{"id":3890,"date":"2009-04-23T02:56:36","date_gmt":"2009-04-23T06:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renthop.com\/news\/?p=230"},"modified":"2023-07-24T14:40:23","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T18:40:23","slug":"how-to-negotiate-a-lower-apartment-rent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/how-to-negotiate-a-lower-apartment-rent\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Negotiate a Lower Apartment Rent"},"content":{"rendered":"

After managing a site dedicated to no-fee apartments in New York City<\/a> for so long,\u00a0 one of the more frequent visitor questions we receive is, “How do I negotiate<\/a> with the broker or landlord for a lower rent than the asking price?”\u00a0 Fortunately, we have seen many useful techniques for rent negotiations from all three points of view: the landlord, the renter, and the broker.\u00a0 For the first time ever, we are publishing the RentHop Guide to Apartment Rent Negotiation!<\/p>\n

Bottom Line: Shoot for the Win-Win<\/h2>\n

While this may seem obvious, it’s shocking how many people fail to understand a basic negotiating principle.\u00a0 The key to the most successful lease negotiation is finding mutually acceptable concession points.\u00a0 This point is advocated and belabored in the famous book Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In<\/em> by Fisher et al.\u00a0 Some critics claim many real-life negotiations are indeed a fixed pie where any gains for one party are a direct loss to the other. However, real estate transactions are so multiparametric that they often contain room for win-win negotiations.<\/p>\n

Qualify for the Apartment<\/h2>\n

As a renter, understand what a landlord ultimately wants from a lease agreement<\/a>: a tenant that reliably pays rent on time without causing any problems and has little risk of defaulting on the lease. While a landlord certainly seeks to maximize the expected amount of rent collected, if your financial status appears to be very risky, then you won’t be a desirable tenant even if you pay the asking price!\u00a0 The landlord would usually prefer a renter who demands a lower rent and has no chance of defaulting than a renter paying full price but only a 50% chance of paying by the second month!<\/p>\n

For those with superior credit risks, you have some lease negotiation leverage.\u00a0 In our experience, the following techniques can help renters bargain for a win-win deal:<\/p>\n

1.)\u00a0 Sign it now<\/h2>\n

Landlords know most leases terminate on the end of the month, and want to begin leases on the 1st of a month.\u00a0 If the apartment is vacant now and you begin your lease on the first of the next month, they know they will lose the rest of the month in rent (they get nothing while the apartment sits empty).\u00a0 If a renter is willing to begin the lease on the 15th of the current month, then you save the landlord half a month of vacancy, which is approximately 4% of a year of rent.<\/p>\n

A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation will reveal why this tactic works so well.\u00a0 If you are a landlord offering a one-bedroom in West Village<\/a> for $3,000, then on April 9th, you get two applications.\u00a0 One is from a renter willing to pay full price and begin a one-year lease on May 1st ending on April 30th the next year.\u00a0 Another renter is willing to begin the lease on April 15th but only wants to pay $2,900 a month, also ending on April 30th the next year.\u00a0 By taking the “full-price” renter, you would end up with $36,000 by April of the next year.\u00a0 For the lower price but early renter, you would get about $36,250.<\/p>\n

One last reason this technique works in the renter’s favor is the tendency for landlords to be risk averse.\u00a0 In the previous example, the landlord may be even more inclined to lower the price for someone immediately moving into the apartment simply because the landlord does not want to risk the vacancy dragging out for another month or more.\u00a0 A paying tenant in the apartment is worth far more than uncommitted leads.<\/p>\n

2.)\u00a0 Oversized security deposit<\/h2>\n
Landlords hate dealing with evictions and any situation where courts get involved and security deposits need to be seized.\u00a0 If you offer 2x the normal security deposit<\/a>, in addition to first + last month rent, you are effectively coming up with four months of rent at lease signing.\u00a0 That’s a strong signal to the landlord that you won’t go delinquent on the lease, move out early, or in general, be someone who is tight on cash.\u00a0 Landlords understand that should something catastrophic happen and you miss rent payments, you’ll have put up twice the cash cushion compared to the average Manhattan<\/a> renter.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The drawbacks to the large security deposit are that you will be giving up the cash for the duration of the lease, which is usually at least 12 months.\u00a0 Although local laws tend to differ (especially state-to-state), you often won’t receive any significant interest on the security deposit (if any at all).\u00a0 Also, should you truly have some dispute with the landlord, you are risking several thousand dollars more for the landlord to seize by posting so much cash up front.\u00a0 Still, this is one of the most effective ways to negotiate better lease terms, and we have personally seen landlords offer great deals to people willing to pay a double-sized security deposit.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2024 Update: As of 2019<\/a>, renters cannot pay a landlord more than the first month’s rent and a security deposit that is worth more than one month’s rent. This may not be viable strategy moving forward.<\/em><\/div>\n

3.)\u00a0 Two year lease<\/h2>\n

Most landlords are freaking out about falling rents.\u00a0 If you offer to sign a two year lease, then many landlords, especially the smaller ones, will jump at the chance .\u00a0 A few management companies even explicitly offer to give an extra month of free rent for leases that are longer than the standard 12 months.\u00a0 As an added bonus, by signing say, a 16 or 18 month lease, it is possible to put yourself into an off-peak apartment hunting cycle.<\/p>\n

(For assistance negotiating leases or other New York City rental issues, feel free to email nofee@RentHop.com or visit our New York apartment website<\/a>, RentHop.com)<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: We updated this article to enhance readability.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After managing a site dedicated to no-fee apartments in New York City for so long,\u00a0 one of the more frequent visitor questions we receive is, “How do I negotiate with the broker or landlord for a lower rent than the asking price?”\u00a0 Fortunately, we have seen many useful techniques for rent negotiations from all three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"yes","_lmt_disable":"no","footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[64,100,113,41],"class_list":{"0":"post-3890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-apartment-hunting","7":"tag-apartment-hunting","8":"tag-leases","9":"tag-negotiation","10":"tag-rent"},"yoast_head":"\nHow to Negotiate a Lower Apartment Rent - Real Estate Topics, Tips, and Guides<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about the important strategies to consider if you want to negotiate a lower apartment rent in New York City.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/how-to-negotiate-a-lower-apartment-rent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Negotiate a Lower Apartment Rent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn about the important strategies to consider if you want to negotiate a lower apartment rent in New York City.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/how-to-negotiate-a-lower-apartment-rent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Real Estate Topics, Tips, and Guides\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/renthopapartments\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-23T06:56:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-24T18:40:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lee Lin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@renthop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@renthop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lee Lin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/how-to-negotiate-a-lower-apartment-rent\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/how-to-negotiate-a-lower-apartment-rent\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lee Lin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5877a1d4b27a98e84d9840c6aea99af7\"},\"headline\":\"How to Negotiate a Lower Apartment Rent\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-04-23T06:56:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-24T18:40:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/how-to-negotiate-a-lower-apartment-rent\/\"},\"wordCount\":963,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Apartment Hunting\",\"Leases\",\"Negotiation\",\"Rent\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Apartment Hunting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/how-to-negotiate-a-lower-apartment-rent\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/how-to-negotiate-a-lower-apartment-rent\/\",\"name\":\"How to Negotiate a Lower Apartment Rent - 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