3. Landlords who don't do what they way they will do
Trust is one of the most important aspects of business. You violate that trust when you say you will do something and then don't do it or even do just the opposite.
Elsewhere in this issue is the article "When you rent from us." This is a marketing tool that you can change to fit your own circumstances. Just make sure that you do exactly what you promise in the form. When you hand a printed sheet to a tenant saying what the tenant can expect, you have created a contract. Even if you orally tell a tenant what you will do, make sure you do exactly that. It's always better to do it in writing, though, because, as Rule Number 8 (from the speech, "The Rules") states, "If a tenant can misunderstand, he will." It's corollary is "clearly stated instructions consistently produce multiple interpretations."
A couple of examples: one tenant complained about his landlord "told us before we moved in that a washer and dryer would be installed, and after we moved in and had signed the lease, told us that only ‘select' apartments would get these, and ours was not one of them."
"I had a very noisy neighbor. I had to file about eight noise complaints on him, and I don't think the management did anything at all about it, because nothing changed. Supposedly you get kicked out after three complaints."
If you make rules or promise something, your good tenants expect that you will follow them. Otherwise, what's the point in making rules and promising stuff. Fail to do what you say and your good tenants take their possessions and move them to a new location. It might even cost them more money or not be as nice, they just don't want to do business anymore with a landlord whom they can't trust.