Many months ago we decide to look for another rental when our lease was up. We had lined up our neighbor's place across the street who was planning to move in early summer. Well its now late fall, and he is finally getting around to moving (but the timing is bad for hubby and I work wise). In the mean time. the house next door to us also came up for rent.
So we figured it would be worth a try to renegotiate with the owner of our current rental, using the options above as a little leverage. Surprisingly, he agreed to lower the rent $150 a month! Its not the $350 a month we would have saved moving across the street, but I am also being optimistic, and hope we won't be in the current rental more than a year. If we had planned to rent for 1.5 years or more, I'm pretty sure we would have moved.
We are only signing a 6 month lease, since it will give us more flexibility. He would have dropped the price another $50 a month if we had been willing to stay longer term. But I didn't think the penalties for breaking the lease were worth the $50 savings in case we found our dream house.
Sigh...glad this ordeal is over. This whole thing took a lot longer to play out than we had expected.
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11 comments:
A 150 drop is excellent, especially for a 6 mo lease. I say be proud of yourself and enjoy.
Exactly! That's great news. Our lease is up at the end of November, and our landlord recently told me "my team told me the market is turning around, so I'm going to put it back on the market." He's a big real estate big wig, but I think he needs a new team!
nice work. As of yesterday, I've been in my current rental for 2 years. The 12 month lease I originally signed defaulted to a month-to-month rental agreement and I haven't heard a peep from my absentee SF russian landlord. The only contact I have had since move in is one phone call from her daughter 18 mos. ago saying they had moved and a call in Jan? from an SF RE agent saying they were gonna sell.
She paid $435k in May '05 for a approx. 1600 sq.ft. 3/2 in Southport. ROFL. I pay $1400/month and that's kinda high. I wonder how much she is losing in cash flow every month right now. I'm waiting for the bank to let me know that I have 30 days to get out.
-Brian
Even if the NOD is filed and they do forclose, the banks have so many properties, that one generating any amount of income ($1400) may be on the bottom of their list. You may be in that rental for a year or more as the bank is getting $1400, and getting $0.00 zilch on THOUSANDS of other homes to liquidate!
Good luck there.
The owner of our place is from Russia as well. Really nice guy, and owns a very cool modern furniture store (with prices way out of our league). He and his wife plan to sell in Spring of 2009. Not sure if they plan to sell both of their rentals then (two houses down is theirs as well....they couldn't sell this spring so he decided to rent it).
do you mind if i ask what you're paying for the rental? We also live in Serrano and rent for $1850 (2500 sf, 4 bdrm).
Anonymous -
E-mail me at average_buyer@yahoo.com and I am happy to give you the scoop.
Are there as many renters where you live as well? I feel like we outnumber the owner-occupied 4 to 1 where I am.
BMAC,
We looked at Southport. $1400 is a smidge high but not bad. I know exactly what you're seeing. I've seen some of those 5/3 monsters on CL for $1700. Isn't that nuts? And the rental inventory keeps going up!
Mr. Gwynster says if Duke doesn't come up with a decent offer, we're moving next year even if it's a lot more. Question is whether we end up in Southport or Woodland. He's tired of trying to keep up with the repairs on this place and wants CH/A.
I love the outdoor areas at my rental, but the house itself has frequent recurring deferred maintenance issues that are really beginning to aggravate us. Since it's not my house, I don't feel inclined to make repairs in excess of $200 every few weeks. To me, it's an indication of how close to the edge our landlord is that he will come out and try to putz around "fixing" a broken door latch instead of just buying a new assembly. Or that he'll pay a handyman to come out and tape the ductwork back up instead of just having it replaced.
gwynster,
for suburban hell, I like southport well enough. I live within walking distance of the Nuggest/Target shopping center on the east side between the river and Nugget. I like this side better that the bridgeway side of southport because the geography of having the river right there prevents the feeling of a giant sea of Natomas like cul-de-sac maze that you get on the other side. Plus the proximity to amenities (Nugget etc, New HS, future mega-trail on the old spur track) makes it bearable.
Did I mention I LOVE my Nugget?
"He and his wife plan to sell in Spring of 2009."
Right in time for the potential market bottom... nice.
"Mr. Gwynster says if Duke doesn't come up with a decent offer, we're moving next year even if it's a lot more."
Don't give up the fight! Why not just bounce to a better rental?
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