Coronavirus and your tenants

[Monica Johnson]

I wanted to put this out there to my fellow landlords that we should check on our tenants right now. The school closings could be devastating to some especially single parents with young children. I say this as someone who would have been in a very difficult position 10 year or so years ago had this happened when my son was a toddler. Fortunately, my tenants all reported that so far everything was good but I had a couple options prepared were that not the case: waiving the late fee for 30 days, charging 50% of next months rent and allowing them to do a payment plan to pay the remainder, or doing a payment plan for all of April’s rent depending on how dire the situation was. Customer service is important as a landlord!!! It is far easier to have a current tenant (especially a good one) resign a lease than search for a new tenant and they will remember that you checked on them during this time when it comes time to renew.