When you rent a Direct Real Estate listing, you can immediately start earning credits, which are applicable directly towards your monthly rent. If you think your current landlord, or know of a landlord, who would like to participate in our program, please click on the submit a referral link above.
You are probably asking what a rental rewards program is and why you haven’t heard of this before. There are large national rental portfolios that implement various milestone benefits, which they pass back to their tenants, especially when it comes to your renewal period. We are however seeing a greater concentration of individual unit owners become landlords – tenants renting from single unit condo owners or single family homes. In these individual rental scenarios, often times, there isn’t a bridge for tenants and landlords to communicate. Most leases yield positive results for both parties. The financial relationship for individual condo and single family owners with their tenants varies slightly from those of a large rental community.
We find most of our landlords are quite accommodating and reasonable with their tenants, and we find that most tenants are equally respectful of their owners property and also accommodating with various requests. We also feel their should be greater emphasis on rewards passed back to the tenant since often times, how the rental investment operates with a tenant in place versus being vacant, can impact the overall financial parameters of the lease and subsequent lease renewals.
Tenant Lease Requirements
Most rental leases contain language that discusses the use of the premises and obligations you have as tenant. This including various maintenance requirements, allowing access to an owner or an owners representative when required, peace and enjoyment of your neighbors and paying your rent on time.
Incentive
One of the greatest challenges with renting an apartment is allowing access for an owner or owner’s representative to show the property. On one hand they own the property and reserve all rights to inspect, market, and sell their investment. On the other hand, tenants are afforded the peace and enjoyment of their apartment during the lease term. Tenants should be rewarded for providing access to real estate brokers if the property is for sale and they are requesting access to show the property to potential buyers.
Management
Most often condo units and single family homes are owned by an individual – not a corporation. The property you’re renting might be your landlord’s vacation property, their retirement home, or just a simple rental investment to produce income. Many tenants forget that the apartment they are sometimes renting is the only source of income for their landlord. Because of this and the need to reduce their overhead, it’s unlikely that a property owner will hire a full service management company. It’s important to have a service such as our Renter Connection to manage important aspects of the tenant and landlord relationship and highlight positives when they’re present.
Rent to Own
Rent-to-own properties include a clause in the rental agreement which either gives you the option to buy or an obligation to buy after a certain time period. The appeal to tenants is that you make rent payments each month and a portion of those payments can count toward your down payment. Should you decide to buy the property, the excess money can be applied to the purchase. This allows for tenants to sometimes build the capital required to purchase a property over a period of time, while you have a property to live in. One of the greatest challenges we hear from our tenants is that they can’t afford to both rent a property and save for a purchase simultaneously.
Pay Your Rent On time
- When the rent is received on the 1st day of every month, you earn a 1% credit applied to the following months rent.
Allow Access To Representatives
- Fire inspection.
- Maintenance work.
- Broker showings (if applicable). Each request will earn a 1% credit.
Perform Light Maintenance
- Replace AC filter when required, change light bulbs when they go out, and replace batteries to all smoke detectors in a timely manor.
- When verified part of your quarterly check up, you will earn a 1% credit.
Keep Your Rental Clean
- Maintain wet areas in your kitchen and baths.
- Keep your kitchen refrigerator and storage areas clean and free of trash that would attract rodents.
- When verified part of your quarterly check up, you will earn a 1% credit.
Rental Credit Examples:
Your apartment rent is $3,000 per month. Every month your rent is received on the 1st day = $30. Your apartment is for sale and you allow access to the broker to show six times $30 x 6= $150. For that month, you’ve earned a $180 in rental credits to be applied to the following month.
Your apartment rent is $3,500 per month. Multiple by 12 months = $42,000 in annual rent. Let’s say your rent is received on the 1st every month, for 12 months. (1% of $3,500 is $35 x 12 months = $420). Your apartment is for sale and you allow access 10 times (over the entire period it’s being sold)(1% of $3,500 is $35 x 10 showings = $350). Over the period of the 1 year lease you change your AC filter 6 times (every 2 months) and this is verified with a quarterly inspection. (1% of $3,500 is $35 x 4 inspections = $140). For the year, you could have earned as much as $910 in credits.