All Forum Posts by: Laura L.

Just want to share that Seattle rents are exploding. Many of you know this already, but wanted to share my first hand experience within this last month. One of my units requested to terminate their lease early because of a neighbors cigarette smoke bothering them. That is another story entirely. We let them know if we could find someone else at their rate or better, we would do it for them. We found multiple families within two weeks of searching who were willing to pay over $375 more per month than the previous tenant was paying- and the previous tenants had been there less than a year at that lower rate. Amazing!

We are looking for a solid GC with a great line of experience working on multi family apartments in the past, preferably located near the Portland Oregon area. We are entering into a crowd funding situation, and would like to move forward on extended work opportunities very soon. If anyone knows of a great person to recommend for us to move forward with, I would appreciate the recommendation. We are a group of three investors, with an 8 unit multi family we have ownership of and unit we are ready to move on now. .

Most days I'm just barely getting by! I'm amazed I have made it this far at all honestly. I had the wrong fax number in my signature line for about a year, and I just realized that yesterday! I wonder how many faxes went through to the wrong number.

Don't worry about it. Look at all the success stories here. You're one of us!

It looks amazing! Congratulations. Are you moving on to the next one right away? 

Have a tenant on 15 month least that is expiring in Sept. They likely want to stay. Makes sense, as they are paying $1,575 in a nice area of Seattle, on the rapid bus line, secured bldg, W/D/ GD, DW, Stainless/Granite, WSG paid, 10 minutes from downtown, in a fully updated unit with storage locker and two off street parking spaces. Rents went up in the area IMMEDIATELY after they signed a 15 month lease. We are now 5.5 months out from the lease expiring, and I need to raise the rent. 

Rents in the area for similar units are going for 1,750 to 1,850 now, and this is the off season. That's $275 max difference. 

This seems like a drastic amount to raise rent. But, based on the area, I know there will be other tenants who will pay this, and I do need to let the current tenants know rent is being raised. 

Question: How do I go about letting them know this, in a legal and appropriate way? I already emailed them in February and said that we needed to talk about changes that were coming in September. We have not had the conversation yet, but need to this month. 

Sorry for the stupid question, but this is the first time I have had to raise rents like this. 

One thing we are dealing with - an entire neighborhood becoming multi family at once, as we are renovating a building to be multi family. Watch the neighborhood trends. You want to have a multi-family in a neighborhood with mixed MF/ SF homes. Rents will usually be higher in these areas, at least in most cities in the region I am in (Pacific NW). 

I agree with others, if you don't think that you can make up the lost months rent with an increase in rent to the next tenant, then you don't really have a choice but to lower the rent. Was/is the current rent overpriced for the market? 

I am 110 percent with Cal C. and Dave Fontana!

Rhett Tullis is right!