Lease decrease

I just sent a note to my landlord asking for a 6% decrease in rent for my apt… lease ends 6/30 —anyone else doing the same out there? Are you getting any resistance?

I did the same thing for my renewal recently and provided my landlord with comps that were literally on either side of my apartment. Needless to say he put up little resistance.

Is this in New York? I think you should just call him up and ask in person, I’ve done that almost every year I’ve lived here with several different landlords and gotten some sort of decrease every time. I’m not doing it this year though since their renewal rate is light years away from the rate I consider reasonable. Moving somewhere else at the end of July.

JohnThainsLimoDriver Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Moving somewhere else > at the end of July. New jersey?

Yeah it is in NYC. I think I might call her this week if I don’t hear a response. But, I feel like the longer I wait the better it is for me, as this is a pretty big place that I think would be hard for her to find tenants quickly.

I got two free months in the financial district without even asking. Some steals down here for sure.

Are you extending the lease? If so, there shouldn’t be an issue. I’m not willing to extend past my December maturity, so my landlord is not willing to budge (not surprised, but had nothing to lose by asking).

From the pages of “you know you’re a geek when…”: you refer to lease expiration dates as maturities

and what is the present value of these minimum lease payments?

success, got the decrease - just got off the phone with her now . . . she actually sounded anxious

I re-finance my my mortgage pretty much every year for the past 5 yrs. Not to cash out or pay in. Rather, to get a better rate. Just did so at an APR of 4.58% a month ago. Like asking a break on the rent, it feels great to shave a few hundreds dollars off the monthly mortgage.

philip.platt Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > success, got the decrease - just got off the phone > with her now . . . she actually sounded anxious how much

I thought this was a post about capital leases.

Boston here. My LL is a national chain that gives you the option to transfer to another network apartment for free ($300 fee if it’s within 30 miles of your current apt). 6 months in to my lease (Feb) I transfered to an equivalent unit in the building for $300 less/month. Moral: 6% is light, I’d ask for at least 10%. If he has a problem, walk…

yeah, 6% might be a little light. I think I could have pushed for 8%, but just have a lot of stuff going on right now and didn’t want to add this to the issue list. I just ordered some new furniture for the living room (15 x 19 feet, with a 6 x 9 other room attachment that I want to convert into a bar) - which would be too big to fit in any other apt that I have seen in the area. . . in addition to the 8.5 x 5.5ft paiting I just put up on one wall. So I was not really willing to walk, but my landlord didn’t know that at the time . . . I acted like it, but wasn’t willing to pull the trigger.

Refinancing every year? Either you have a lender who charges nothing to refinance or you like paying $3-5k a pop every year.

Hey Kkent, the my realtor/loan broker charges nothing to re-fi. She gets commission from the lenders. Bought 3 properties and sold 1 through her in the past 10 yrs already. She’s very happy to keep me as a long-time client.

That’s a sweet deal.

I wouldn’t be so quick to give tenants decreases if i was a landlord. You have to consider the opportunity cost (time and difficulty of searching & actually moving) and actual cost (hiring movers, buying new furniture, broker fees,etc etc) of moving for the tenant. Its clearly going to take more than 10% a month in savings to get you to do that stuff – 10% rent savings on a new apt probably wouldn’t even get you to breakeven considering the pain-in-the-a$$ that searching/moving is. I was discussing this with a buddy who works extremely long hours at a HF (L3 candidate) and he said that moving would be such a huge inconvenience /he values his limited free time so highly that he’d need at least a 25% rent drop to make moving a breakeven proposition for him. So if you’re showing me comps of other apts that are ~10% lower than yours then I’m not budging. In NYC, landlords have had to make concessions b/c you could often find comps that were more like 30%-40% lower.

thems Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I wouldn’t be so quick to give tenants decreases > if i was a landlord. > > You have to consider the opportunity cost (time > and difficulty of searching & actually moving) and > actual cost (hiring movers, buying new furniture, > broker fees,etc etc) of moving for the tenant. Its > clearly going to take more than 10% a month in > savings to get you to do that stuff – 10% rent > savings on a new apt probably wouldn’t even get > you to breakeven considering the pain-in-the-a$$ > that searching/moving is. > > I was discussing this with a buddy who works > extremely long hours at a HF (L3 candidate) and he > said that moving would be such a huge > inconvenience /he values his limited free time so > highly that he’d need at least a 25% rent drop to > make moving a breakeven proposition for him. > > So if you’re showing me comps of other apts that > are ~10% lower than yours then I’m not budging. In > NYC, landlords have had to make concessions b/c > you could often find comps that were more like > 30%-40% lower. Searching: First rule of negotiating apartments–don’t bring it up with your landlord until your application has been accepted somewhere else and you’re ready to sign a new lease. Moving: Be a man, not Amanda. A U-haul costs $30 a day. You’re talking about one day out of 365. If you assume your buddy pays about $1,500 a month for his share of rent, then a 25% savings is $375, so for 12 months, that’s $4,500. He must be a pretty big baller to value his free time at $4,500/day.