A landlord’s nightmare — one of my properties had been empty for months. The previous tenant had done a bunk, and although I’d done all the right things, refurbished, and redecorated inside and out in neutral colours, put it with different agents, placed ads myself, nothing was happening. A few viewings but no takers. I really couldn’t understand this, and with £300 going out each month on the mortgage, this was just not OK.
Finally, I was prompted into taking inner action by a close friend, who said ‘You have to love that house Jane! At the moment, you’re hating it, resenting it, and wishing you hadn’t bought it. That won’t work.’
She was right, and I just hadn’t realised it. That day I created a picture of the house with the photos I had of it, all nicely cleaned and decorated. I directed my thoughts lovingly at it, I affirmed that I had a marvellous long-term tenant, and I refused to let any other thoughts enter my head about it. I practiced feeling great about this house, with it’s wonderful tenants in, did this every morning for a couple of minutes, and then I didn’t think about it anymore. Within 3 weeks, I had a delighted tenant.
So here’s the five steps you must take if you’re finding it hard to get a good tenant, even if you’ve apparently done everything right:
a) Find out what you’re feeling about your property. You do this by noticing what you’re thinking about it, eg if you just wish the whole thing would disappear, then you can be sure you have some negative feelings about it. Or pay attention to how you feel each time you think about it. If it’s depressed, fed up, angry, bored, embarrassed, anything other than a good feeling, then it needs to change!
b) Acknowledge what you’re feeling. You must know what’s getting in the way, and then take a moment to acknowledge those feelings. If you don’t do this step, it is akin to having a visitor come to your home and you either don’t open the door to them at all, or if you do, you quickly slam it shut in their face! The feelings you don’t want must be acknowledged because otherwise you’re not telling the truth about your situation and these feelings will lurk around in the background, ready to trip you up when you least expect it.
c) Let go of the feelings – ie say hallo, thank you for visiting, but no thank you. Literally, I sometimes have people do exactly this in their mind’s eyes. It works. Or you could let go of your angry feelings, say, while you’re at the gym, or out for a walk. Walking in an angry manner is a great and safe way to let go of feelings that are getting in your way. If you’ve never done this before, I recommend trying it, it works!
d) Take active steps to ‘love’ your property. Whatever this means to you, this step is crucial. You could do just what I did; or you could just do all that in your imagination. Of you could find some other idea that appeals to you, like giving it a thorough clean yourself whilst being aware you are loving it. It is how you take this step that is so important, not so much what you do. However, whatever method you find that works for you, commit to practicing it each day until you have found a good tenant. If you haven’t put an ad in the paper yourself, do this along the lines of ‘Great 2 bed house looking for someone wonderful to make it their home. If this is you, call….’. Your job in this step is to put out to the world that this property is ultra-special in a different way to every other property. Your agent won’t have a clue how to do this.
e) Finally, practice associating your house with you feeling good. If you’ve never done this before, imagine right now a time when you felt great, and note the words you used to describe that feeling. This is how you want to be feeling whenever you think of your property. Associate the two by conjuring up these feelings whenever you think of your property and you’ll be well on your way to finding a tenant.
The power of the mind is incredible. It can be used for you, or against you. There was no logical reason why my house wasn’t renting; the agents had no idea, couldn’t understand it themselves. If you’re in this situation, I strongly advise taking some loving action, in whatever way. Be disciplined about directing your thoughts and feelings positively about your property, take physical action if necessary, and keep going until change happens. It will!
Jane Duncan Rogers runs RichThinkers, a coaching and mentoring business helping you use your mindset to create what you want in your business and your life. If you’re finding it hard to identify or change your thoughts and feelings about your property challenge, call me on 0044 1309 676280 or visit www.richthinkers.co.uk to sign up for my free report 7 Steps to Thinking Rich, or to join her next tele-coaching circle.
