Sunset
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I'm not sure the Property Manager felt enough pain. In my shoes I might nose around for another manager.
And I'd make the renter feel some pain as well. Mandatory renters insurance. Most every apartment manager requires it. And then I would have a rent hike on renewal..."due to market conditions"
I learned pretty early, to always have a rent increase every year. Not gouging, but at least some kind of increase even if my costs (ins,taxes,repairs,etc) didn't increase.
The reasons:
As landlord I'm holding pretty much all the risk, and for sure something will go wrong and suddenly I get a BIG jump in price.
It creates the expectation in the tenant that there will be an increase every year, and I think folks prefer consistent increases of: $25, $25, $25 rather than $0, $0, $95 (These come out to the same value but the second is a shock).