Introductory Rates & Inertia
How I got my landlord to lower my rentand save me 2400 over the next year – MarketWatch
It’s always a good idea to negotiate rent, said Erin Lowry, personal finance expert and author of the book “Broke Millennial,” especially if the landlord has raised the rent for the new lease period. That is, unless you have been a bad tenant.
“This strategy is best deployed only if you’ve been a model tenant,” she said. “If you’ve had conflict with your landlord in the past or been late on rent, then he or she isn’t likely to take your request too seriously.”
When asking for a rent decrease, I was sure to remind my landlord that I had lived at other properties owned by the same rental company for the past three years and had never been late on rent or caused any property damage.
In this case it’s because of various changes that actually make apartments less expensive sometimes, but it reminds me of something tangential.
It used to be a common pet peeve of mine that people moving in always got much better rent than renewals. They were basically betting that they could charge people for their interia (and the cost of relocating), and I suspect that they were right. It reached the point for me where I started contemplating “They should pass a law!” which is not my instinct.
I had been living in my current rental for several years, at least 3. I wrote my landlord a note stating that my company was moving north from where they were about 10-15 miles and I was considering relocating to a closer city with a lower cost for housing. That the commute would suck more if I moved I omitted.
I said further that I could achieve a 200-400 dollar a month savings in rent by moving but I didn’t want to because I was settled, moving sucked, and I liked where I was. I reminded them that I never missed a payment, took good care of the house and would prefer to stay. I also reminded him of the financial impact of a vacant house for several months finding a new tenant. Within 24 hours I had agreed to a 200 dollar drop in rent.
Facts, analysis, and knowing your position helps a lot.Report
I have enjoyed canceling services like cable when they start playing the rate game. They expect you to call in and try to haggle, so saying, “Too late. Should have thought of that before you jacked my rate up to see if I’d notice,” is kind of satisfying.
We once had a subcontractor on a project that thought we were too deep in with them and started jerking us around for huge piles of extra money on the assumption that we had no choice but to pay. It was a Windows CE project and we decided to switch to embedded Linux and take the development in house. Watching their surprise as we told them their mid six-figure contract that they thought was going to balloon into a high six figure contract was actually going to be a $0 cancellation was deeply enjoyable.Report
One thing it’s important to remember is those reconciliation offers typically come with a new contract. That typically lasts longer than the discount they’re giving you.Report
Also, you got rid of Windows CE.Report
CE was a horror show. I thought getting some training on it would help, but it only served to make me think that the project was doomed.Report
I have a unit in my truck — a product of Qualcomm — for electronic logs, messaging, GPS navigation, etc. It runs on an embedded version of Windows, I guess CE. Yeah, I’ve had it go into a BSOD while I’m driving down the road. Or they do this cute thing where they push an update out and it decides it has to reboot in the middle of the day.
And I’ve had both of those situations happen in a VERY inconvenient time. Like when I’m a mile from my destination and I’m not sure about the last couple turns and/or I need to send my “Arrived at” message and change my duty status. When I’ve complained about the push updates (like, why doesn’t it ask, “Update now? Yes/no”?) I’ve been told I’m not supposed to rely on it. What the actual f***?? When that’s literally the only way to do some of this stuff?Report