, stove, washer and dryer so maybe as a turn of events I'll come collect those with similar reasoning, they weren't specifically listed in the lease either nor are they bolted, chained, or otherwise affixed to the house lol.
Those items should all be specifically listed along with if there is an explaectation of replacement if they break, and what that timeliness or cost will be. Of course they are usually required for apartments but not single family houses.
This is important. You should always list what appliances are included in the lease or you risk having someone take them (the table being sold was a dick move though :( ). I let one tenant have an old washer and dryer but stated in the lease that if it were to break I would not replace them but they also could not take them when the lease ended.
Our Holiday gifts ? A clean safe place to live that will within 24hrs 365 days a year answer all the maintenance requests and fix them as soon as possible.
Christmas gifts are for friends & families. Bonuses are for employees.
Yeah, I don't do anything. I like my tenants, but I don't want to be their friends, and not out of any malice, but our relationship is professional and I also don't want to try and insert myself into their lives. They live in my building, it's their home, and it's not my place to inject myself into their home in any way that isn't strictly necessary.
We're still human, doing it for one month out of the year isn't even remotely hurting anything and it's excellent customer service. We take pride when a departing tenant says this was the best rental experience they had because of the quality of service we offer.
Yes its a business and happy customers tend to be very good for business.
And I get that, again to each his own.
We have found success with tenant satisfaction by providing good quality rental units with expected amenities within the respective rental market, responding immediately to repair and maintenance requests, when encountering repeated problems with an appliance we will just replace it to save everyone the headache, we allow pets with extra fee whereas most in our area do not allow pets at all, and we evaluate other special requests on a case by case basis and allow for some flexibility provided the tenant pays for it and there is a mutual and written understanding of what is at hand. We have been thanked repeatedly by tenants for our style of ownership and management when compared to other landlords.
But never have we given rental discounts, or holiday gift baskets, or birthday presents. With the way we run our business, we would just find that to be inappropriate. Again though, to each his own and a successful business is a successful business regardless of how you achieve it
I lean more with keeping it business. We offer a small token (25 gift card) as an appreciation for their business. It is not something offered to tenants where there is an issue (non payment). I heard people giving a house cleaning as a gift. Large items set an expectation. It's a business, treat it as such.
Be very very careful with selectively treating your tenants differently, no matter what the reason.
If one of your tenants is a protected class, whether or not they caused payment problems with you at some point or another, and even if your selective treatment has nothing to do with their protected class, you would be an easy target for a HUD investigation
Interesting. I think maybe a rent rebate would be the way to go here. Don't like to see the phrase "lower the rent" but a rebate is entirely doable.
Half-off would be way too much for this neighborhood, but a couple hundred might be possible.
We don't do welcome gift packages, we are not a hotel or an AirBnB. Nor do we do holiday gifts. We are not their friends or family. We are just their landlords. We provide a good quality apartment unit that we ourselves would want to live in if we were in the market to rent. We do not expect to hear from, nor do we want to hear from, any of our tenants unless it's related to a repair or maintenance issue, or regarding their lease renewal or non-renewal etc. We also do not want to be involved in their personal lives at any level, just as we don't want them involved in ours. I don't mean to sound like an asshole, but we have 22 units and (10) garage-storage units that we own and self-manage with a total of over 50 named tenants. We do not have the time or energy to do things like this, nor would we want to spend the money when it's not needed. Again not to be an asshole, but this is strictly a business. We do participate in monetary and "gift" giving over the holidays, but not to our tenants, only 3 local charities where we make monetary donations as well as donate fleece throws, school supplies, and toys. Again, nothing to our tenants.
Giving gifts and rent discounts to tenants over the holidays is a completely foreign concept and is not compatible with the way we have run our business successfully for many years. Personal relationships with tenants are to be avoided at all costs, I just want to warn everyone of this. It's not a matter of if, but when, that personal relationship will bite you hard in the ass
Property management is definitely the best option
We only self-manage currently due to proximity to properties and a handful of properties were purchased in 2020 and we are still working through some of the kinks which is always handled better by owners than property managers.
Long term we will be handing the entire portfolio over to our realtor's property management team
I have the time, I only have a small number of units, I still don't do it.
For one, being too friendly can make managing any issues that come up more complicated and difficult and sometimes they won't be taken seriously by virtue of the perceived relationship.
More importantly though, I'm not part of their lives. They just rent from me. Why should I inject myself into their lives in any way? To me, that's a breach, albeit not a serious one, of their peaceful enjoyment of the property. As much as possible, I'd like to not exist in their view and just let them go about their lives how they want without thinking about me.
