Pushback from rent increase in new acquisition

[Ryan Hesselberg]

My wife and I recently purchased a multi use rental property. 4 offices down 2 apartments up. The apartments are well below comps. The building is in wonderful condition for the most part especially the interior. Previous owner owned it for 5 years set the rents low, never increased, and didn't maintain the exterior. We spent around $2000 already on exterior maintenance and will need to do another $1000. We own other properties and take pride in providing updated quality units with responsive maintenance. We had already planned on raising rents and decided to let the apartment tenants know well in advance (6 months) so they could have plenty of time to make their decision. One Tenant notified all the tenants in the building of their letter and there's a bunch of drama now lol. They think we should only increase 5% a year. My wife figured this may happen. ("Told you so lol"). To me it's unfortunate, however from a business standpoint I know I'm doing the right thing. I'm shocked to hear one Tenant tell me what I should charge for another tenant. #nothappening