I inadvertently left out a key detail in my original post. My first choice (and one suggested in several comments), would be to renegotiate with our landlord. However I have a very strong suspicion he won't be willing to reduce our rent. He is renting because he couldn't sell for what he was asking for on our house (as well as the place 2 doors down). Since he wasn't willing to lower his asking price, which his agent strongly urged him to do, I doubt he will capitulate with us on the rent......sigh.
Looks like the consensus is to find a new rental. At least this time round we will have time and diligence on our side. If we don't find anything better, the neighbor up the street is willing to rent to us for about $350 less than we are paying now, on a month to month basis......which would also keep the disruption and hassle of a move to a minimum, but still give us some flexibility.
Thanks to everyone who commented.
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4 comments:
I think you've picked the smart option. As a renter, and a superior renter at that, all the balls are in your court.
I did really well by posting a rental wanted on CL. This could be a great way to weed out the icky section 8 listings and negotiate an awesome rental price.
I don't think you should assume, like Real suggested, that you will be ready and willing to buy in 6-12 mos. In 2004, I thought the market would correct in a year or so, and here it is 2007 and I am still renting. No one knows how long this correction will last. Real estate prices rise quickly on the upside of a bubble but are sticky on the downside. If you don't like your rent and your landlord won't renegotiate, the sooner you leave, the better.
Since you mentioned that your neighbor up the street is willing to rent for a lower rate, use that as leverage when negotiating with your current landlord. Also, be sure to convey to him the fact that vacancies of all kinds, including rentals, are shooting up and still going.
Oh yeah, and maybe it might be good to remind him that it's not your fault his mortgage is however much higher than he can rent the place for. That's not your problem, and if he doesn't believe you, you'll just move and he can realize that it's probably not going to become anyone else's problem either.
One more thing, I agree with anon, that you shouldn't assume you'd be ready to buy in X months. Unless you really want to buy at a certain time for some reason, the safe $ is on a longer wait for reasonable prices, as opposed to a shorter one.
These things take time.
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