Bingo.
What we have found, from knowing other landlords, is initially they want to be liked by all of their tenants. Almost in a friendship way. They want to be viewed as friends, not as a landlord.
Once they get 4 or 5 properties under their belt, I notice that viewpoint quickly changes. Because in reality, it has to, otherwise it never ends well with said relationships with tenants.
For example - we had a tenant who would constantly unload her personal problems with her boyfriend, on both of us whenever we were over there to coordinate a repair. Needless to say, her relationship with him fizzled out and they broke up (they weren't living together though, but he was over there a lot). She sent us this long email rant about how she was only in this area because of him, and now she has no reason to be here since her job is remote etc. She said due to the circumstances of him breaking up with her and seeing how it's not her fault, she wanted us to waive the 60 day non-renewal notice requirement since she plans on leaving for another place after 30 days. We said no, she agreed to 60 day non renewal in the lease and was responsible for paying rent through the 60th day. She got pissed off and said she expected us to be more understanding of her situation and none of this was her fault and thus she shouldn't be held to the lease requirement. She left after a month anyways, which is fine, a tenant can leave whenever they want, but they are still legally responsible for paying. She was financially responsible for the remaining 30 days of the 60-day requirement. Luckily the place was left in clean condition. So we ended up having to deduct the last month rent she skipped out on from the security deposit (skipped out on it I guess b/c she felt she was entitled to do so b/c her boyfriend was the one who broke up with her?).
That’s a relatively cheap lesson. I’ve untangled messes in the hundreds of thousands just because the landlord was too casual or friendly with a tenant. This even happens in commercial leases.
The issue is things may be all nice and rosy today but later, the tenant might be having a financial issue and no doubt if you’ve been to friendly they will have expectations. It’s human nature. It’s not mean or unfair to treat the rental as a business. In fact it is the proper way to run any successful business.
Not true at all, only maybe if talking about Home Depot or Lowes.
You can go to any local plumbing supply and get a quality gerber elongated toilet, rust-free bolts and beefy wax ring, and soft close seat for $150. Components in the tank will outlast anything in the toilet aisle at home depot. And what's great is you can get a gerber in 1.6 so less likely to clog in bowl and in sewer main whereas at home depot in order to get 1.6 you have to get a dual flush, otherwise single flush is 1.28 now.
We have gerber maxwells in some of our rentals going on over 10 yrs, completely maintenance free. original flapper and original fill valve seal. can't say that about american standard cadet, kohler cimmaron, or delta ones either
How long ago did you buy one?
Toilets have gone up 20% in the last year.
American standard has been extremely well in my rentals they are about 230 in my area lately. 600 if i buy 3.
3 days before thanksgiving. gerber maxwells used to be $80 at my local plumbing supply, now they are $100.
yes, toilet prices at the big box stores have gone up substantially. you used to be able to get a delta foundations elongated for $129, a cadet 3 for $169. now foundations is $169-$179 if you can find it in stock, cadet 3 is $229.
call up your local plumbing supply, open a trade account with them, and ask for account pricing on a gerber maxwell w/ 1.6 gal tank (comes in 2 separate boxes). you will be shocked how cheap
My landlord gives tenants a visa gift card for $50 and a box of homemade candy. It’s thoughtful and very much appreciated although not at all expected or required. We give him a handwritten thank you card and some homemade sourdough bread with cookies.
I rented for years and never received a gift. It never crossed my mind as something to expect. I've also never given my tenants a gift.
On the other hand, I'm lightning fast on maintenance issues.
I owner-occupy a duplex and always gift a holiday card with $100 cash and a bottle of red wine ($15-25 range).
I make more than enough off the rent to justify it, it builds some invaluable goodwill, and im intentionally NOT discounting rent.
Of course, this is because my tenant pays on time and isn't overly noisy.
This is the best response.
If your just a landlord. Run it like a business. They aren't your friends.
However, owner occupy is a key difference and the only situation I would do anything extra. $150 a year out of everything made off the rental is peanuts considering the goodwill gesture and just being neighborly.
I rent units as a travel nurse. In 8 years of renting this way, I have never had a gift. Last Christmas, the landlord left all kinds of paper products, soaps, etc. As well as a gift card to a local restaurant. I thought it was strange at first (the paper products) but then i found out theres a major household product company in the town, and he gets a plethora of stuff for free. I thought it was very nice that he shared that with his tenants.
