DGS 4: Effective Rent Increases in Property Management with Tony LeBlanc

Learn how Tony LeBlanc has built his process for increasing rent every year with his tenants - without the uncomfortable battles, struggle, or painful negotiations - and has turned it into an opportunity to facilitate great customer service. Tony shares some fantastic mindset & philosophy that would make any owner trust him with their property - you are sure to get some valuable insights.

Show Notes:

• Tony had large property management growth in mind from the beginning 03:01
• The Biggest Challenges with Rent Increases 03:59
• The fear of raising rent, the problems it causes 05:00
• There's a direct correlation between rent increases & how well a property is maintained 08:13
• A good property becomes a bad property if it has a bad owner 09:04
• Jason's "Cycle of Suck" 09:30
• Look at each property as a business 10:58
• Avoiding dealing with uncomfortable rent increases is a reason to hire a property manager 11:59
• Set clear expectations about future, annual rent increases with tenants at the lease signing 12:13
• Contracts don't matter until it is too late, so be sure to say it to them verbally. 14:26
• The lease signing process is the biggest part of onboarding a new tenant 15:06
• Tenants forget. How Tony prepares tenants in advance, with phone calls. 16:20
• The power of regular phone calls to every tenant 17:29
• Ground Floor's process for these tenant phone calls 19:02
• Good idea to shortcut this with email? 19:40
• The advantage of being small & the barrier to feedback created by having a team 20:35
• What about dealing with owners when tenants push back? Aim for 80/20 on increases. 21:37
• The owners rely on you to be the expert - communicate income challenges & forecast for investors 23:18
• Display confidence that you are the expert. 25:20
• "No news is good news" is a bad strategy: The importance of positive touch-points with owners. 25:44
• When clients/owners reach out for updates - that's an indicator that you aren't communicating often enough. 28:08
• Tony's winning philosophy regarding treating owners as business owners 29:19
• If you haven't been doing effective rent increases, how to start 30:46
• Rent increases are a necessity to keeping your property management business running well. 32:01

Tweetables:

There's a direct correlation between rent increases & how well a property is maintained

A good property becomes a bad property if it has a bad owner

'No news is good news' is a bad strategy for client retention because it means all news will be bad news.

Make your property owners feel like a business owner with a team behind them.

Resources:

GatherKudos

Ground Floor Property Management