Is my property manager right?

[Daniel Selnes]

I have one property in California rented through a property manager.  My tenant has been renting for 2 1/2 years.  I raised the rent by 3% after one year, and now asked the property manager to raise the rent again by about 3% in six months. That will be the 2 year anniversary of the last rent increase.  The property manager warns me that I might loose the tenant if I do this, and that my house is not so easy to rent out.  So I will be looking at prepping the house and loosing a few months rent.

I'm new on the forum, and don't really consider myself a landlord.  I rely on the property manager's advice.  But in this case I'd appreciate some advice from the forum on whether it is reasonable to raise rent annually by the rate of inflation.  I think that is easier than having someone in the house for a long time, ans then try raising rent by 10% after 5 years.

The tenant always pays the rent on time.

Any thoughts?