Rent Increase Advice (Seattle)

[Ian Rogers]

Hey all. New to BP and first time poster. I did some searching first but didn't really find what I was looking for. 

Some background on me. I am novice rental investor, with only one property. We bought a townhouse in Ravenna, Seattle and when we decided to upgrade we were able to keep our townhouse and rent it out. Ravenna is a booming area, even by Seattle standards. We set the rental price relatively high, but judging by a number of inquiries, we could have gone higher. 

Our tenant has been in there for two years now. We had a 1-year contract which then moved to a month-to-month contract. We have not raised the rent since she moved in.

Part of our concern has been that she is such a great tenant. Always pays on time, never complains about things and generally needs minimal assistance. Although, part of this could be because the house is just in such great shape :). Anyway, the concern is that we raise the rent too high, she moves out and someone higher maintenance moves in, costing us money through time.

Anyway, I'm looking for advice on raising rental prices (by how much and when etc), plus just general advice on how to set rental prices, like resources etc.

If people have advice specific to Seattle, that would be great. It's certainly a crazy market here. But any other general advice would be great.

Thanks all