Inflation – Do not miss the Opportunity to Increase Rents!

June 1, 2022

Table of Contents

by the Portfolio Management Team, Summerfield Management

As inflation rises, you’re going to need to cover increased costs and protect your ROI by raising rents.

When On-site Staff see increases as unfair to Tenants, it can leave the entire community in a state of discontent.

There’s a simple fix for this.

What is it?

An open discussion with employees about costs.

Sounds like an exercise in TMI, right?

Don’t worry, you don’t need to share your P&L statement with On-site Staff.

Instead, combat discontent by dispelling a pervasive myth about rent increases by sharing these truths.

Myth: Rent increases are a cash grab by ownership. Truth: Increases will not help ownership make more money. Operating costs increased during the pandemic and have now skyrocketed because of inflation and other economic factors. Increases mean we’ll be generating more revenue, but the owner’s profit will remain the same. Truth: Market rate. In most states, we have been in a lockdown for the past 2 years, not only in collecting rents, but in raising rents. Increases bring leases inline with current market rate. A tenant may feel an increase is unfair, but if they decide to move, they will find rates for comparable units about the same. We love our residents and hope they’ll choose to stay. Truth: Service. We don’t want to cut corners on service. Increases help cover the cost of maintaining the level of service residents expect.

Understanding the truth about the necessity of rent increases makes difficult changes easier, which will help keep occupancy high and Staff and Tenant turnover low.

How’s that for a day’s work?

When you’re ready for a better property management experience, call us.

If your property is a good fit for our portfolio, we’d love the opportunity to put together a management proposal for you.

Robert Parmar

Southeast Region

rparmar@smfield.com

770-920-3055

Trevor Manning

Northwest Region

tmanning@smfield.com

503-867-5214

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Summerfield specializes in the management of apartment properties that are approximately 125 units or larger, and is licensed to manage in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Florida, Georgia, & South Carolina.

If you would like to discuss additional specifics of our management program, please reach out to our Managing Director, Robert Parmar at rparmar@smfield.com or call 770-628-5943.