How much does your rent go up this year?

[crucifiction]

You need to play hardball with your landlord. He can ask for whatever he wants in an increase and you need to counter. Too many people just pay the piper, which is probably why he demands such ludicrous increases. Come back to him and let him know that keeping your rent the same is better for him than leaving it vacant for a month finding a new tenant that pays on time. Your rent is not significantly under fair value, so he has no room to play: he is bluffing and you should call him on it. But you must remember that like salary negotiations, you only have the power if you are really willing to walk, if you are not then he is going to take advantage of that.

[Rhonda P]

Sounds like it could be hit or miss depending on how "cool" your land lord is...or how out of touch they may be with charging rents. I wondered with the recent Seattle Times article about rents increasing if many cool landlords would get itchy and raise rents.

I don't wish it on anybody...I moved around so much growing up as a kid...I think it would suck to have your rents raised and having to make a move...just as sucky to have your property taxes increased too but I'm not sure how the two would compare dollar to dollar.

[mike2]

[Rhonda P]

I agree, it is all about choices and what you're comfortable with making. Neither renting nor buying a home is the right choice for everybody.

[Wanderer]

Crucifiction,
I hear what you are saying about negotiations. It is hard to get all of the facts in a short description like that, so it might not be so simple as deciding to play hardball with your landlord as you suggest. The acronym BATNA (Best alternative To an Negotiated Agreement) may seem like a hokey thing you only use in a class about negotiations, but it is a very important concept. As in... when negotiating, always try to find the other party's BATNA while not revealing your own.

Landlord's BATNA (so far as I understood it): take 30 days to find a new tenant who is willing to pay the higher rent. Cost of Craigslist add... $0. Cost of driving to hold an open house where no fewer than 10 people show up... $3.75 for gas and the opportunity cost of missing a playoff football game on TV. Open house participation suggests young couples are excited about a nice upstairs 1BR unit with a killer view. There is value in having a known tenant move in from downstairs (me), but that guy is being a pain in the ass trying to talk down the rent and otherwise playing hardball. Odds of not being able to rent the place out during the 30 days before the old tenant moves out... 5%.

My BATNA: Refuse to pay the rent increase and move. Try to find a $1050 1BR unit in big house north of Lake Union with a killer view of downtown. Cost of moving truck... $40 after gas. Assume $8 cost for the additional labor since Jason will help me move if i buy him a Paseo sandwich (everyone should try one someday). Unknown cost of no longer being able to woo women with the aforementioned killer view... it is hard enough getting them home, but I might not be able to get them to stay without the view.

As you can see, the landlord's BATNA placed him in a better bargaining position... and he won. You will note that my BATNA did NOT include being forced to buy now or be priced out forever. I don't like losing to my idiot landlord, but I am still happy to pay an extra $100 a month and watch what happens to the housing market... from a great balcony.

[sniglet]

I live near the Microsoft Redmond campus, and have seen many rentals stay on the market for very lengthy periods of time before they are let. A single family home around the corner had a "for lease" sign up for almost a year until just a couple weeks ago.

I just can't understand why these landlords are so stubborn, and are willing to go so many months without any income rather than just cut their asking rate. Of course, I don't know what the agreed rent finally was (they were asking $1800 for a 3 bed 2 bath). I pay $1575 for a slightly better property just a block away.

[Alan]

[uptown]

Unfortunately, what I have seen in the past is that landlords that raise rents constantly have more turnover - therefore they have the most vacancies. Landlords who don't raise their rents have happy tenants and few if any vacancies.

How about looking at condos or new apartment buildings? Try SLU, Eastlake or top of QA (http://www.edenhillseattle.com is almost ready). Magnolia is cheaper and quieter, but still easy access to downtown. Check out the south slope of QA along W. Olympic Pl, if you're lucky you can find a unit with a view (though parking around here is pretty tight).
Overall I'm seeing quite a selection on seattle.craigslist.org.

[WildcatTofu]

I just talked to the leasing manager, she really made my day.
When I told her my rent goes up 20% in just 12 months, she replied
"In fact, your rent does not goes up as much as the market does. We are looking for a middle point for our renters"

urr.... are you telling me the market goes up 40% in the past year
Did you get 40% pay increase in the last year? At lease, I didn't...

[kgcore]

My friends moved out of their 2 bedroom apartment, in a trendy high rise near REI in the Denny triangle, 3 months early. When they moved, the complex said they would have to re-rent it to keep them from paying the rent for the last 3 months, but also said "It wouldn't be a problem because it's easy to rent an apartment in this area.." well there are 5 other apartments not rented and they just ate the rent for two more months because "there was limited demand". If 2 bedroom rental apartments are sitting on the Market in that area, then heaven help all those condos that are about to come on the market (supply could already be pushing rents down). Are there any statistics on inventory of rental units? As we all now know, inventory goes up before prices (rents) come down.

[WildcatTofu]

finally, I figured out how my landlord calculated my renewal rate.
They simply took my old rate and multiple by 1.098. !@#QWR@#2

[garth]