Higher rents more likely to come down than lower rents

[Erik Sherburne]

As the rental market stays hot the rates are increasing quite a bit year after year.   I don't see how that continue.  When that slows or retreats does anyone have an experience, anecdotal or otherwise, as to how that affects various rental price "brackets".    Will an $1800 rental pull back to $1700?  $1650?   While a $1200 rental would pull back to $1150?   The $1200 will always be more affordable and that is where I continue to invest but the $1800 has a higher upside, my concern is just where we are in the market cycle now.

[Jim K.]

In my area of the country, if you can give more value for money than an absentee landlord mailing it in or a faceless management company rapaciously intent on maximizing their profit per unit, you're never going to go broke with rentals in the $700-$1100 range, good economy, bad economy, whatever. Write clear, understandable leases with landlord provisions that you stick to, don't be an arrogant jerk flaunting your economic success, communicate often and humbly, reserve judgment when you can. It's not rocket science.

A lot of people who work in this business simply refuse to understand that renters also tend to work together, and on breaks, one of their favorite things to do is complain about their landlords. If your tenant has less to legitimately complain about than the rest of the people s/he works with, sooner or later you're going to end up with a waiting list of future tenants.