It is no secret the the world around us is fully immersed in technology. It truly makes our world go around, and most of us cannot imagine living a life sans email, text messages, status updates, or tweets. For the majority of us, these are our communication life-lines. Heck, even people aged 60+ are now diving into the world of smartphones, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
The world of communication has changed remarkably, even in just the last 15-20 years.
These modern conveniences undoubtedly run most of our personal/social lives, so it is understandable just how easy they drift into our business life. In recent years past, this has mostly been in exchanging information or sending messages with our colleagues--or those in our business networks, that isn't so much the case anymore. Now I see a large number of landlords & PM's communicating directly with tenants via text messages and social media. Actually this trend is growing quite rapidly. We have seen property management companies hitting tenants with email/text/social media blasts, communicating news & announcements, for several years now.
These communication technologies are here to stay, and we all use it. Some of us even strictly rely on this type of tech to communicate with our tenants. Well...is this a good thing or a bad thing?
I won't go as far as saying that this is a bad thing, because there are a lot of positive ways that we can utilize these quick-hit methods of communicating with our tenants, but I do want to make it quite clear that we must use our technology wisely, and use it only with appropriate correspondence.
Informing a multi-family building with a core demographic aged 18-30 might be quite receptive to text/social media blasts, especially with things like: letting them know that the common recreation courtyard will be closed on Tuesday between 1:00PM-3:00PM, for landscape work. They will quickly get the message, be appreciative of the "green" way of communicating, and move forward with their week informed. However, a tenant may not be so receptive to hear via Facebook wall post or text message that you will be entering their home on Tuesday for an inspection.
Announcement Vs. Notice.
This whole discussion really comes down to: there is a time and a place for our wonderful technology.
With general announcements, that are low sensitivity/priority, it might not hurt to shoot emails, texts, Facebook posts, etc. to your tenants. If it is medium sensitivity/priority, you probably ought to get that tenant on the phone and speak with them verbally. If it is something that is a higher sensitivity/priority, such as items related to entry of their rental unit, violations of lease terms, collections activity, you are definitely going to need to communicate the old fashioned way...
..."Snail Mail"...
Don't get me wrong, perhaps you can supplement "snail-mail" with those other things... phone calls, texts, notices posted on doors, etc.--things we would reasonably assume would get the message across, however we cannot rely on such things with the aforementioned higher sensitivity items.
When communicating with tenants about lease related matters, RELY ONLY on sending them post certified letters with return receipts. When the tenant receives the mail, they are required to sign for these letters, and a signed return receipt is mailed back to your address. Now you have proof that they have received your communication, as far too often (especially if matters go in front of a judge), tenants often claim that they have not received any of your communication (even if you have phone records, printed emails, texts, etc.), even if you know that is simply not true. If the tenant refuses to sign for your letter, you will receive it back through the mail, and will at least have it for proof that you made a reasonable good-faith attempt at communication, in case resulting matters involve courts/lawsuits/judges.
So the long & short of it is that technology makes our lives much more comfortable, efficient, and quick in the communication areas, however, we must be very careful in how we utilize tech communication in our professional worlds.
Regardless of your communication methods with tenants, make sure it is reasonable & verifiable. This will make all of the difference in front of a judge.
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