Inflation in Rental Real Estate
In our last update, we talked about inflation in real estate and its effects on your rental home. We wanted to expand on this topic and let you know about some of the forces at play and where we feel the effects of inflation in our business.
Vendor Labor - Quality vendors are becoming harder and harder to find, and the ones who are still around are charging more for their services due to labor/material shortages & inflation. Our maintenance team faces a continued challenge with getting great labor in your home without breaking the bank.
Appliance Costs & Parts - Appliances and specialized items for your rental property are becoming harder to come by with growing shipping times. Alongside the appliances, getting parts for said appliances, etc can be difficult to do right now with logistics issues across the board with shipping and trucking industries.
Insurance, Taxes & Dues - At Stone Oak Property Management, we anticipate an increase in the costs of these items for your rental property(s) in the near future. Property values have increased dramatically in Austin/Central Texas in the recent past and property values are usually the main factor in these costs.
Rent - The offset to the increasing costs for everyone are slowly rising wages while rents are also increasing. The housing shortage in Central Texas has been causing upward pressure on rents for several years now, and with the cost of property ownership rising it is only adding to that pressure.
Inflation has its effects on all industries, not just property management. The best thing we can do is adapt to the current market state the best we can and keep moving forward. Our key relationships across the real estate community & the vendors working within the industry here in Austin are important right now. This enables us to pass along savings well below current market rates in Austin at this time.
New Benefits Package for Tenants
Stone Oak is introducing a new benefits package for our residents and we want to give you a sneak peek of the benefits offered from renting YOUR home via Stone Oak. Our residents will soon receive a package with a variety of benefits including $1M in identity protection, rewards programs, credit building for paying rent, A/C filter delivery service and so much more!
As we get closer to rolling the program out to our tenants we will be sure to keep our owners informed and in the know of the full offering of benefits to our residents.
Tax Protest Season has Ended
Earlier in November, we notified all of our clients who participated whether our protest partner was able to achieve any reduction on your property, and also posted the billing. If there was any billing you will see that on your statement this month.
We have some statistics we want to share with you as well as let you know we’re working on a better experience for you next year. We are working on some exciting prospects for the protest experience next year, and will update in the future.
Here are some portfolio stats for the protests this year:
415 properties protested
$135,622,915 portfolio value
$4,112,705 in value reductions
$9,910 average reduction/home
$232 average savings/home
75% success rate
3% average reduction
$96,284 in tax savings
Williamson County was the most difficult to work with this year. They did very little in terms of adjustments, and would not accept current sales prices in many cases because of the quickly escalating prices we experienced over the summer. There were many homes that sold for 10’s of thousands of dollars over the asking price, and the appraisal district was well aware when going through the protests.
The next protest season will start in the late spring with the deadline for filing being in May. We will continue to protest managed properties that participated this year. Please contact your property manager if you’d like to sign up for this service.
The End of Rent Relief Programs
The various ‘rent relief’ programs that spawned due to COVID are beginning to come to an end. We’ve received notice from Texas Rent Relief as well as the City of Austin that their respective programs are coming to an end and they are no longer accepting applications. Still no word on Travis County’s program, but we assume this will be ending soon as well. The current eviction moratorium in Austin is set to expire in December, and at this point, all we can do is wait and see if they extend it again. As we approach the new year we are seeing some return to business as usual when it comes to evictions and delinquency rates. Hopefully, the turn of the calendar will bring everyone good fortune and some sense of normalcy
Upcoming Holiday Hours
As we approach the end of the year and the holiday season we wanted to remind our clients of our holiday hours. Please review the schedule below. Stone Oak employees will not be available on the following dates & times.
Thanksgiving | In November, our offices will be closed all day on Wednesday the 24th & Thursday the 25th. We will have a limited crew on hand for Friday the 26th.
Christmas Eve | Our offices will be closed on Friday, December 24th.
New Year's Eve | Our offices will be closed on Friday, December 31st.
Happy Thanksgiving to You & Yours
We’d like to take a moment and wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving as we enter the holiday season. We are thankful for the opportunity to serve you as our clients and manage your property(s). Please don’t hesitate to contact our team if you need anything at this time!
