Wifi for Your Tenants?

December 09, 2021

New Tenant Services

As we covered previously, tenants have a particular laundry list of things they’d like to have in their new rental apartment or condo. One of them is Wifi.

For those landlords who shy away from giving away anything and adhere to the bare bones service model, no charge Wifi won’t impress. If this is you and you’re not considering new ways to grow your rent yields or at least lower churn and quit leases, it may be leading into a downward spiral in revenue and business sustainability. It’s time to look into these value added strategies and earn more revenue and higher rental yields.

Free Wifi: A high speed broadband Internet service managed by a property manager which creates Wifi connection accounts for your tenants use.

Wifi was one of those benefits we covered in the What do Renters Want? post. Young Millennial renters find any electronic service/feature attractive – from electronic unit entry access to Wifi included. The words online, digital, choice, savings, and freedom are key values they respond to.

In fact, such systems are more common now in multifamily buildings because of the revenue opportunity alone. The property management company buys or leases the core high speed Internet service and serves that out from a central transmission point. And with 5G infrastructure being built out, there will be high fees associated with it, so multifamily developers/owners might look to offering the service on their properties.

How to Improve Your Rental Property Revenue

The point to many add-ons they like, is in how you can charge a higher rent or charge for extra services. Growing your rental value proposition isn’t easy, but this one has more business potential than you might expect.

It’s important to work out the cost/benefit analysis. There may be layout costs and maintenance tasks associated with this.

For current tenants, Wifi in the building may not be as valuable since they likely have their own provider or 5G service. However, for attracting new renters, the benefit of free Internet service might grab their undivided attention. Add it to your rental ads and you’ll see a jump in responses.

Keep in mind you could offer High Speed Internet at no cost and then offer a paid upgrade package for tenants who want higher speed — an easy way to boost your rental yields. There are tenants who are all in on the Internet as a cost saver for entertainment and communications. They will need super high speed bandwidth to satisfy their wants.

34% of property managers rated Wi-Fi access as number one renter benefit, (2) high-speed internet (25 percent), followed by and ensuite laundry (13%) — Xfinity Report

Other Gifts You Might Offer Your Tenants

Cable TV (bundle service with Wifi)
Satelite TV
Washer/Dryer
Wifi connected digital security system
Utilities

Out of all the freebies you can offer, high speed internet service has extended value since tenants could also make long distance phone calls cheaply. Additionally, they can buy Apple TV and get the television channels and Netflix channels they want.

Netflix, and other online entertainment services are highly attractive. In fact, the biggest consumer trend is to get rid of costly, unfulfilling Cable tv contracts. The lack of value that Cable/Satellite providers are delivering is an opportunity for you.

Offering high speed Internet and wifi is a great one two punch that puts your condo/apartment front and center with high quality renters on the hunt.

Costs, Effort and Maintenance

Of course, the added cost and added workload have to be factored in. And you may want to avoid presenting freebies to bargain hunting renters. It’s all about offering higher value to a higher quality renter demographic who is willing to pay a premium price and who will be more loyal because your apartment/condo has these features they can’t get elsewhere.

If the Wifi electronics and internet service go down, it may lead to middle of the night phone calls. However, if you are using property management software, it will encourage sms or email maintainence requests. That way you can continue getting regular sleep.

5G or Wifi in Multifamily Buildings

If you have a number of units within a multifamily building, it may be possible to set up a central service feeding each unit’s own Wifi router. You pay for one high speed service and connect all units to it. You’ll need range extenders and repeaters along with the usual internet service hardware devices.

Of course, some families may hog all the bandwidth when playing online games or downloading high definition full length movies. You can solve that by limiting the bandwidth of each unit.

Wifi Systems for Rental Properties

There is equipment cost and you’ll need a service professional to install and set it up. Check out services such as CloudWifi who offer a variety of fast residential and commercial Wifi systems in Canada. They Multi-gigabit hyper-optic network exclusively for high density buildings, perfect for multifamily building property managers in Canada.

MadebyWifi is a New York based provider of high-end, low maintenance wireless networking and Internet solutions for events, businesses and residential properties. They can assess your opportunity and you can get educated on how to maximize your Wifi opportunity.

Although there’s plenty of features and benefits tenants want, Wifi can put you at the real center of many young tenant’s lives. Let’s not forget that many older renters enjoy the very same high speed amenities. This opportunity might be more attractive and create the positive cash flow you seek.

While you’re here, take ManageCasa for a test drive.

It’s a great way to learn more about modern property management and the potential of cloud based property management solutions for your company.