PM renewal questions

[Steve J.]

Hey BP!

It’s time for my lease renewal and my PM is charging $350 which I expected for a renewals. However, they are telling me with all lease renewals included is a “Tenant Benefit Package” where the tenant has to put an extra $20/month and they partner with “credit hub” which is a credit bureau which will “incentivize on time rent payments and help my tenant improve their credit score”. I’ve never heard of anything like this, but this is my first property. I did plan on raising rents, and am concerned that they will be adding $20 to the tenant in addition to me raising the rent. Also, my tenant already pays on time consistently, and “improving her credit score” would only make it more likely that she actually gets a house at some point rather than continue renting from me. I could see if this was optional for tenants, but they are presenting as being mandatory. What are y’all’s thoughts, and how would you handle this?

[Julie Hartman]

@Steve J. I have never heard of such a package but it may be very PM specific. I assume this was written into the lease language and the tenant knew about this and agreed to it by signing the lease so I doubt it's a big deal to them. $20 is not very much these days; most people spend that easily in a week at Starbucks. It was also was most likely written into your management agreement so I doubt there is anything you can do about it other than find a new PM once the agreement expires.