One unfortunate reality about being a landlord is the broken lease. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, leases are broken. 

On occasion, it’s the tenant who breaks the terms of the agreement. They have to relocate for work and must end the lease early. Sometimes, a tenant vacates without notice. 

At other times, you might have to terminate a lease early because a tenant violates the terms of the lease agreement. Despite your thorough tenant screening process, you ended up with a bad tenant. 

You can relax knowing that while it's not the norm, breaking a lease happens to every landlord. Here's what to do when a tenant breaks a lease for your West Bloomfield property. 

Ascertaining the exact value of a rental property can be challenging. Working with your property management company can make the process easier. For investors, weighing the ROI requires combining a few calculations, doing some research, and reviewing your PM’s sources and listening to their recommendations. 

Where you set your rent will ultimately determine who you attract and how much cash flow you can expect after expenses. If the rent is too high, you may limit your prospects considerably. Your house could stay on the market longer than expected. 

What happens, however, if you set the rent too low — particularly below market value? 

Several things:

• You could attract less-than-desirable tenants.
• You could tip the scales of the rental market in the area.
• You could miss out on tax breaks since the IRS classifies below-market rental homes as personal properties instead of rental properties.
• You decrease your property’s market value.
• You decrease your net operating income (NOI), thus putting less money aside for operating expenses. 

As you can see, it doesn’t benefit you or anyone else to maintain too-low rental rates. So, what is the best way to raise your rent in a way that doesn’t alienate your current tenants or prospective renters? Let’s take a closer look.