Please vote in this poll using the sidebar.
How much of a discount have you negotiated in your rent?
- Not renting or haven't renewed lease in the last 6 months. (31%, 56 Votes)
- None. (36%, 64 Votes)
- Less than 5% (6%, 10 Votes)
- 5% to less than 10% (12%, 21 Votes)
- 10% to less than 15% (7%, 12 Votes)
- 15% to less than 20% (3%, 6 Votes)
- 20% or more (5%, 10 Votes)
Total Voters: 179
This poll will be active and displayed on the sidebar through 05.02.2009.
Sniglet » Apr 26, 2009 at 8:55 am
My lease on a Bellevue SFH just came up for renewal and I told the landlord we were unwilling to sign another lease due to economic uncertainty. He immediately agreed to move to month by month payments.
I didn’t argue about the price, but I figure that now that we are on a month-by-monthy basis I can now negotiate, or move to a better (and cheaper) place at any time.
tforcram » Apr 26, 2009 at 8:59 am
I didn’t negotiate for a lower rent, but my landlord voluntarily offered to not raise my rent. We had previously agreed that it would go up 3% with the next renewal, so it was like 3% off, kind of.
Lake Hills Renter » Apr 26, 2009 at 9:07 am
I’ve been renting this SFH for 5+ years now. The landlord gave me a really good deal because he knew me (I’m a friend of another tenant) and knew I’d take care of the place. My rent has only gone up once since, and it’s still a very good deal, even in these times of falling rents. My lease ran out a couple years ago and I stayed month-to-month because I wanted the flexibility so I could buy a house on my own schedule without fees for breaking my lease. Never bought because the market sucked. I’ve saved a large downpaymet because of the good rent for all these years, though.
geon » Apr 26, 2009 at 10:43 am
None. Landlord actually raised rent about six months ago. I feel our rent is at the top of the range in our area at the moment.. Talked to landlord (also developer who has ceased bldg. at the moment) awhile back and he said he is having a hard time trying to refinance a couple properties he has rented and for sale–Wells put the clamp on him. I don’t think he’s over extended though; he started scaling back a couple years ago.
Meanwhile, I’ve seen some substantial price drops (300-400K) on some properties that we looked at a few years back. Some must be bank owned. :)
genob » Apr 27, 2009 at 7:14 am
Currently renting a downtown condo with a lease expiring in May. Rent is down by more than 25% from this time last year. And lots more inventory coming online in the next 6 months.
seattlerenter » Apr 27, 2009 at 10:07 am
Where do you guys look for comparables? I check Craigslist all the time but it always seem to be the same houses listed over and over and pretty overpriced. I am looking for SFH on the eastside is there a good rental site to check?
nika » Apr 27, 2009 at 11:16 am
My apartment was a pretty good deal. I did not negotiate on price, but I did negotiate down from a 1-year to a six month lease and two pets in a no pets apartment. I will stay as reasonable on a month-to-month basis after six months, then negotaiate new rent when it becomes overpriced. I have a great landlord and I appreciate him,
AndySeattle » Apr 27, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Lease is up in July… Not sure when I should start talking about a reduction. With all the expected summer volume of people moving around naturally, would it be better now, or hope that people move out of my building?
raj » Apr 27, 2009 at 1:17 pm
6 months back i moved to issaquah 2 bed 2 bath apartments for 1340. Last month they gave me the renewal for same rate. Now i moved to townhome with more space for 1275 within the same community
Angie » Apr 27, 2009 at 3:31 pm
seattlerenter, you can check rentometer.com for a broader view. Their data appears to be based on rental listings/offerings in the public domain, so it’s more of a picture of what landlords are asking than what people are actually paying. Certainly there are lots of anecdotal stories of people renting for years at below-market prices because they’ve got a LL that’s not out to totally gouge them, etc, etc. but I don’t know where info about that is compiled. Maybe the census?
renterDan » Apr 28, 2009 at 10:28 am
We negotiated a nice reduction for our apartment in south lake union. We moved from a 1bd,1ba to a 2bd,2ba (+~300sq ft) with a lower rent along with substantial concessions (financial and other) that they asked us nicely not to tell the other tenants about. The 2bd was rented the previous year for $500 above the 1bd. We moved this weekend, two months before our lease expired.
Already, though, the market has picked up in the complex – a lot more tour traffic, and advertised rent prices have started to return to their previous levels. We hit a nice lull, where our new apartment sat vacant for 2-3 months along with others — and the management team (but not company) had recently switched.
The negotiation was not trivial. We were armed with quotes from nearby buildings for which the math almost worked (everything but FCF) to break our lease to move. And the confidence from this blog and thesouthlake.com that more likely than not, the available rental inventory of south lake union may soon increase dramatically when the condo projects finish and have to convert.
Rick Brewster » May 12, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Before I signed the lease for my new place, I asked them to reduce the rent since it didn’t have two features that a friend’s unit had: a view, and rennovated interior. They said, “Oh I’ll e-mail the boss lady, she’s in meetings all day and I doubt it, but hey it’s always worth a try!” … within half an hour they called me back and dropped the rent by $100/month. So I went in and signed the application, “Great! We’ll call and cancel the other appointments we had to show it today!” Ha! If they had people lining up to see it, they would not have reduced the price! :) It never hurts to ask, although they must believe you’re willing to walk away from the deal. And the people showing you the apartment are trained to say those key things like, “We’ve got so many appointments today to show the apartment”, etc. The worst that happens is they say “no”, right?