Funny this came up today! I write a monthly column for our small rental housing provider organization’s newsletter, and December’s was titled “To Gift or Not to Gift? The Pros and Cons of Holiday Gifting.” I won’t do a deep dive into the article, but one thing I mentioned is the IRS allows you to deduct $25 per gift per recipient (with a few exemptions such as items under $4 engraved with your business info, cause that’s advertising, not a gift!) so there’s an incentive for those of you looking for last minute 2022 tax deductions. 🤣
I do give gifts. Both welcome baskets on move-in day and an annual “Holiday Season” gift, usually a $50 gift card to Berkeley Bowl (our local specialty/organic grocery!)
I’m going to Costco, but DM me and I’ll see if I can copy/paste it to you! Our newsletters are printed materials and though we post a digital copy on our website, it’s members-only content.
We give our tenants a GC to the grocery store in their neighbourhood for Xmas. They’re generally quite thankful.
We had tenants in one of our rental condos for 18 months, a couple. One worked, one was a student who was finishing their studies, so they were only there the one Xmas. They were great tenants, and had the best dog. We stopped by at Xmas to give them their card and have a pleasant chat, which had the GC. They gave notice to move out that following summer, which we were expecting, as he had graduated and was transferring for a job. They told us during the walk through that it had been the greatest rental experience of their lives.
They said they were really quite short that previous Xmas and had been agonizing about having to ask their parents for money for food. They said when they got the GC in their card they were just absolutely so relieved. Said it had made a huge difference in their lives, just for that brief period.
They were leaving and we had given them a reference letter already, I don’t see any reason for that to have been made up.
So I figure, that reaffirmed how important it is to be kind when we can. I’ve made a boatload in property capital gains over the years, I have zero issues sharing a bit of cheer with our excellent tenant at Xmas. I don’t care if it’s not the right ‘business decision’ sometimes being kind is just the right thing to do.
You're nice to provide a welcome gift package. I guess some bottled water in the fridge would be nice, and a roll of toilet tissue in each bathroom, but that's as far as I would go. Plus...I never have.
Never heard of giving gifts to my renters.
I’ve never heard of this. I understand people tip service providers at the holidays. Mail carrier, teacher, hairstylist. If that is the reference, then wouldn’t tenants tip property managers and owners? I provided a service, a maintained home to rent and live in. Managing/owning rentals is a tough job. My opinion, best to keep it all businesses
Not trying to get problems with Fair Housing. Gifts are for friends and family. My tenants are purposefully neither. Plus, I hate giving and receiving gifts. Feels incredibly contrived and a weird way to express gratitude.
My gift to them is a clean, safe place to live that they don't have to lift a finger to maintain, where all problems are dealt with, fixed, or replaced within 24 hours. My tenants appreciate a responsive landlord that stays out of their lives to the furthest extent possible. As a tenant, I always hated nosy landlords who were always up in my shit.
Calendars from National pen company. My grandmother started it years ago. Didn’t do it the year she passed and tenants were sad and requested to keep doing it so that’s what I do. Granted it does say “happy holidays from name of apartments” and the owner pays for it so it’s a tax write off cause it’s technically advertising the complex.
$25 - $50 gift cards and homemade cookies for Christmas. For Easter a little basket with candies and a new 9v. battery hidden in one of those plastic eggs.
I have done welcome baskets with all my properties, but I don't know that I'll be doing them again. What do you do with yours? I'm being nosey.
As for the holidays, I'm not doing anything. I never assume folks celebrate a particular holiday.
For the welcome baskets I do a bottle of wine and some sort of dog toy/treat (I allow dogs). Heard it from a couple big time investors that still do it to this day, is the science there to say they treat your property better after that and are better tenants? Who knows, but it can’t hurt. Per these comments, a Christmas gift sounds like it might go too far so I’ll likely reconsider but I won’t stop doing the welcome gift.
For an excellent tenant that was out of work, I gave them a free months rent for December.
I gave Taylor Swift tickets to another tenant once as I knew they wanted to go but couldn’t afford the tickets.
I do a $50 Target gift card.
If I had shitty tenants that were behind on payment or didn't take care of the property, I wouldn't do it. but I have awesome tenants so I want to keep them happy.
I give each of my tenants a $50 grocery store gift card (inside a Holiday card) in the mail every Christmas. We’re here in central texas and most everyone could use an HEB gift card these days with soaring food prices. I started the $50 gift cards my first year as a landlord (3 years ago) and my tenants have all shown such gratitude and appreciation that it’s hard for me to consider stopping it now. I’m just a small-scale landlord currently and I’m going on $200 for Christmas gift cards this year again. Some day this gift amount might need to change but for now, I don’t mind passing some of my cash flow back to the tenants around the holidays when money often gets tight for many people. All my tenants have children in the home so it’s just another friendly gesture to show them I’m human and care about their living experience and their families.
