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Is it Time to Adjust Your Smith Mountain Lake Rental Rates? How a Fresh Market Assessment Can Help

A Model House on a Scale with Money Bag on the Opposite SideIf you’re not clear as to when to adjust your rental rates, it might be because you let a whole year go by without doing a market assessment on your rental properties in Smith Mountain Lake. As rents for single-family rental homes continue to rise nationwide, property owners who are not adjusting their own rental rates every year may be losing rental income. However, you would need detailed market information if you want to be sure that you should raise your rental rates— and by how much. The information will help you set the most competitive price for each of your properties. This explains why an annual market assessment is crucial to your long-term real estate investing success.

Executing regular market assessments are a key part of owning a profitable investment property in Smith Mountain Lake. Through these assessments, property owners can figure out the market rental rate for their single-family rental homes. There are a variety of ways to calculate rental rates, but your rate should always be based on the rental market. If it isn’t, then you might end up setting a rate that is too high, making it difficult to rent the property. The reverse is also not good. You might set a rate that is too low and potentially lose rental income, or worse, potential tenants will avoid your property because they think something is wrong with it on account of the very low rate. To guarantee that your rental rates are at par with what renters in your area will pay, it’s vital to know what the going rental rate is for properties in your local market.

Conducting a rental market assessment entails gathering information on average rents for rental properties in a particular area. A way to do this is to first identify at least three rental properties that are similar to yours. Get the monthly rent for each one, and when you have that, divide that number by the square footage. Averaging the price per square foot will then give you the average rent of a property in the area that is similar to yours. This will help you arrive at the most accurate rental rate for your property.

There are other determinants that you have to consider when doing a rental market assessment. You’ll need to take into account the attractiveness of the neighborhood, proximity to amenities, and access to major roads and public transit. When assessing the local rental market, there are items that would demand a higher rental rate. A neighborhood that is well kept, without distressed properties or broken sidewalks or crumbling roads, will have a stronger appeal for quality renters. Nearby amenities like libraries, shopping, and parks can also be a good attraction, so would quick and easy access to major roads and public transportation. All of these elements have to be considered when performing a rental market assessment, giving you the appropriate rental rate adjustments.

Various investors have determined that rental market assessments play a vital role in searching and purchasing quality rental properties.  That is why market assessments must be conducted annually to make it certain that your rental properties catch up with the changes in the local rental market. Regular rental increases can ensure that a rental property continues to be profitable over the long term and remains competitively priced no matter what the local market is doing.

However, one problem is that rental market assessments can take up a great deal of time, and if inappropriate comparable properties are used, it could result in a significant loss of rental income from extended vacancies or a rental rate that is too low. For this reason, including industry experts on your investment team is so important.

At Real Property Management Cairn, we offer free annual rental market assessments to each and every one of our property owners currently under contract, including one free rental market assessment to property owners considering our services. By executing a fresh market assessment on each property every year, one in conformity with market expertise and solid data, we assist investors in retaining and keeping their rental properties competitively and accurately priced.

Would you like to make full use of a free rental property assessment? Contact us to learn more.

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