What your rent reduction reasons are?
The monthly rent expenses put a huge burden on the budget of modern tenants, especially young people, who’re still figuring out their careers and struggling to provide for their own living, and young families with little children. The nicer the accommodation is, the more money you’ll have to pay the landlord to stay in it. Seems logic, right?
But we’re not talking about luxuriously nice houses or downtown apartments with a great view on the Central Park. Just a clean, warm, well-maintained place in a safe neighborhood and the dry cleaners just around the corenr, with a working water heater, non-leaking sinks, washer and drier available, semi-new carpet without any stains, parking place (for an apartment) and bug-free basement seems to be the pleasure one has to work multiple jobs to afford.
On a brighter side of an issue, the tenants, who’ve lived in their rental premises for a while, have a great possibility to talk to their landlords in order to negotiate their rent and save some money in their wallets. With a slight, but still significant fall in the rental rates that happened recently, those who’ve been renting a house/apartment for some time and noticed the decrease in the average renting rates for the similar premises in their local areas may definitely attempt negotiating for a lower rent.
Obviously, they need to have a good reasoning behind their rent reduction demands to be able to put them in. And, those requests have to be quite reasonable and well-grounded. At the same time, if you have a well-supported opinion that you’re paying for your rent a little bit too much than you should for the place the landlord provides to you, you need to go ahead and defend your rights.
Not only the fall in the average renting prices, but also the issues you might experience in your current place (like poor sound isolation, faulty appliances, problems with bug infestation, plumbing or electricity breakdowns, the non-availability of a parking space or the need of a maintenance remodel) may convince your landlord to review the tenancy agreement and lower the price for you.
After all, if you approach rent negotiation with a great knowledge of an issue and prove your grounds, you’ll be able to cut the price and save a few hundreds, if not thousands of dollars a year. Here’re a couple of tips on how to prepare for the rent negotiation and ‘win the case’.
How to negotiate for a lower rent
1. Know what to ask for
Conduct a local rental property market research to see what the average rent for the similar accommodation in your neighborhood is. If your apartment’s/house’s condition can’t serve as the reason to lower the rent, the fact that the premises are overpriced at the moment will most likely prove your point of view and improve the outcome of the rent negotiation.
On the other hand, the research part is the most important stage of the rent negotiation process. I like to call it ‘evidence collection’. If you don’t provide a certain number and support it by the ‘market report’ or demand a huge unsound cut, you’ll most likely hear an abrupt ‘No’.
That’s why if you plan to sing a long-term tenancy agreement if the rent is reduced, involve your lawyer into the negotiation process to ensure a positive result. You may find one on HireRush.com. The money you’ll spend on his services are incomparable with the money you’ll save on your rent in the long run.
2. The second option strategy
An empty accommodation always puts a certain money burden on the landlord’s shoulders. Use this piece of info in your favor and apply a second, cheaper option trick to make the owner of your premises reconsider the price because of his fear to lose the money on the rental agency’s services required to find a new tenant, draw up a contract and make a deal, as well on the utility payments and pre-moving maintenance repairs.
If you’re just trying to get the place, consider arguing the rent due to the fact that the premises have been on the market for quite a while and the landlord will probably have to waste his time and money on finding a tenant, who’d agree on the price, unless he lowers it.
3. Offer the referrals
If your landlord has a vacant accommodation or wants to avoid the waiting for a new tenant after you move out, use this as an additional reason why your landlord should cut extra dollars off your rent. Compare the money he’ll lose due to the rent reduction with the money he won’t lose if you help him to find someone for his empty premises or a future replacement tenant for the place you rent. The financial benefits will not leave him indifferent and warm up to the idea of lease negotiation and reduction.
4. Promise some maintenance assistance
If you offer something in return, the chances for the rent reduction will significantly increase. Promise your landlord to handle minor repairs on your own (without bothering him on every single occasion and requiring to compensate for the repairs), and he may agree to lower the rent.
For instance, you may say that if the sink in the apartment you rent starts leaking, you’ll call a plumber and pay for his work on your own if the issue doesn’t involve significant expenses. Or, if your power goes off, you’ll invite an electrician over and pay him out of your pocket if he doesn’t charge above a certain limit discussed with the landlord in advance.
5. Sing a long-term tenancy agreement or agree to pay in advance
Landlords tend to hold on to the ‘well-behaved’ tenants who don’t damage the accommodation and rent it out for a couple of years or so.
They love when they don’t have to worry about the premises for a long period of time and doesn’t need to pay cleaning companies, rental agents and lawyers every single time someone leaves the place they own and thus makes them look for a new tenant.
That’s why if you ask for a lower rent and promise to sing a long-term agreement in return, the landlord will be really tempted by your offer. Most likely, he’ll agree on a decent reduction in exchange for the mostly stress-free life as a landlord.
Paying for a month or two in advance will work due to the same matter as well.
So, those are the major aspects that will raise your chances for a positive result in the rent negotiating. Incorporate all of them into your strategy and get ready to improvise ‘on the spot’ to win the fight for a lower rent. Good luck!