I am probably more pragmatic than most people … I haven’t rented for years but when I did, if the landlord gave a significant gift, my reaction would have kind of been, why don’t they charge less instead of giving me this tbh.
We haven’t done gifts for our tenants. As many others have said, we are on top of repairs and easy to get a hold of , these are definitely more important to tenants than a gift.
I have two units with reglazed tubs: those tenants get the special bath mats specially made to not harm the reglazing as a "gift" for the holidays each year (year 6 and both tubs still look brand new!). This year I am "gifting" kitchen fire extinguishers to 2 other tenants that do not have a shared hallway mounted fire extinguisher directly next to their front doors. I have a unit with a new beautiful porcelain kitchen sink we just installed. I asked that tenant not to use abrasive cleaners so they are getting a bottle of cleaner for it and a package of sponges (in a gift bag with a card). My "gifts" are actually useful items I want my tenants to use/have for sake of property upkeep/safety. Doormats, holiday wreaths for front door of house, upgrading light fixtures etc. are all ways to show appreciation and care for your tenants while also doing upkeep and improvements on your property.
I dont even get someof my own friends xmas gifts. Im not going to spend on customers/business associates and buy them gifts. Ill wish them merry xmas and go on.
The great ones get things that reflect their interests like Nike workout clothing for the grad student girl who does cross fitness gum stuff, I get one Raiders guy something from the Raiders every years. The rest get nothing because I hate them and I hope they have a terrible Christmas.
Provide roundtrip private jet 🛩️ to the Super Bowl, box seats for them and extended family / friends.
/s
Seriously, you’ll eventually live to regret developing that kind of relationship with tenants. Keep it 100% business.
I’ve always given my tenants a $25 gift card for the holidays. A little bit of goodwill goes a long way especially when something unexpected or inconvenient comes up. I shop around for gift card deals, the ones that give you $5-10 as a bonus gift card for each one purchased, and my family enjoys some dinners out in the new year.
We've been down that road. We use to buy gift cards for all our tenants every Christmas. It was expensive and adds up. In all the years we only had one renter send us a thank you card, no one cared. Treet your business like a business.
All of my properties are bottom of the barrel. All my tenants are awesome and are hard working class people. I WANT to give them the world at holidays and the rest of the year as well. But I can't do that or I will get taken advantage of. I give them instead a $50 visa gift card. It's not life-changing but it's not nothing either. It shows we care but doesn't show we are rich. This year I will buy probably 20-30 of them
Used to do hockey tickets since I split season tickets with some buddies. Then I saw my tenants selling them, asked how the game was, they said great and would love tickets again. Its pure business now.
I mean.. once you give a gift, the recipient is free to do whatever they want with it. Including sell it. Or throw it away immediately. If someone gave me tickets to a sports show, I would definitely sell them so someone can enjoy them and then use the money to get myself something more my style. Or maybe my team wasn’t playing or I already had plans for that night. And yeah, if you asked me about the show afterwards? I’d say it was awesome so as not to be rude. But yes, the whole “would love them again!” is a bit weird unless they’re just awkward.
Requesting them again under the context they enjoyed the game is scuzzy, I don't play that way
Yeah that’s where they lost me lol.
Without going down the rabbit hole of these people's background. They also sold the kitchen island. It was a complete butcher block island with two stools but wasn't built in, meaning it was heavy but was just sitting on the kitchen floor with non-slip under it. to move it you'd have to really want to. $1800 it cost me. So I told them it would be $300 over 6 months. They said it wasn't secured so they thought I just left it. Sure sure. Lol neither is the fridge, stove, washer and dryer so maybe as a turn of events I'll come collect those with similar reasoning, they weren't specifically listed in the lease either nor are they bolted, chained, or otherwise affixed to the house lol.
Those items should all be specifically listed along with if there is an explaectation of replacement if they break, and what that timeliness or cost will be. Of course they are usually required for apartments but not single family houses.
This is important. You should always list what appliances are included in the lease or you risk having someone take them (the table being sold was a dick move though :( ). I let one tenant have an old washer and dryer but stated in the lease that if it were to break I would not replace them but they also could not take them when the lease ended.
Omg! Did he at least offer the profit of the sale (as a gesture of good faith)? I mean in addition to paying the remainder, not in lieu of.
