Rent Increases: How Often and How Much?

Print Friendly

by James Safonov

Raising rents is a luxury landlords have in the current rental market. The important things to note are when to raise the rent and how much to raise it.

Landlords must understand the tenant may quickly opt out and submit a 30-day notice to vacate if they do not want to pay the increase (or cannot afford to pay it).

With this in mind, if you have a tenant on the fence of staying or not and you still want to increase the rent, make sure you do so at an advantageous time of the year: March through September. More renters move during the spring and summer months than in the fall and winter. If they do opt out you can quickly place a new tenant.

In determining how much to increase the rent you need to check the market comps and perform a reality check with your financial situation. An increase of 3% of the current rent is generally considered a nuisance increase that will not compel a tenant to vacate. 5% or more of the current rent is more aggressive.

Our long term clients use our company website at www.homepointe.com and or use the link: https://www.homepointe.com/owner_services_rental_survey.asp to access our quarterly survey of current rental property on the market.

Knowing your financial situation is important in case they opt to vacate. A new vacant property has costs of turn over maintenance, advertisement, lease fee and potentially more.

Knowing this ahead of time may compel a landlord to keep good tenants longer by minimizing the rent increases.

James Safonov is a property manager with HomePointein Sacramento, California. HomePointe provides full service property management, leasing, accounting, and maintenance. If you or anyone you know has questions about property management in Sacramento, rentals in Natomas, Roseville or beyond please do not hesitate to contact James at [email protected].

With AAOA, landlords have resources at their fingertips. Check out our Landlord Forms page.

American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services for landlords related to your rental housing investment, including rental forms, tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org.