Summary

In this special holiday edition of Life by Design, the hosts discuss the importance of showing appreciation to tenants, investors, and team members in the real estate industry. They emphasize the value of personalized gifts, effective communication, and the law of reciprocation in building strong relationships. The conversation also highlights the significance of self-care and celebrating achievements, all while maintaining an attitude of gratitude.

Chapters

00:00 The Spirit of Giving in Real Estate

01:50 Personalized Gifts for Tenants

05:48 The Importance of Communication

07:10 Gifting to Investors and Building Relationships

09:31 Appreciating Your Team

11:56 Celebrating Yourself and Your Achievements

15:18 The Power of Gratitude and Giving

Contact Jessilyn and Brian Persson | Weekend Wealth Investments: 

• Website: weekendwealth.ca
• Instagram: weekend.wealth
• Facebook: Weekend Wealth Investments
• Linkedin: Weekend Wealth Investments

Transcript:

Jessilyn Persson (00:03)

Welcome to the special holiday edition of Life by Design, where we embrace the spirit of giving and reflect on the importance of showing your tenants, investors, and team how much you appreciate them. Real estate investing is a very social activity, so it's important to build strong, lasting relationships through gratitude and appreciation. So tune in as we spread some holiday cheer and commit to making a difference in our teams and beyond.

Brian Persson (00:29)

Yeah, and I mean, this is a real estate podcast. So the very first thing that we're going to talk about is our tenants, because we love our tenants, and we really want to show them how much we appreciate them living in our properties and paying rent on time and keeping care of the property. And the funny thing is that it doesn't take a whole lot to make someone feel really appreciated.

Jessilyn Persson (00:53)

Yeah, not at all. We've been gifting to our tenants for as long as I remember having tenants. we originally started by giving usually gift baskets with different things in it. And then as we got to know our tenants more, we custom. So we knew like if someone was a tea drinker, we would buy them probably a basket with specialty teas or tea mugs, or if someone really liked making a specific type of drink.

we could custom a basket of that, or if they had a little bit of a larger family, maybe it was a bunch of different kind of cookies and popcorn and treats. And then as time has gone on, we've morphed that a little bit and we still do some gift baskets, but we've shifted it a little bit more to gift cards. we like, I think we like the experience. So we'd like to do dinner, theater, movie tickets, restaurants, but then there are some families where they're, like I said, they're a little bigger and maybe they don't have as much.

so that we'll get them gift cards for grocery stores or Amazon, trying to make their life easier.

Brian Persson (01:53)

Yeah, and we, you know, our personal portfolio is small enough that we can keep tabs on our tenants and understand what they have. But for our apartment buildings, I actually put it as a year-round job for our resident managers to watch the tenants and figure out what they need so that they know what we can give them at holiday time. you know, all portfolio sizes, you can make it work and you can discover a little bit of

personality about your tenants to give like a very meaningful, like thoughtful gift.

Jessilyn Persson (02:29)

Yeah, and all this is amazing to get through the holiday season, because we all love gifting and giving through the spirit of the holidays. But we actually do this kind of throughout the year, depending on the situation. So, like, if we're going to interrupt a tenant's suite, you know, we'll give them, it's a smaller gift card, like, it's not going to be as big as what we would do during the holidays. But just as a thank you for, you know, letting us enter your,

⁓ building and maybe we had to go fix something or maybe we're doing an audit to make sure like there's no leaky tops or things going wrong with the unit.

Brian Persson (03:07)

Yeah, it doesn't have to be big. Just a $10 gift card to Tim Hortons or Starbucks or McDonald's. Well, whatever you kind of, kind of know is important to them and they really appreciate it. And it, uh, it really breaks down the barriers of, having someone, even, even though it's the owner of the property, having that someone enter their home because the tenant, you know, the place you're renting to the tenant is their home.

So you have to be respectful of that and just giving them a little, little thank you, like a gift card just breaks down those barriers and they're, they're much, much less resistant to have you come in and, know, like you said, sometimes you're not actually fixing something there. There's nothing wrong, but you want to make sure that your taps aren't leaking every year. That kind of, that kind of little gift card can, can like eliminate all the resistance of getting in there and properly managing your portfolio.

Jessilyn Persson (04:00)

Absolutely, and when it's a little more custom, when they know they're like, oh wow, like they got me a gift or a gift card to somewhere that I love, they're starting to go, oh wait, this isn't just my landlord, this is someone who actually cares enough to learn a little bit about me and give back to me. And while you mentioned they're more open to opening their doors for visits and fixing.

but I think they're also more apt to want to pay, pay on time, do good because they, when you give, people just naturally want to give back and that's an easy way for them to give back, pay their rent on time.

Brian Persson (04:40)

That's called the law of reciprocation. So if you give first, people are naturally inclined to give back and a tenant, you know, might give back by taking care of the property better. They might give back by paying their rent early. There's all kinds of different ways that a tenant will figure out how to give back. But as a landlord, you should give first. you know, as a landlord, you mentioned it just a second ago, you can give by giving your time. ⁓

For example, I'm fairly responsive with fixes. So if there's a, you know, a tap that's leaking, if there's a problem with the dishwasher, whatever it happens to be, I'm on top of it quite quickly. And the tenants really respect that because they feel like they're getting taken care of. And all it is is like a little bit quicker response to their concerns to the point where sometimes they actually just want to be heard and they don't actually need anything really fixed or they're actually willing to do it themselves. So if you just go in there,

make sure that your tenants understand that you're hearing them. Sometimes the problems just resolve themselves. So giving your time and giving your ear to your tenants is actually really important for having like a long-term successful tenant.

Jessilyn Persso...