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.
