Some feuds seem eternal. Cats versus dogs. Humans versus nature. Tenants versus landlords.
Daniel Lavender wishes it wasn’t this way. As a landlord for about the past 15 years, he laments the ugly end to many tenant-landlord relationships, and thinks everyone would benefit if cooperation was incentivized. Through his new company, Property Points, he hopes to offer that incentive.
“The best way to resolve any conflict between tenants and landlords is to have an open line of communication.” Lavender said. Most tenants have good intentions, he stressed, including an intention to pay their rent. “But things can come up,” he added, “Including serious medical issues.”
Tampa-based Property Points is a platform that lets tenants redeem points they’ve accrued for gift cards. Property owners and managers purchase points from Lavender’s company for about $0.10/point and choose tenant behaviors they want to reward. Behaviors can be broken down into categories, Lavender said, such as recurring (paying rent on time or renewing a lease) and nonrecurring (passing property inspection and referring another tenant). Property Points charges a 20 to 30 percent redemption fee for points.
“Our model is pretty straight forward,” he said. “Property managers purchase points from Property Points, then choose how they want to allocate them. The points are deposited into the tenants account and can be redeemed anytime. They do not expire and stay with the tenant even if they move.”
Lavender has evicted one tenant during his decade and a half as a landlord, and considers this a general success compared to other landlords. His idea for Property Points emanated from an aim to help reduce the number of evictions.
“I thought, ‘Let me work out a system that, instead of penalizing tenants for bad behavior, encourages good behavior,’” he said.
The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the precarious position many renters are in. In the wake of the coronavirus shutdown, state and federal bans on evictions kept many tenants from being forced out of their homes. However, many of those bans began to end in mid 2020. Unable to make rent, millions of tenants across the country face looming evictions.
Launching Property Points during a pandemic posed a challenge, said Lavender, but he has managed to find motivation.
“Launching a company during the current Covid crisis has been both challenging and encouraging,” he said, adding that Property Points provides resources for its users, including local and state assistance providers for those struggling through the economic downturn.
Still, Lavender said, “the lasting effect on the real estate market is unknown. Areas like NYC are seeing a migration to the suburbs and the vacation rental market has been hit hard.” Rather than lower their prices, Lavender thinks vacation rentals should offer Property Points incentives to their renters.
“We are encouraging vacation hosts to incentivize vacation rentals with Property Points instead of lowering their prices,” he said. “We believe that lowering prices will diminish the customer’s perception of value and make it difficult to attract them back at a higher price.”
