One of the toughest parts about owning a multifamily property is the unpredictability of other people's actions. Depending upon the size of the property, you may have to worry about the actions, behaviors, and attitudes of tens or even hundreds of individuals. Thankfully, creativity can be your best friend when it comes to motivating tenants to consistently keep the best interests of the property at heart. 

Incentive programs are a great way to achieve a win-win scenario for both landlord and tenant. Give tenants a good reason, and you'll see an improvement in performance. We look at employer incentive programs to see how this theory applies:

• Most organizations (86%) have an incentive program in place.
• 70% of those organizations offer between 3 and 6 different programs.
• Incentives are part of a $100+ billion industry; $46 billion is non-cash incentives.
• Organizations using incentive programs report a 79% success rate in achieving their established goals when the right reward is offered.
• Well-structured incentive programs can increase the occurrence of the desired action by as much as 44%.

How can your property achieve the same results? Consider the following:

• Getting on-time payments—Give tenants a reason to pay on time by offering incentives such as discounts on future rent or gift cards. Property managers at the MNM Companies in Florida are a great example of how this can work. Their unique program rewards tenants with 2% cash rebates when they pay their rent on time for a minimum of six consecutive months and pass property inspections. It serves as a highly effective recruiting and retention tool for financially responsible tenants.
• Repair /damage—Want to reduce the risk associated with unreported damage? Give tenants an incentive to report it.
• Unsavory behavior—No one wants to be a nark. Yet, your tenants are oftentimes the best resources for understanding what is happening on the property. Information they provide can help ensure their own health and safety, as well as that of other tenants and the property on the whole. Give them an incentive for doing so, and make anonymity a big and sacred part of it.

Remember that incentive programs don’t have to be all about money. Non-monetary incentives work very well. In fact, a recent tenant survey reveals that gym memberships and covered parking are the top-two rated non-monetary incentives tenants would like to receive. 

Keeping it creative and consistent are the keys to your success.