Shafiq Hirani CCIM shows multifamily owners how to cut expenses and boost property value without raising rents. Rebid insurance before renewal, appeal property tax assessments, and renegotiate auto-renewed contracts like trash and landscaping. Every $20,000 in recovered annual NOI adds roughly $330,000 in building value at a 6% cap rate.
Here is the specific work: rebid your insurance before renewal and get multiple quotes instead of accepting the renewal notice. That single action recovers more money for more owners than anything else on this list. Appeal your property tax assessment if your assessed value has outrun what the building actually produces. Rebid trash, landscaping, and any contract that has auto-renewed for more than 2 years. Recover utility costs you are absorbing and fix the deferred maintenance driving turnover because turn costs hit harder when rent growth is this thin. And remember what that work is worth. $20,000 in recovered annual NOI translates to over $330,000 in building value at a 6% cap rate. In a year when rents will only give you 2%, the expense side is where you create real value. Quick example. I worked with an owner whose rents were flat because her submarket was soft. Rather than fight the market on price, we went through her expense lines. We found a water leak running for months and a trash contract 40% above market. We fixed the leak and rebid the contract. Her NOI improved without raising a single tenant's rent. That is the playbook for the next 4 months. Here is what I would do this week. 3 things. 1, pull your insurance renewal date and your last 3 years of premiums. If you haven't shopped that policy recently, it is likely the single largest recoverable line item in your building.