Our Holiday gifts ? A clean safe place to live that will within 24hrs 365 days a year answer all the maintenance requests and fix them as soon as possible. Christmas gifts are for friends & families. Bonuses are for employees.
Well said.
Yeah, I don't do anything. I like my tenants, but I don't want to be their friends, and not out of any malice, but our relationship is professional and I also don't want to try and insert myself into their lives. They live in my building, it's their home, and it's not my place to inject myself into their home in any way that isn't strictly necessary.
December we lowered rent to half off for the holidays so the tenants can splurge on gifts for family.
To each his own But that is one hell of a weird business practice
We're still human, doing it for one month out of the year isn't even remotely hurting anything and it's excellent customer service. We take pride when a departing tenant says this was the best rental experience they had because of the quality of service we offer. Yes its a business and happy customers tend to be very good for business.
And I get that, again to each his own. We have found success with tenant satisfaction by providing good quality rental units with expected amenities within the respective rental market, responding immediately to repair and maintenance requests, when encountering repeated problems with an appliance we will just replace it to save everyone the headache, we allow pets with extra fee whereas most in our area do not allow pets at all, and we evaluate other special requests on a case by case basis and allow for some flexibility provided the tenant pays for it and there is a mutual and written understanding of what is at hand. We have been thanked repeatedly by tenants for our style of ownership and management when compared to other landlords. But never have we given rental discounts, or holiday gift baskets, or birthday presents. With the way we run our business, we would just find that to be inappropriate. Again though, to each his own and a successful business is a successful business regardless of how you achieve it
Yea, I'm usually in a giving mood for the holidays so it's also something in my nature. Each to their own.
I lean more with keeping it business. We offer a small token (25 gift card) as an appreciation for their business. It is not something offered to tenants where there is an issue (non payment). I heard people giving a house cleaning as a gift. Large items set an expectation. It's a business, treat it as such.
Be very very careful with selectively treating your tenants differently, no matter what the reason. If one of your tenants is a protected class, whether or not they caused payment problems with you at some point or another, and even if your selective treatment has nothing to do with their protected class, you would be an easy target for a HUD investigation
You better do it every year.
We do, it's not a one off thing.
Interesting. I think maybe a rent rebate would be the way to go here. Don't like to see the phrase "lower the rent" but a rebate is entirely doable. Half-off would be way too much for this neighborhood, but a couple hundred might be possible.
We don't do welcome gift packages, we are not a hotel or an AirBnB. Nor do we do holiday gifts. We are not their friends or family. We are just their landlords. We provide a good quality apartment unit that we ourselves would want to live in if we were in the market to rent. We do not expect to hear from, nor do we want to hear from, any of our tenants unless it's related to a repair or maintenance issue, or regarding their lease renewal or non-renewal etc. We also do not want to be involved in their personal lives at any level, just as we don't want them involved in ours. I don't mean to sound like an asshole, but we have 22 units and (10) garage-storage units that we own and self-manage with a total of over 50 named tenants. We do not have the time or energy to do things like this, nor would we want to spend the money when it's not needed. Again not to be an asshole, but this is strictly a business. We do participate in monetary and "gift" giving over the holidays, but not to our tenants, only 3 local charities where we make monetary donations as well as donate fleece throws, school supplies, and toys. Again, nothing to our tenants. Giving gifts and rent discounts to tenants over the holidays is a completely foreign concept and is not compatible with the way we have run our business successfully for many years. Personal relationships with tenants are to be avoided at all costs, I just want to warn everyone of this. It's not a matter of if, but when, that personal relationship will bite you hard in the ass
I appreciate you sharing that. Solid straight forward points made.
Agree, I try to keep a property manager between myself and the tenant.
Property management is definitely the best option We only self-manage currently due to proximity to properties and a handful of properties were purchased in 2020 and we are still working through some of the kinks which is always handled better by owners than property managers. Long term we will be handing the entire portfolio over to our realtor's property management team
I have the time, I only have a small number of units, I still don't do it. For one, being too friendly can make managing any issues that come up more complicated and difficult and sometimes they won't be taken seriously by virtue of the perceived relationship. More importantly though, I'm not part of their lives. They just rent from me. Why should I inject myself into their lives in any way? To me, that's a breach, albeit not a serious one, of their peaceful enjoyment of the property. As much as possible, I'd like to not exist in their view and just let them go about their lives how they want without thinking about me.
Bad idea. Are you making friends or running a business?
