Resident Retention: When a $10 Rent Increase Can Feel Like $100 via Property Management Insider

In my past life as an assistant manager, I remember having a long conversation with a resident about her renewal notice. The notice offered her another 12-month agreement with a relatively small increase of $10 per month. Now, while I was accustomed to the traditional debate regarding rent increases for amounts such as $50 and more, this was my first time negotiating over a $10 increase.

I went through all of the customary measures—explaining cost of moving, reviewing the options available for different lease lengths, and comparing the resident’s $10 increase to what we would offer a new move-in for her apartment. After laying out what I thought was a good case for renewing, the resident simply responded, “but my stove is still broken.” Caught completely off-guard, I asked her how long had her stove been out of service, to which she replied “longer than it took you guys to type this letter and stuff it in my door.”

Needless to say, that conversation didn’t go as smoothly as planned. When I pulled up her service request history, I noticed that she had in fact reported multiple problems with her stove. I also noticed that each request had been closed out with notes such as “work completed” and “done.” Not a whole lot of information to go on, right?

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