Big Money Win: Clawing Back $150/month in Rent

A few weeks back, I found myself sheepishly asking if anyone had received their rent renewal offers yet. Why exactly? Maybe to commiserate. Maybe because I wanted someone to share the story of how they looked an insulting increase in the eye and toppled their property management company with the help of the townspeople.

Yes...it's possible I was asking for too much. But I knew that there had to be a way for my husband and I to fend off a whopping $500/month increase.

Out of desperation, I opened up my Notes app and tried to brainstorm what two young professionals could offer that wasn't purely money. Since we weren't dealing with ma and pa landlords, we couldn't offer dog walking services or a promise to mow the lawn.

It wasn't a very compelling list. So I enlisted the help of my husband and we went back to the drawing board because we needed to focus on money after all.

The initially pathetic list then became a way to demonstrate how we could still bring an extra $500/month in value without necessarily siphoning the money directly from our bank accounts.

• You can notify management of problems when they are still easy to fix (i.e. leaky sink, rat hole -- do you have an example of how you were an awesome tenant that helped the landlord dodge a hefty price tag? Bring that maintenance request history out. You transform yourself from being seen as the annoying person to someone worth keeping around.)
• You offer stability. Plain and simple. They already know your ballpark earnings from when they did your initial background check, so remind them that replacing you would cost them money. The cost of advertising the listing, time needed to schedule tours, having to calculate how much of the deposit you are owed back. Or worst of all: the cost of vacancy. You need to remind them that the cost of a lost month of rent would be more expensive than them cutting you some slack.

And once I was able to reframe the request in that way, my husband and I were able to bang out an email in 40 minutes that saved us $150/month. We asked for $250 to be taken off the $500 monthly increase, and although we didn't quite get that, we got something substantial.

Sure, we could have spent those 40 minutes writing an email and gotten $0 back, but it still wouldn't have hurt to ask. The worst thing they could have said was no. Just the possibility of a reasonable response would have been worth the effort and I truly believe that getting in the habit of asking is important and empowering. If you keep asking in life, someone somewhere is bound to say "yeah, okay, that makes sense."

Plus, I have included the email we wrote down below so that you don't need to tinker for 40+ minutes. This exact format might not work for you, but I hope it's a launchpad at the very least. 

When one of us gets a concession on rent, all renters benefit.

Good morning [use a real first name if you can],

Thank you for sending the updated offer. Although we were anticipating some increase, we were surprised to see a ~##% change.  

We really enjoy living at [building name] and fully intended on making it our home for the coming year. However, this increase prompted us to entertain other options in the area. We have toured nearby apartments with rates comparable to the one in the new lease but with more comprehensive amenities. That being said, our preferred option would be to stay at [building name]. We believe that the consistency we offer as stable tenants lends itself to flexibility.

Would it be possible to consider $####/month instead?

In addition to offering stability, we believe we provide added value by pointing out issues in their early stages. (For instance, we reached out about our leaking kitchen sink because it could have impacted the ceiling for the apartment below us. We also alerted management of a hole in the back entryway that was inviting rodents.) 

We love this location and community and want to continue being able to live here and also take care of it.

Please let us know if the rate of $####/month can be workable. Thank you!

All the Best,

[Your Shameless, Confident, Proactive Name Here]