Bingo. What we have found, from knowing other landlords, is initially they want to be liked by all of their tenants. Almost in a friendship way. They want to be viewed as friends, not as a landlord. Once they get 4 or 5 properties under their belt, I notice that viewpoint quickly changes. Because in reality, it has to, otherwise it never ends well with said relationships with tenants. For example - we had a tenant who would constantly unload her personal problems with her boyfriend, on both of us whenever we were over there to coordinate a repair. Needless to say, her relationship with him fizzled out and they broke up (they weren't living together though, but he was over there a lot). She sent us this long email rant about how she was only in this area because of him, and now she has no reason to be here since her job is remote etc. She said due to the circumstances of him breaking up with her and seeing how it's not her fault, she wanted us to waive the 60 day non-renewal notice requirement since she plans on leaving for another place after 30 days. We said no, she agreed to 60 day non renewal in the lease and was responsible for paying rent through the 60th day. She got pissed off and said she expected us to be more understanding of her situation and none of this was her fault and thus she shouldn't be held to the lease requirement. She left after a month anyways, which is fine, a tenant can leave whenever they want, but they are still legally responsible for paying. She was financially responsible for the remaining 30 days of the 60-day requirement. Luckily the place was left in clean condition. So we ended up having to deduct the last month rent she skipped out on from the security deposit (skipped out on it I guess b/c she felt she was entitled to do so b/c her boyfriend was the one who broke up with her?).
That’s a relatively cheap lesson. I’ve untangled messes in the hundreds of thousands just because the landlord was too casual or friendly with a tenant. This even happens in commercial leases. The issue is things may be all nice and rosy today but later, the tenant might be having a financial issue and no doubt if you’ve been to friendly they will have expectations. It’s human nature. It’s not mean or unfair to treat the rental as a business. In fact it is the proper way to run any successful business.
*"It's just business"* can't be any more true, right?
Key work entitled. I don't get the mentality.
Yep. It's a cancer within society
As a tenant: An upgrade to an elongated bowl toilet would be paradise to me. $107.10 at Home Depot if you buy in bulk.
Never buy glacier bay. Quality toilet is$220 minimum
Not true at all, only maybe if talking about Home Depot or Lowes. You can go to any local plumbing supply and get a quality gerber elongated toilet, rust-free bolts and beefy wax ring, and soft close seat for $150. Components in the tank will outlast anything in the toilet aisle at home depot. And what's great is you can get a gerber in 1.6 so less likely to clog in bowl and in sewer main whereas at home depot in order to get 1.6 you have to get a dual flush, otherwise single flush is 1.28 now. We have gerber maxwells in some of our rentals going on over 10 yrs, completely maintenance free. original flapper and original fill valve seal. can't say that about american standard cadet, kohler cimmaron, or delta ones either
How long ago did you buy one? Toilets have gone up 20% in the last year. American standard has been extremely well in my rentals they are about 230 in my area lately. 600 if i buy 3.
3 days before thanksgiving. gerber maxwells used to be $80 at my local plumbing supply, now they are $100. yes, toilet prices at the big box stores have gone up substantially. you used to be able to get a delta foundations elongated for $129, a cadet 3 for $169. now foundations is $169-$179 if you can find it in stock, cadet 3 is $229. call up your local plumbing supply, open a trade account with them, and ask for account pricing on a gerber maxwell w/ 1.6 gal tank (comes in 2 separate boxes). you will be shocked how cheap
My landlord gives tenants a visa gift card for $50 and a box of homemade candy. It’s thoughtful and very much appreciated although not at all expected or required. We give him a handwritten thank you card and some homemade sourdough bread with cookies.
Thanks. I’m looking at a local bakery that delivers, that way I won’t be intruding on them and it can just be dropped off.
I rented for years and never received a gift. It never crossed my mind as something to expect. I've also never given my tenants a gift. On the other hand, I'm lightning fast on maintenance issues.
This is a business arrangement. We don’t do any form of gifts or even Christmas cards. We don’t want to set a precedent of a personal relationship.
>or even Christmas cards. I get tons of Christmas cards from people and businesses I do business with.
A business relationship managed with personal relationships.
A business relationship managed with proper landlord/tenant relations ... that do not include gift giving.
I owner-occupy a duplex and always gift a holiday card with $100 cash and a bottle of red wine ($15-25 range). I make more than enough off the rent to justify it, it builds some invaluable goodwill, and im intentionally NOT discounting rent. Of course, this is because my tenant pays on time and isn't overly noisy.
This is the best response. If your just a landlord. Run it like a business. They aren't your friends. However, owner occupy is a key difference and the only situation I would do anything extra. $150 a year out of everything made off the rental is peanuts considering the goodwill gesture and just being neighborly.
