All Forum Posts by: Matthew K Poer

You can try to leverage your relationship as an individual, personable landlord and send them an email or letter, or even call them on the phone. Something like "unfortunately at this time I do need to raise rent due to increased property taxes, insurance costs, etc. You have been excellent tenants and I have resisted raising rent because of that. That said, at this time I need to raise you x% from $a -> $b. I hope you understand and will still renew your lease" and so on. 

That's all assuming your local market bears the increase. I know in metro Atlanta everything's gone up the past several years, if your area is anything like ours your tenants may look around and realize they still have a great deal after your increase when everything else is jumping 5% or more every year.

Good luck!

My wife and I self-manage two nearby properties. Honestly, the one a few miles from us is super-easy. The one in the city is further away, go through traffic to get there... it's just more of a pain. We don't have to go too often but I feel the annoyance when we do, so it's tempting to be lazy about site visits. My thought would be just gauge your time/ability to get over there if you need to.

Aside from distance, just vet your tenants. We found great tenants on Zillow, background checks from Avail.co were inexpensive and easy (you make the applicant pay for it). Be ready to pay a mortgage payment or let it sit while you find a great tenant, don't settle on a "hopefully." This was easier for us in the Atlanta market since there's a shortage.

If you are still considering property management, look really closely at that cashflow. If it's too thin that a property tax or insurance hike takes you too low in cashflow, it might not be worth it.

Good luck!

Big victory. Love reading the success stories.

Thirty interviews for PM shows some real dedication and diligence. Not everyone would have the patience. Glad it's paying off!

Shopping insurance for rentals:

* Two door unit (3/2 home + detached 1/1 ADU) in 30316

* 4/3 Single-family in Marietta 30062

Happy to bundle personal auto (three cars) and 3/2 SFH primary residence.

My home policy dropped me citing branches hanging over the house (like, way up there, on a healthy tree... it's silly). I read that's happening a lot right now but it's frustrating so I'm shopping everything I have through them. My theory is that I'll get the most competitive rate from a company that can/will take everything.

A local brokerage quoted me much better premiums on my rentals but cut the coverage to get there. Felt like they were not really being upfront about it. I just found them from a Google search, so now I'm hoping I can find a recommendation from a local investor for a broker that you've had a good experience with.