Tenant pay renewal fee

[Ben M.]

Is it standard for property management to charge renewal fees to tenants if they want to renew their lease?

[Matthew Irish-Jones]

@Ben M. it is standard practice for our company.  We bill a lease renewal at $75 per lease.  There is more time than you think involved in coordinating a signature, answering questions from tenants, and facilitating the process.

We try to always get a rental increase that justifies the renewal fee but, that is market dependent. I am sure there are some companies out there that do not charge but.. to work with an established company that has personnel on staff locally (not just outsourced VA's in the Philippines, there is a cost to the PM company to handle this.

We have some companies locally that do not charge any type of fees. If you ever go to visit them they are a one man band with a van, a garage, and occasionally have an outsourced VA to answer calls. They are certainly cheaper but, the service is lacking and the expertise provided is suspect.

When you get involved with more established companies that have more over head they have more fee's.  In my opinion they are also more reputable, take better care of clients assets, and care about providing top notch customer service.  There is a cost to using companies like this.  Every investor is different and needs to decide what they value.  Some investors simply want the cheapest service... one way or another you get what you pay for.