Playing the field - Balancing landlord and tenant expectations

In property management, we have two customers. The landlord and the tenant. We all know the landlord pays our fees, but does this mean that the tenant isn’t our customer? Sometimes we take the hard line on the tenant to ensure we act in the best interest of our landlords. The truth is though, if we build a strong open relationship with our tenants, we will be able to find more compromises that keep both the landlord and the tenant happy, strengthening relationships on both sides.

Sometimes the landlord and the tenant have conflicting expectations. How do you strike a balance with both to ensure each of them are happy?

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Hey @adam

A great topic one I know that all operators like myself continue to grapple with.

It is rare, (like the holy grail) when you find a tenant and owner who are both empathetic to each-others cause, and on the same page. More often than not, you have to juggle one or sometimes both parties with conflicting values.

We have learned the hard way at Wendells and me personally in the portfolios I have ran that you never marry a difficult landlord, with a difficult tenant. It only leads to both parties un happy, and as the “Man in the Middle” you never come off clean and shiny.

I think here that with the in roads that “Prop Tech” is making it will shift the balance of power to more natural playing field between the landlord and tenant. Property Managers can then be the Platform, not the instigators of problems for either sides.

@phil has made some interesting tech focused on Tenants first, not landlords which is an innovative way to look at things, and @jodie.stainton has always been an advocate for “Loyalty Programs” for our good tenants.

Its great innovators and operators like this that will help us balance this difficult task. I would love to hear some thoughts on this… Especially from our USA members who arguably offer superior Customer Experiences compared to the AU and NZ business model.

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