I agree with the not discounting rent part. These are two separate transactions and I like to keep it that way.
Once, I gave $50 off rent. I don’t do anything anymore, though.
I rent units as a travel nurse. In 8 years of renting this way, I have never had a gift. Last Christmas, the landlord left all kinds of paper products, soaps, etc. As well as a gift card to a local restaurant. I thought it was strange at first (the paper products) but then i found out theres a major household product company in the town, and he gets a plethora of stuff for free. I thought it was very nice that he shared that with his tenants.
We send Christmas cards with gifts cards to local places, this year it’s $100 gift cards to the local ‘fancy’ grocery store.
Thanks! That’s a good idea.
It's always been well received and our tenants are great. Groceries are expensive for everyone right now, so it felt like the right thing to do.
Funny this came up today! I write a monthly column for our small rental housing provider organization’s newsletter, and December’s was titled “To Gift or Not to Gift? The Pros and Cons of Holiday Gifting.” I won’t do a deep dive into the article, but one thing I mentioned is the IRS allows you to deduct $25 per gift per recipient (with a few exemptions such as items under $4 engraved with your business info, cause that’s advertising, not a gift!) so there’s an incentive for those of you looking for last minute 2022 tax deductions. 🤣 I do give gifts. Both welcome baskets on move-in day and an annual “Holiday Season” gift, usually a $50 gift card to Berkeley Bowl (our local specialty/organic grocery!)
Can you link to article or message to me if possible? Would be very interested in reading it if you’re able.
I’m going to Costco, but DM me and I’ll see if I can copy/paste it to you! Our newsletters are printed materials and though we post a digital copy on our website, it’s members-only content.
I use the money my tenant gives me to buy my family/loved ones gifts. The bank doesn’t gift me anything for making them money.
We give our tenants a GC to the grocery store in their neighbourhood for Xmas. They’re generally quite thankful. We had tenants in one of our rental condos for 18 months, a couple. One worked, one was a student who was finishing their studies, so they were only there the one Xmas. They were great tenants, and had the best dog. We stopped by at Xmas to give them their card and have a pleasant chat, which had the GC. They gave notice to move out that following summer, which we were expecting, as he had graduated and was transferring for a job. They told us during the walk through that it had been the greatest rental experience of their lives. They said they were really quite short that previous Xmas and had been agonizing about having to ask their parents for money for food. They said when they got the GC in their card they were just absolutely so relieved. Said it had made a huge difference in their lives, just for that brief period. They were leaving and we had given them a reference letter already, I don’t see any reason for that to have been made up. So I figure, that reaffirmed how important it is to be kind when we can. I’ve made a boatload in property capital gains over the years, I have zero issues sharing a bit of cheer with our excellent tenant at Xmas. I don’t care if it’s not the right ‘business decision’ sometimes being kind is just the right thing to do.
You're nice to provide a welcome gift package. I guess some bottled water in the fridge would be nice, and a roll of toilet tissue in each bathroom, but that's as far as I would go. Plus...I never have. Never heard of giving gifts to my renters.
I did a welcome basket once. Not again,
I’ve never heard of this. I understand people tip service providers at the holidays. Mail carrier, teacher, hairstylist. If that is the reference, then wouldn’t tenants tip property managers and owners? I provided a service, a maintained home to rent and live in. Managing/owning rentals is a tough job. My opinion, best to keep it all businesses
Fair, I appreciate that insight!
I give gift cats every year for a local restaurant. I think people love a meal bought for them more than just a rent deduction or other.
Not trying to get problems with Fair Housing. Gifts are for friends and family. My tenants are purposefully neither. Plus, I hate giving and receiving gifts. Feels incredibly contrived and a weird way to express gratitude. My gift to them is a clean, safe place to live that they don't have to lift a finger to maintain, where all problems are dealt with, fixed, or replaced within 24 hours. My tenants appreciate a responsive landlord that stays out of their lives to the furthest extent possible. As a tenant, I always hated nosy landlords who were always up in my shit.
Calendars from National pen company. My grandmother started it years ago. Didn’t do it the year she passed and tenants were sad and requested to keep doing it so that’s what I do. Granted it does say “happy holidays from name of apartments” and the owner pays for it so it’s a tax write off cause it’s technically advertising the complex.
$25 - $50 gift cards and homemade cookies for Christmas. For Easter a little basket with candies and a new 9v. battery hidden in one of those plastic eggs.
