The Showdown of The Century (Round 4): Minimize Vacancy vs Maximize Rent Growth

In this episode, we bring back the showdown! Tom and Michael debate whether you should maximize rent growth or minimize vacancy.   --- Transcript   Emil: Hey everyone. Welcome back for another episode of The Remote Real Estate Investor. My name is Emil Shour and my co hosts are,   Tom: Tom Schneider,   Michael: and Michael Albaum.   Emil: And in today's episode, we're going to be doing an old school style showdown episode. And today's showdown topic is going to be rent growth versus vacancy.   Emil: All right, before we get into this episode, guys, we mentioned that we were doing a little giveaway to help us get over 100 reviews and we are now at 103. So thank you everyone who answered the call there and left us a review. We're going to choose two people at random here. And if you guys just reach out to us, we'll get you some some goodies. So first winner, drumroll please. First winner, Big Red 13 Thank you big red 13 for an awesome review. And let's see here. Our second winner is going to be drumroll again please.   Tom: Papa, papa, papa. Boom.   Emil: All right. And our second winner is Bobby tonsils. Bobby tonsils. Thank you for an awesome review as well. So if you guys just want to reach out to us, I'm at [email protected], Michael is [email protected] and then Tom is just [email protected] . Just reach out to us. Let us know we call your name. Since these are kind of like usernames, we don't know your first and last name. So just reach out to us. And we'll use the honor system. And we'll send you some goodies. Thank you guys so much. So let's hop into this episode. Alright guys, so today's showdown is going to be rent growth versus vacancy. And this is a good one because I think it is well debated. And there's good points to be had on both sides.   Michael: But there's better points to be had on my side. So let's go That's right. Well,   Emil: what is your side? Michael? What's that? Are you taking on this showdown?   Michael: I'll take the stance of rent growth because I think that's the more difficult position and I want to be a gentleman and give these your position to Tom to start.   Tom: A lready handicapping himself already sowing the seeds of defeat. I'm gonna reap a lot of failure harvest, okay, go ahead.   Michael: Good thing I studied Agricultural Engineering. I'm the best harvester in this group.   Tom: Oh, yeah.   Michael: That's like such a tough comeback. Like, Oh, yeah. Yeah.   Emil: So Tom, you're taking the side then of vacancy?   Tom: I'll start with vacancy. And then in tradition of the showdown, we'll switch it up.   Emil: By vacancy, we mean, making sure are trying the best you can to not incur a vacancy. Right.   Michael: Yeah, I guess that's good. Clarify.   Tom: Yeah, well, let's clarify the bait first. Yeah, they can see versus rent growth.   Emil: Yeah, like, We're not saying we want vacancy, we want to not have vacancy. So the question is, do we do all we can to keep the tenant in place, and maybe not charge higher rent, lease renewal, or we always go in for rent growth. So who wants to kick us off?   Tom: Well, in format, right, one side starts the other robots, and then the initial side gets to go again, Michael, why don't you lead us off, just cuz I feel like, you know, there could be some upfront bias on both sides. So sure, go ahead, lead the way. And then you'll then we'll change the order next time around.   Michael: I appreciate you baiting me now. So that's great…   Tom: Gentlemanly move, just trying to…   Michael: Humble brag. So I think it's so important to maximize rent growth, and really prioritize that over vacancy for a couple of reasons. One is when it comes to property performance, if we're maximizing rent growth, that's gonna have an immediate impact on the property's performance. And, as a lot of our listeners know, I'm a big fan of multifamily investments, I own a lot of multifamily investments. And so, minor incremental rent increases on a property on a pe