Skip to content
Maximum Income Property Management Corp.
Call 604-216-7368

For new landlords

Letting a property for the first time

Some owners buy deliberately as an investment. Others arrive here because they have just taken possession, are renewing a mortgage and weighing sell against let, or had the short-term rental rules change underneath them. Either way, the first tenancy is the one where the rules bite, and they are not intuitive.

This is what we would tell you over the phone, for free, before you decide whether to use us at all.

Before you worry about vacancy

The vacancy rate in the news is not your market

3.7% is the vacancy rate for purpose-built rental apartments. Condominium apartments in the same survey were at 1.5%. Which one describes your property matters more than either number on its own.

1.5%
Vacancy, rental condominium apartments
3.7%
Vacancy, purpose-built rental apartments

What decides your return is not the vacancy rate. It is whether your tenant stays another year.

On a $2,500 rent, one vacant month costs $2,500. The 2.2% increase you are allowed in 2027 is worth $660 over a full year. Keeping a good tenant is usually worth more than the increase.

Vacancy: CMHC Rental Market Report, Vancouver CMA, 2025. Rent cap: Province of British Columbia, for 2027.

The practical consequence: pricing to keep a good tenant in place usually beats pricing to the top of the market. A unit that sits empty for six weeks has given back more than the rent increase you were entitled to charge, and the cost of turning a unit over does not stop at lost rent. There is cleaning, repainting, advertising, screening, and whatever the previous tenant left behind.

The basics

Six things that catch first-time landlords out

None of this is legal advice. It is the shape of what you are taking on, so you know which questions to ask.

  1. 01

    A tenancy is a legal agreement, not a handshake

    The Residential Tenancy Act governs deposits, notice, entry, and how a tenancy ends. Most first-time landlord problems are not bad tenants. They are notices served the wrong way, deposits held without the right paperwork, or a term in the agreement that is unenforceable because the Act overrides it.

  2. 02

    You cannot raise the rent whenever you like

    Increases are capped annually by the province, can only be applied once every twelve months, and require notice in the correct form and timing. Getting the date or the form wrong usually means waiting another year.

  3. 03

    The deposit is not yours

    A security deposit is held in trust, capped at half a month’s rent, and can only be kept against specific, documented things. Deducting without the tenant’s written agreement or an arbitrator’s order is how small disputes become expensive ones.

  4. 04

    Condition inspections protect you, not the tenant

    Move-in and move-out inspection reports are required, and failing to do them properly can extinguish your right to claim against the deposit at all. This is the single most commonly skipped step.

  5. 05

    Ending a tenancy is harder than starting one

    A fixed term does not end automatically. It usually rolls into a month-to-month tenancy. Ending it for your own use, or for renovations, has specific grounds, notice periods and compensation attached.

  6. 06

    Doing it badly is expensive

    An unenforceable notice, a botched deposit, or a dispute resolution hearing that goes against you can each cost more than a year of management fees. Most of it is avoidable and none of it is obvious the first time.

This page is a plain-language summary, not legal advice. The Residential Tenancy Branch publishes the rules in full, and we are happy to walk you through how they apply to your property. Call 604-216-7368.

Go deeper

Written for owners in this market

All articles

Or hand the whole thing over

Managing it yourself is entirely possible, and plenty of owners do. If you would rather not, send us the address and we will tell you what it should rent for and what we would charge to run it, before you commit to anything.

Get a rental evaluationSee what we charge

Find out what your property could earn

Send us the address and we will come back with a rent estimate for the current market and exactly what management would cost. No obligation.

Get a rental evaluationor call 604-216-7368