Inheriting Tenants: How to Raise Rent & Protect Yourself (Rookie Reply)

Real Estate Rookie

BiggerPockets

Entrepreneurship, Education, Investing, Business, How To

4.7 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2026

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You’ve bought a rental property, but there’s one curveball: you’re inheriting tenants! On one hand, you’re able to start earning rental income on day one. But on the other hand, how do you know you’re inheriting a quality tenant, and how do you go about raising rent? In today’s episode, we share everything you need to know—before and after closing! Welcome to another Rookie Reply! Which Airbnb markets are “oversaturated,” and how can you tell? Tony, our resident short-term rental expert, says there’s much more to market analysis than most rookies think. Stay tuned as he shows you which data you’ll need before committing to any market! Finally, how and when should you start scaling your real estate portfolio? Maybe you’ve bought your first rental property, have a great tenant in place, and are building some serious cash flow. At what point should you go ahead and buy your next investment property? We’ve got the answer! Looking to invest? Need answers? Ask your question here! In This Episode We Cover What every landlord should know before inheriting tenants and raising rent How to get tenants to ask for rent increases (with the “binder” strategy) Estoppel agreements explained (and when you need them!) How to determine if a short-term rental market is “oversaturated” How (and when) to start scaling your real estate portfolio And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/rookie-703 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertise@biggerpockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You got a message for someone you've never met asking if you'd sell your house before
0:05.0	before it even hit the MLS. Do you know how to evaluate that? Do you even know what your
0:11.1	property is worth off market? And what question should you be asking before you even sign anything?
0:17.2	Today we're answering three questions straight from the bigger pockets forums, covering
0:21.1	what to do when you inherit a tenant mid-purchase, how to evaluate whether short-term rental
0:25.5	is worth it in a saturated market, and how to know when you're actually ready to scale from
0:30.0	one door to... This is the Real Estate Rookie podcast. I'm Ashley Care.
0:39.5	And I'm Tony J. Robinson. And with that, we're going to jump into our first question today,
0:43.9	which comes from the bigger pockets forums. Now, this question says, I just closed on a single-family
0:48.5	rental. Congratulations, by the way, and found out that the current tenant's lease isn't up for
0:53.6	another seven months.
0:55.1	The previous owner never mentioned this.
0:57.6	This tenant has been there for three years, pays on time, but the rent is $300 per month below market value.
1:04.5	I want to raise the rent when the lease expires, but I'm also scared of losing a reliable long-term tenant.
1:10.4	How do I approach the situation as a
1:12.2	brand new landlord inheriting someone else's setup? All right. I love this question because I get to use
1:19.5	my favorite phrase, which is an estoppel agreement. So if you've been around for a while,
1:24.8	you know that I've learned how to both what that word is and how to spell it on the podcast. But, Ash, for our listeners that maybe aren't familiar with that, break down what an estoppel is and why it might be beneficial in situations like this. Yeah. So this is too late for this person asking this question. But before you actually close on the property, you should ask the seller if you can give
1:45.4	an estoppel agreement to the tenants. And this is basically a form that the tenants are filling
1:50.4	out with how much rent they're paying, when their lease expires, when did they move in, do they
1:55.2	have any pets, what appliances belong to them, what utilities they pay, which ones the landlord
1:59.7	pays. And basically, you're
	...

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