Oh man, great example of that. The pool is free for residents and $15/day for us to bring a guest. I’ll definitely be insisting upon a second wristband if I stay, as I have a 2br apartment. I’ve never in my life heard of a pool in an apartment complex where you can’t bring a guest with you for free.
Yeah pretty sure they can’t do that. I know landlords can ask for you to give 60 day notice whether you are renewing and if you don’t tell them before the 60 days then they assume you are moving and don’t have to renew. But they definitely can’t end your lease before the term unless they are evicting you which they have no reason to do that
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Dear Cuse’s Landlord,
Thank you for getting back to me regarding the proposed rent renewal.
I’ve reviewed the offer and noticed that you are asking for a 38% increase. How do you expect me to do that? As you know, COVID has changed a lot of things. Times are tough and we’re all going to have to tighten our belts.
Given these challenging economic times, I could agree to a rent of (.5*current). I trust you will find this a very reasonable offer given the current rental climate. We should be able to sign the agreement quickly upon your acceptance.
Regards,
Cuse
ETA: I’m electing to keep the feigned umbrage in my back pocket. I want to flip the table at a time and place of my choosing but usually deeper in the process.
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Also you don’t have to argue on that necessarily but if you aren’t renewing then just wait to let them know until 60 days before your lease ends
Right, that’s what I’ll do if I don’t renew.
I think you and I would be able to negotiate a lot of effective deals across the table. The amount of 3 and 4 air bets was amazing. Look I get, you sell stuff. Shocker, I buy stuff. Let’s get down to what we really need and we can craft an effective deal. The rest is just a colossal waste of time and effort.
ETA: I’m still gonna anchor your weak sauce initial offer, however. 
Also if you talk to any of your neighbors ask around and see what others have been offered. But honestly with how things are I wouldn’t accept over a 5% increase, maybe 10% if you really like the place and want to stay
A few points…
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Collective bargaining. See if any other tenants are in your same boat. Even if you don’t “go public”, coordinating and sharing information only helps.
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Opposition research. Does the property management company do other buildings too? Do the landlords own other buildings? Do they have a court or administrative paper trail?
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Remember that doing nothing and ignoring their deadlines is a tool in your toolbox. In most jurisdictions, if nothing happens, you got a month-2-month renting situation at the same rent. Which could be a goal itself.
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Definitely only accept communications from them in writing, not counting texting. Make them email or smail. Strongly discourage in person at your door. Establish a tempo for them to expect. Almost always respond after a short and not quite predictable wait. But also remember you can tactically respond to them out-of-tempo and out-of-band. One-way means are often useful there… text from a “burner” phone, fax, answering machines.
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Consider asking for a fixed price break for the pool/amenities/common areas being unusable, or only partially usable in the past, and a rent break if they become unusable in the future.
Lots of good advice here.
Only thing I’ll reiterate is what someone posted upthread. You need to do some leg work and figure out your BATNA*. It seems there is a lot of focus on tactics (e.g. what kind of email to send) and less on strategy. Having a good handle on exactly what your BATNA is, is a fundamental part of good negotiation strategy.
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Chris Voss was the lead hostage negotiator for the FBI and Sklansky is a hack.
Seriously though, The Voss book gives you an arsenal of effective negotiation tactics based on human behaviors.
And I’ll dunk on Sklansky one more time, the tactic he describes is reasonable and it’s also procurement 101. To not have multiple suppliers competing for your business is malpractice.
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Hahahaha mother fuck these people. Jesus Christ.
Yeah that’s much better… but because their offer was insanely insulting I’d probably go even further just to be a dick and offer .25.
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I agree and I’m guilty of shortcutting a bit here as I made an assumption that Cuse mostly just wanted this shit wrapped up ASAP. But you are right, maybe .5*current is a good opening offer and maybe it’s hot garbage. BATNA will guide you on that. I’m lazy and in Cuse’s shoes, I don’t really want to analyze the market.
The product I sell really forces me to make initial offers to both customers and vendors… so weirdly I’m usually in a situation where I have to make the first reasonable offer just because of structure… so I usually just turn down counter offers lol. I do business with the same people on the customer side every day so discounting always has to come with me taking something away (usually guaranteed service).
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I agree with the last part in normal conditions, but I think it’s safe to assume cuse has at least some time on his hands, and this is enough money to make doing the work very worth it. I think a lot of people pay a LOT of money for convenience in this spot and it’s really incorrect. The number of people who clip coupons for instance and then let their landlord walk all over them is crazy.
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I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong with this approach, you just have to realize that you’re trading time savings for a (likely) worse ultimate result. It’s entirely possible that in some negotiations the time and effort saved may be worth a slightly worse deal. I doubt that’s the case here, but I’m sure Cuse is smart enough to make that judgement.
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Good point and I concede. So now, lets talk about how we are going to add pool bracelets and other amenities to further flog this landlord into submission. LOL. Looks like our negotiating table just got a bit bigger, Mr. Slumlord Extortionaire.
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Oh yeah we definitely add every amenity they offer to our offer right? Like that’s just super super obvious lol. It’s 25% with every amenity they offer thrown in… to induce them to respond with tilt. Then we ask them to make a real offer that will be yes/no.
First gotta find out what the market actually looks like though. We definitely want market -5% at least here IMO. And that’s not today’s market if it hasn’t crashed yet. I’d literally move into a airbnb some desperate soul is trying to rent out temporarily to wait until this market crashes before I’d sign another long term lease at anything close to 2019 prices.
Yeah! Cuse, in your negotiation remember that concessions are traded. Never give up something without getting something in return.
I’ve got to head out for a bit so hopefully can provide a good bullet point “script” for some likely concessions scenarios. I’ll be back in a bit.
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Given how locked down I am, not much I can do. I’ll ask my neighbor if I see him. The apartment across from me was empty for months, not sure if it’s filled yet since I’m never out during the pandemic. The one on my other side is empty. I’d be down to share information obviously, but I’m not looking to try to collectively bargain.
Yes, yes, I’m not sure. I’m sure they’ve dealt with lawsuits, not sure what I’d be looking for in this regard vis a vis a rent increase?
I’ll have to look into that, their e-mail makes it sound possible but it was vague. In Baltimore, my landlord tried to increase my rent on me and make me sign a lease, I e-mailed them back that I knew they had a ton of vacancies, I would not be paying $1 more and I would not be signing another lease. Never heard from them about it again, stayed a couple more years.
Yeah I’ll stick to e-mail and use COVID-19 as the reason.
I intend to bring this up if/when it comes to it, likely in a second or third round of back and forth.
Right now my plan is to leave the city if this falls through, and find a rental home in the suburbs or even in the country. Staying in the city is a gamble on COVID-19 being over by early next year due to a vaccine, given that overall I’d be out of the city for the next few months if I could easily do so. I’d also rather not move in a pandemic if I can help it.