What Happens at Renewal

The renewal process occurs when your tenant’s current lease is ending. Your Owner Relations Coordinator will reach out to you 100 - 120 days before the lease ends. At that point they will present you with options. You may offer another full year lease, a month-to-month lease, or some other variation of lease terms. At this point you may also choose to increase the rent.

If your rental property is in the city of Portland, you are required to offer your tenant the same terms they had before (18 months, 12 months, etc.). If you plan to increase rent, you must give a 90 day notice. Mainlander typically suggests a $50/month increase for a 12 month lease and a $100/month increase for month-to-month. This discrepancy is due to the risk of the month-to-month tenant moving out during a time of year that is more difficult to rent a home.  Starting January 1, 2021, the maximum rental increase allowed by the state of Oregon is 9.2%. 

Most of the time, tenants will choose one of the offered options and be done with it. Occasionally, a tenant counter offers. When this happens, your Owner Relations Coordinator will work with both you and the tenant to finalize agreeable terms. If no new lease is signed by the end of the current lease, it auto-defaults to month-to-month with no rent change.

In Oregon, spring and summer are the best time to rent out your home. Our average days on market drop to the low 20’s during these months compared to mid to high 30’s the rest of the year. Knowing this, we will usually recommend offering either a 6 or 18 month lease if your current lease ends in the fall. This will get your property back on an annual cycle that ends in a more favorable time should you need to put it back up for rent.