In my limited expereince looking for apartments or college houses to rent, the landlords have pretty much stated the price of rent up front and we could pretty much take it or leave it. I can see this is pretty standard, and of all my friends I asked, no one has heard of someone being able to “talk down” a landlord. None of my friends has even thought twice of even bringing up price negoiations with a landlord.
But, are we passing up an opportunity to get a better deal? Especially for places that have been vacant for a while, or buildings that always have vacancies, would we have a chance of getting a discount if we asked for it? I would assume that a landlord is losing potential money from all vacancies, they’d be better off renting a place at a discounted rate than not renting it at all.
I have known of a few situations where people have been able to negotiate a reduction in rent. I have no cite, but my feeling is that it becomes more difficult as you approach the low end of the rental market.
Rent is almost always negotiable, unless you’re looking in a student-heavy area, or in a very, very, very highly populated area. My last apartment, the landlord wanted $1350. We talked him down to $1000, by the simple expedient of pointing out that every single other building in the area had at least on vacancy.
The downside of negotiating your rent down: The landlord thinks you’re cheating him. The landlord at the aforementioned apartment was an ASS to us for the duration of the lease.
Moral: It’s worth it to try, but mind the consequences.
I’ve negotiated reduced rent before in return for doing repairs around the property eg I’ll paint the fence for free if you will take $50 off the rent this week (and supply the paint). Only works if the property is need of repairs though.
Ditto what leechbabe said. The landlord takes $100 off my SO’s rent in exchange for his doing yardwork and minor repairs (it’s a 3-family house). The landlord doesn’t feel cheated at all because it’s less maintenance he has to do!
When I moved into my apartment, it was owned by a large company and rent was static. The building changed hands, I met the new landlord and we started talking about the building and repairs on the apartment.
When he started renovations, he started to raise tenents rent. However, mine is staying the same ($200/month…boo-yah!) because I’m a good tenent and I keep my apartment clean, and I’m willing to help out with renovations. I was also allowed to get pets without having to pay extra rent or an extra security deposit, so that was supersweet.
I also have a credit on my account. My landlord knows that the other tenents in the building are smelly old guy and people with hellian kids. One evening, one of the many hellian kids threw up in the main hallway–the only exit and entrace to the laundromat. I had to either clean it up or try to jump over the puddle while carrying baskets of clean clothes. I opted to clean the mess (the mother and the kid had somehow disappeared into a black hole or something…they were nowhere to be found to clean this up). The landlord saw me cleaning the mess up, and he knew that one of the kids did it. I guess he took it off of my rent one month.
I rented out the downstairs of my house in NY and they bargained on the rent. I wanted $400 a month, and they basically said “Look, we’re the kind of tenants that landlords dream about. We will be here until we are ready to buy a house, which won’t be for many years. We’re quiet. We love to do yardwork and shovel snow and will do that for you. We are clean and take excellent care of our living quarters. We’ll rent from you for $350 a month.”
I said “Well, OK” and they moved in. And they lived up to every single word- they were the best tenants ever and when they moved out (years later, as stated) they left the place in better shape then they had found it.
So yes, you can negotiate rent. The landlord will weigh your offer and what benefits he/she can expect from you (always on time with rent, excellent credit/references) against the possibility of getting someone in there that will pay more, but move out sooner (leaving them with no rent money while it’s empty).
I’d say yes but you need to look for the opportunity.
My wife and I did minor rehab work in a turn of the century home in Cincinnati in exchange for about 3 months rent. Painting, drywall/plaster work and trim carpentry repair. After we left the landlord raised the rent by at least $100 a month.
I have done it and seen it done. You will have better luck with a smaller apartment complex or an individually owned home/duplex then a larger company owned complex.
When I worked in leasing our complex was owned by a company headquartered two states away. They told us how much rent was and we had to stick to it. But, even then, every once in awhile they would let us rent a two bedroom at a one bedroom price.
Everything that has a price is basically negotiable. I once negotiated a shirt from $55 to $25 at Macy’s.
Rent certainly is. When I moved to Manhattan (NYC, not KS), I got the rent down $200 a month, which means I pay $50 more than my upstairs neighbors, but I have a 60’ x 30’ backyard.
So, even in a tight housing market, it can be done. It helped that I was an “ideal” tenant, I suppose.
It never hurts to ask. If it’s in a college town, it’s usually tougher, but if you don’t ask, you’ll never know.
The property managment company that owned my apartments raised the rent every year without fail. I found out from another tennant that the increase was negoitable…but the policy was ‘secret’. I found this out after five years and over $250/mo in raises. I also discovered that I was entitled to have my carpets shampooed for free every time I renewed my lease–two months after I signed my final lease. Of course, I was supposed to ask to have them do it, even though they never told me about it in the first place!
One, which was already mentioned: We mowed the lawn, trimmed the hedges, provided our own equipment, and landscaped the yard. Got $100 off per month for the duration of the lease.
Another time: Was my first all-by-myself apartment. It was actually a one-car, detached garage remodled into what was known as “the cottage” apartment. One tiny room, one tiny bathroom and one tiny kitchen. Back then, I couldn’t even afford the reasonable $450/month rent. I told the landlord I’d be getting a raise in three months and could then afford the full $450. Would he let me in for $400 for the first three months? He was a sweet guy and partial to cute young women and decided to cut me some slack. Note: He was not a dirty old man, as his daughters lived in half of the “main” house.
Our point: It never hurts to ask. My point: I think you’ll do better with individual, privately-owned properties where you can actually converse with the owner – rather than large complexes or properties that are managed (you pay rent to some property management service, who then takes a cut and pays the owner.)
At my last house, I didn’t even have to ask, and got a reduced rent of $525 rather than the $550 advertised, because they hadn’t been able to rent the place for months. It was kind of old, and looked amazingly like the Brady Bunch house, which is why nobody else wanted it. But it came with a washer and dryer, and had a garage and driveway. Desperate landlords are a blessing.
My very first on-my own apartment came reduced, because they had just rented out the last 1-bedroom place, so I got a 2-bedroom unit at the 1-bedroom price. Didn’t even have to ask, then, either.
