I met with an owner today that was convinced her property should rent for $800 or more.  I explained to her that the owner two doors down was asking $650 and the comparable rents in the area were closer to $700.00.  Her vacancy was extending into its third month with no bites.

To make matters worse, the neighbor upstairs was noisy and had two illegal tenants.

In my estimation, the root of the problem is an over priced property.  Rents that are too high make an owner make bad decisions.  Since only a few people apply due to the high price the owner gets desperate.  The only tenants that apply are those with bad or questionable credit, bad or no rental reference, and income that may not qualify for the long term.  Why, because good tenants shop price and can live anywhere.  Bad tenants have to find an owner that has no standards.

In the end the owner will have to make a tough decision.  Continue with the high rents and those problems, or lower the rents and have fewer problems and less income.  But, the income may actually be higher at lower rates as it will be collected and vacancies will be filled.