I have used the principles I write about here in RichThinkers to bring about all kinds of things in my life, including running a successful counselling practice and health clinic business. Coming from a place of inspiration has enabled me to bring meaning and magic into all that I do, and my background in psychotherapy and counselling, combined with practical business skills, means I am uniquely positioned to help you in both the inner and the outer levels of success. (more…)
5 steps to get tenants into your property when the usual methods haven’t worked
A landlord’s nightmare — one of my properties had been empty for months. The previous tenant had done a bunk, and although I’d done all the right things, refurbished, and redecorated inside and out in neutral colours, put it with different agents, placed ads myself, nothing was happening. A few viewings but no takers. I really couldn’t understand this, and with £300 going out each month on the mortgage, this was just not OK.
Finally, I was prompted into taking inner action by a close friend, who said ‘You have to love that house Jane! At the moment, you’re hating it, resenting it, and wishing you hadn’t bought it. That won’t work.’
She was right, and I just hadn’t realised it. That day I created a picture of the house with the photos I had of it, all nicely cleaned and decorated. I directed my thoughts lovingly at it, I affirmed that I had a marvellous long-term tenant, and I refused to let any other thoughts enter my head about it. I practiced feeling great about this house, with it’s wonderful tenants in, did this every morning for a couple of minutes, and then I didn’t think about it anymore. Within 3 weeks, I had a delighted tenant.
So here’s the five steps you must take if you’re finding it hard to get a good tenant, even if you’ve apparently done everything right:
a) Find out what you’re feeling about your property. You do this by noticing what you’re thinking about it, eg if you just wish the whole thing would disappear, then you can be sure you have some negative feelings about it. Or pay attention to how you feel each time you think about it. If it’s depressed, fed up, angry, bored, embarrassed, anything other than a good feeling, then it needs to change!
b) Acknowledge what you’re feeling. You must know what’s getting in the way, and then take a moment to acknowledge those feelings. If you don’t do this step, it is akin to having a visitor come to your home and you either don’t open the door to them at all, or if you do, you quickly slam it shut in their face! The feelings you don’t want must be acknowledged because otherwise you’re not telling the truth about your situation and these feelings will lurk around in the background, ready to trip you up when you least expect it.
c) Let go of the feelings – ie say hallo, thank you for visiting, but no thank you. Literally, I sometimes have people do exactly this in their mind’s eyes. It works. Or you could let go of your angry feelings, say, while you’re at the gym, or out for a walk. Walking in an angry manner is a great and safe way to let go of feelings that are getting in your way. If you’ve never done this before, I recommend trying it, it works!
d) Take active steps to ‘love’ your property. Whatever this means to you, this step is crucial. You could do just what I did; or you could just do all that in your imagination. Of you could find some other idea that appeals to you, like giving it a thorough clean yourself whilst being aware you are loving it. It is how you take this step that is so important, not so much what you do. However, whatever method you find that works for you, commit to practicing it each day until you have found a good tenant. If you haven’t put an ad in the paper yourself, do this along the lines of ‘Great 2 bed house looking for someone wonderful to make it their home. If this is you, call….’. Your job in this step is to put out to the world that this property is ultra-special in a different way to every other property. Your agent won’t have a clue how to do this.
e) Finally, practice associating your house with you feeling good. If you’ve never done this before, imagine right now a time when you felt great, and note the words you used to describe that feeling. This is how you want to be feeling whenever you think of your property. Associate the two by conjuring up these feelings whenever you think of your property and you’ll be well on your way to finding a tenant.
The power of the mind is incredible. It can be used for you, or against you. There was no logical reason why my house wasn’t renting; the agents had no idea, couldn’t understand it themselves. If you’re in this situation, I strongly advise taking some loving action, in whatever way. Be disciplined about directing your thoughts and feelings positively about your property, take physical action if necessary, and keep going until change happens. It will!
Jane Duncan Rogers runs RichThinkers, a coaching and mentoring business helping you use your mindset to create what you want in your business and your life. If you’re finding it hard to identify or change your thoughts and feelings about your property challenge, call me on 0044 1309 676280 or visit www.richthinkers.co.uk to sign up for my free report 7 Steps to Thinking Rich, or to join her next tele-coaching circle.