What to Fix Early—and What to Delay Until After 90 Days

Not every important improvement needs to happen in the first quarter. Change early. Sure, fix what's broken. If there's a deferred maintenance item that tenants have been complaining about, a broken air compressor station, a gate that sticks, a section of aisles that needs grading, fix that in the first 30 days. Visible improvements in the early transition period signal that the new ownership is investing Not extracting. That signal is worth far more than the cost of the repair. Another thing to change early, establish your contact and response protocol, publish it, and then live by it. The standard you set in the first 30 days is the standard tenants will judge you against for years. Wait until after 90 days for things like rate increases, uh, even justified ones. A tenant who receives a rate increase letter 45 days after a new owner takes over experiences it as the new owner's first act being to take money. Even if the increase is modest and overdue, the timing of it turns it adversarial. Wait until the relationship is established. The same increase at day 120 after a tenant has experienced responsive, competent new management lands as a routine business adjustment.