Re-Renting Two Bellingham Vacant Apartments

If you add them all up, the team members at BNP Realtors collectively own and operate 31 rental units.

In my own slice of that pie, I recently had two, 2-bedroom 1-bath apartments come up for rent.

Both are between 700 and 800 square feet, on the ground floor, with off-street parking and a little bonus storage space (enough for, say, 3 bicycles).

Now, keep in mind, when I have tenants renew their leases I have generally kept the year-over-year rent increases to a range of about 5 to 10%.

This is to keep up with inflation, while avoiding sudden price shock for someone who has been settled in for a meaningful amount of time.

In one of the two apartments, a 3-year tenant had just moved out and left it absolutely spotless.

At the start of their lease, they had been paying $1325/month, and by the time they moved out they were at $1425.

I raised that unit's rent to $1925 and rented it immediately, with multiple people standing in line for it.

The other one had a one-year tenant at $1550/month.

It had some very tired finishes that I hadn't previously had an opportunity to upgrade, but with it newly vacant, I was now in a position to tidy it up.

The floors were already a nice LVP, and the cabinets were in excellent condition.

We replaced the counter-tops, sink and faucet, and cabinet pulls.We installed all new electrical outlets and switches.

We fully re-painted the interior.

With those upgrades, I raised the rent to $2200/month.

Again, it rented instantly with multiple prospective tenants ready to sign a lease.