Tenants are customers

When you buy an apartment building realize that your tenants are your customers. Buying apartments, is similar to buying a business. It doesnt matter what product/service a business provides, all must never lose focus on their customers. Sam Walton the founder of Walmart once said "we all have one boss, the customer and they can fire us any day by chosing to shop somewhere else." What a true statement.


When it comes to marketing, there are a lot of companies who suffered because they didnt stay close to their customers. They didnt listen to their wishes. They didnt do research to see if they where delivering what fitted their desires. Looking at the car industry in the 70's America was on top. Having a big car, was the thing (at least that is what American car makers thought). With the oil embargo, and the oil shortage, small cars came here from Japan. They gave the people what they wanted and where awarded of the trends. In business it is proven that a current customer, is more likely to spend their money with you again, if you treat them right.

So how does this tie into owning/managing apartments? If you dont treat the tenants right, they will leave, damage your property or even try to sue you. If tenants, feel the management doesnt care about the property, they will not. If you decide to have a property management company oversee your investment, you should always be on top of their efforts. They alone have the single most impression on your tenants/customers.


The other day, I came across a very interesting article about a real estate investment company in San Francisco. I was amazed when I read what tenants went through. Here is the link from yelp.com


http://www.yelp.com/biz/JPWp6XoIe4VoX7M8ItCC0Q