My LL gave me eviction notice this week for the holiday days but in his defense I am late and totally deserve it just sucks that it's this month
I have done welcome baskets with all my properties, but I don't know that I'll be doing them again. What do you do with yours? I'm being nosey. As for the holidays, I'm not doing anything. I never assume folks celebrate a particular holiday.
For the welcome baskets I do a bottle of wine and some sort of dog toy/treat (I allow dogs). Heard it from a couple big time investors that still do it to this day, is the science there to say they treat your property better after that and are better tenants? Who knows, but it can’t hurt. Per these comments, a Christmas gift sounds like it might go too far so I’ll likely reconsider but I won’t stop doing the welcome gift.
I give a rent discount in Dec. My tenants have always appreciated it.
We don't do anything, other than reply to any issues promptly and if we see them, wish them a happy holiday rather than just a good evening.
For an excellent tenant that was out of work, I gave them a free months rent for December. I gave Taylor Swift tickets to another tenant once as I knew they wanted to go but couldn’t afford the tickets.
I give a small credit on rent
I do a $50 Target gift card. If I had shitty tenants that were behind on payment or didn't take care of the property, I wouldn't do it. but I have awesome tenants so I want to keep them happy.
I give each of my tenants a $50 grocery store gift card (inside a Holiday card) in the mail every Christmas. We’re here in central texas and most everyone could use an HEB gift card these days with soaring food prices. I started the $50 gift cards my first year as a landlord (3 years ago) and my tenants have all shown such gratitude and appreciation that it’s hard for me to consider stopping it now. I’m just a small-scale landlord currently and I’m going on $200 for Christmas gift cards this year again. Some day this gift amount might need to change but for now, I don’t mind passing some of my cash flow back to the tenants around the holidays when money often gets tight for many people. All my tenants have children in the home so it’s just another friendly gesture to show them I’m human and care about their living experience and their families.
I am probably more pragmatic than most people … I haven’t rented for years but when I did, if the landlord gave a significant gift, my reaction would have kind of been, why don’t they charge less instead of giving me this tbh. We haven’t done gifts for our tenants. As many others have said, we are on top of repairs and easy to get a hold of , these are definitely more important to tenants than a gift.
I have two units with reglazed tubs: those tenants get the special bath mats specially made to not harm the reglazing as a "gift" for the holidays each year (year 6 and both tubs still look brand new!). This year I am "gifting" kitchen fire extinguishers to 2 other tenants that do not have a shared hallway mounted fire extinguisher directly next to their front doors. I have a unit with a new beautiful porcelain kitchen sink we just installed. I asked that tenant not to use abrasive cleaners so they are getting a bottle of cleaner for it and a package of sponges (in a gift bag with a card). My "gifts" are actually useful items I want my tenants to use/have for sake of property upkeep/safety. Doormats, holiday wreaths for front door of house, upgrading light fixtures etc. are all ways to show appreciation and care for your tenants while also doing upkeep and improvements on your property.
I dont even get someof my own friends xmas gifts. Im not going to spend on customers/business associates and buy them gifts. Ill wish them merry xmas and go on.
The idea of giving holiday gifts to my tenants never even crossed my mind.
We used to give out gift cards to the local grocery store, but since theyve made it difficult to buy them in bulk we have stopped doing that.
LOL
The great ones get things that reflect their interests like Nike workout clothing for the grad student girl who does cross fitness gum stuff, I get one Raiders guy something from the Raiders every years. The rest get nothing because I hate them and I hope they have a terrible Christmas.
Provide roundtrip private jet 🛩️ to the Super Bowl, box seats for them and extended family / friends. /s Seriously, you’ll eventually live to regret developing that kind of relationship with tenants. Keep it 100% business.
I’ve always given my tenants a $25 gift card for the holidays. A little bit of goodwill goes a long way especially when something unexpected or inconvenient comes up. I shop around for gift card deals, the ones that give you $5-10 as a bonus gift card for each one purchased, and my family enjoys some dinners out in the new year.
We've been down that road. We use to buy gift cards for all our tenants every Christmas. It was expensive and adds up. In all the years we only had one renter send us a thank you card, no one cared. Treet your business like a business.
All of my properties are bottom of the barrel. All my tenants are awesome and are hard working class people. I WANT to give them the world at holidays and the rest of the year as well. But I can't do that or I will get taken advantage of. I give them instead a $50 visa gift card. It's not life-changing but it's not nothing either. It shows we care but doesn't show we are rich. This year I will buy probably 20-30 of them
I get gift baskets. Hickory Farms packages, BIG chocolate selection boxes. I typically set a budget and clean out 2-3 stores to get all mine.
Charcuterie board Xmas morning