Should i lower my rent

[Peter Darby]

Here is a question for the greater minds of bigger pockets.  Should I lower my rent? I had posted a couple years ago with the question of whether I should manage my first property while working 60 hours a week. From the helpful responses I received I decided to manage it. After a year I had dealt with my first 2 tenants (roomates) growing apart and one moving out. Then found out the remaining tenant moved her boyfriend in and another dog without my knowledge. I get it, I'm not the best landlord as of yet. But I decided to keep trying and hone my craft. The tenant that I have in there now has been in for 13 months. When she completed her first year lease she told me that the rent was getting hard to pay, and asked if I could come down some. I told her no and we agreed on doing a month to month lease while she decided if she is going to stay. Of course she promised to give me more than a 30 day notice if she was going to leave. For some reason I actually believe her. Here's the reason this isn't such an obvious answer to this question. She has always paid rent on time. She keeps the place nicer than I did when lived there. when there is a problem she finds and arranges for the repairs to be done only after talking to me first. I feel like she could be a long term solid tenant and also I don't really want to roll the dice on putting a new person in there. My thoughts were to take the rent down from $1200 to 1150 to 1175 with a signed year lease. This being said after the year lease the rent will go back to $1200. I would like some feedback on this idea. She does take great care of the house and does a lot of the legwork I don't have to do. I could remove myself from the management by hiring a property manager. But that is going to cost me much more than the rent deduction and as we all know the manager may be worse at their job than I was the first year. Thank you for reading and looking forward to your response