Anyone ever negotiated on their rent?

I squirreled enough money away to purchase an income property and become a landlord back when I was twenty. Knowing that I was young and experienced, I read several books on property management and although that was a long time ago, I’m sure the fundamentals are still valid.

Rule of Thumb #1: Average occupancy is two years & down time between renters is two months so (24 months / 2 months = 8.3% vacancy).

As a result, if your occupancy was assured, you’d only need to pay 91.7% as much a new renter to represent the same predicted income.

Rule of Thumb #2: Renters that have stayed three or more years are unlikely to move anytime soon…a seven year tenant such as yourself earns you near “assured” status. I’d say 93 cents from you is equivalent to a dollar from a new tenant.

Your landlord is also considering the cost associated in turning your rental…repairs along with logistics such as advertising, showing, background checking, etc. Of course these costs are to be avoided where possible but there are costs associated with giving you a discount as well in terms of other renters finding out demanding their own discounts and a reduction in property value due to the reduced cash flow.

Bottom line…don’t permit a situation where your landlord feels they’ve lost by making concessions; remove the whole tenant / landlord dynamic from the equation by pointing to something completely external. High gas prices for instance would provide a timely and plausible target for you and your landlord to focus on, get mad at, & work together to resolve.

Tell your landlord that you’re struggling with a decision…you know of an apartment that would save you a lot on gas money but you’d really like to stay if it wasn’t for the guilty feeling you’re having about wasting money. If only you could get a little deal, say 5% off, staying would be a no brainer.

Try something like that and let us know how it goes.

Yes, I've negotiated rent. Everything is negotiable.

If you can, buy a house. Even if you only live in it for a year. When you sell it, you get almost all the money back (give or take depending on the state of the market).

My experience with houses (in a typical, appreciating market in the midwest) is that if you're not going to own it for more than two years, you're about as well off renting. That is speaking from a strictly financial standpoint. There are plenty of factors that could skew this by a wide margin...but that's my personal experience.

Clem

Darn, I was all ready for the warehouse! No Obama signs for me. I have copious amounts of GRM, Speedway Motors, and Summit Racing stickers though. We could add in so Satchels stickers for that extra touch and the decorating would be done.

Thanks for all the great feedback, I have lots of ideas on how to approach this thing now. I am going to go look at some places next week and get a firm idea of where I stand, and what I want to negotiate for.

Using the Dave Ramsey rules of home buying about the only thing I could afford would be a trailer I'm afraid. I am hopeful to be able to get my grandfathers house when the time comes with a little help.

As someone who has a rental property in Fl. when the rent goes up, as others have said, it's usually because the mortgage payment on the property has gone up. In my case, my "original" mortgage payment was $471/month...it's currently $722/month, and about 99% of that is taxes. When I first started renting out my house, the tenant was charged $500/month...needless to say, they are charged a bit more now, tho they don't come close to covering my mortgage payment.

Everything is negotiable.

He's interested in: steady tenants, increasing property value, increasing cash flow. You'd like lower rent.

I would suggest that he raise the rent, but offer a discount (refund, whatever word you like) for "good behavior".

The advantage to this is it officially boosts the property value (because he's got the signed lease agreement to show the cash flow) and keeps the steady tenant, yet doesn't cost you (assuming you are a good tenant). He gets 2 out of 3 of his objectives, and you get your lower rent.

Win/win.