Empire Property Management loves to raise the rent. Not that we like hurting struggling families with an additional burden, but we know that in the end it is best for all if we keep the rents at market value. But how is this good for tenants? Well, if the owner keeps the rental rates to low they will inevitable fall behind in the maintenance of the property. When the owner falls behind in the maintenance even tenants who understand the rental market will become unhappy with the arrangement and want the owner to keep the house up. In the end the tenants are unhappy and generally move leaving the owner with a run down house and no money to upgrade. This was a lose/lose for the owners and tenants. Moving is expensive, so the tenants lost. Vacancies and deferred maintenance is expensive, so it is a lose for the owner. Furthermore,expenses are always on the rise, and unless you think your local, state, and federal governments are going to stop their out of control growth we had better keep up with the market.
We generally raise the rents effective May 1. That way if we get a vacancy over the issue we can often fill it more quickly by hitting the market at its peak. We do not like to raise rents on any tenant that has been in a unit less than a year. If you have a property that is eligible Empire will be contacting you soon.