Topic: Seattle what does everyone think about 180 notice to increase rent!

 

It’s crazy!!

Doesn’t surprise me none…

Better than no rent increases

That’s ridiculous.​​​​​​

And Lets not forget the rent increase cap of 10% they passed? which is a poorly disguised way for them to initiate “Rent Control” And what about something else I heard they were doing which was to make the landlord pay the residents moving expenses if they were given more than a 10% increase? Not sure if the Seattle City Council of idiots got that one passed or not too.

They did get it passed unfortunately… the laws here are very interesting

Goodness. Well that’s a polite way of summing up all these new laws in Seattle.

Other landlords increase rent more than 10% in a year?!?

Yes if way under market. With Yieldstar/LRO programs being used you do tend to see that at times.

I can’t imagine doing that to a tenant. Considering the Landlords actually make the market by setting prices this seems really unfair. No wonder so many folks are anti-landlord.

It actually works really well. Since going onto LRO we’ve seen a significant increase in renewal retention. LRO allows us to compete at the market and sub market level, and considers the shadow market made up of individual single family home rentals. It also provides us with the ability to increase those renters who are significantly below market. Our market rents fluctuate monthly based on demand; this is great for budgeting if you are affected by seasonality.

That’s crazy! I don’t like percentage based increases in any capacity. Sure that’s how I show property owners growth but definitely not how I approach retention. I’ve always used the mindset that we want to increase rent but it should be less than it would cost them to move somewhere else. $50/mo increase is an additional $600 per year. That increase at a small property of 50 units - is an additional $30,000 per year.

 $30,000 Only if you run a 0 vacancy rate and with the rent freeze for the last 2 years. Then include those who haven't paid rent at all. And the added expense of extra cleaning and sanitizing twice daily.

My properties have stayed 100% for the last 5 years. And we haven’t dealt with any rent freezes thankfully since I manage conventional properties. Only had 3 people fall behind during covid and they received assistance to catch up and haven’t fallen behind again.

We weren’t allowed to do rent increases due to the Covid Moratorium restrictions for 20 months. So right now were trying to play catch up. So yes. There are times we would do a 10% increase.

I’m guessing the smart operators will just give large notices of raises and then adjust down as the term comes to and end. You can’t gauge the market 180 days out, or if you can then what the hell are you doing here?? You just give a high raise notice then let people know what is coming down as you get closer to the real market.

Right. Just following the train of thought… Creates an automatic increase of 1% (ish) every month (or whatever period you want)…

Or 180 days out just pick something arbitrary like 10% and give notice for that.

Well, the city doesn’t offer a 180-day notice when raising property taxes?

I love that this give tenants advance notice to budget differently or find a new place. It seems like a kind thing to do. We’ve always given more than 180 days so this policy, while not in my area, wouldn’t affect us at all.

Any increase would come in a renewal notice. We don’t increase with the first renewal in general and our increases are all 3% or under (unless major reno), so we have no problem notifying ahead of time. Can you imagine the stress that it would cause a tenant if all of a sudden you were bumping up the rent with only a couple of months notice? They would either have to figure out how to come up with more money or find a new place to live in just a few months.

I think your maintenance team is going to be busy turning units in the near future.

We do 90 days with auto renewal at 60 days. 180 is too much

Some people like to take advantage of knowing where they will be. Of I can lock in a tenant with a better price now & save them another increase, I do it!

Agreed. We give them an option within their first 6 months to switch to a 2 year lease which avoids the increase entirely.

Is it legal to do a tiered renewal amount? So 6% increase if renewed at 180 days and then 1% higher per month until 10%?

I'm curious..what is the average price for rentals in that area?? I think i heard it was very expensive comparatively, so if it is..and the increase is substantial...most people need a bit of time to come up with the money, find a place to live...

What I think is crazy is that tenants in WA are only required to give a 20 day notice to vacate still. How are you to predict how many residents saying they are going to move out in 160 days to know how conservative to be on the increases?

Too long , I would recommend 90 day

We always do 3-6 months as a courtesy - with the notice there could be another market increase if they don't lock in their rate & sign by a certain date (market changes can happen at any time).