Lease renewal and rent increase in COVID times

[Vee Turato]

Hi everyone,

With lease renewals coming up , are you guys renewing it back to a Year lease with your tenants or just rolling it back month to month and why? 

Also, i was planning on raising the rent by min 3% (25$) in my Tenants case.  He has a job and is in good standing with me, but i inherited him when i acquired the property and the rent is def about 150$ under the market rents around the area.

Thank you!

[John Warren]

@Vee Turato this is definitely a tricky question. On one newly renovated property I manage in Berwyn I opted to keep rents the same as they were already within 3-5% of the market rent. This allowed me to minimize vacancy which is probably for the best long term. On newly acquired properties in the Berwyn and Cicero markets where rents are $200-400 under market, I will probably do an aggressive rental raise once we are through the tail end of the Covid era. I am personally hoping that the Covid related lock downs end around March, which would be perfect for a 30 day notice of rent increase for April. 

I think the important thing is to remember the Golden Rule though as you deal with people during this time. There are definitely tenants taking advantage, but many tenants are in a tough spot so we as investors would be wise to err on the side of caution.