The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Share Your Badassity => Topic started by: bbqbonelesswing on January 19, 2021, 06:13:00 PM
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We just renewed our lease and saved $2,516 by sending a few emails.
When we moved into this building last year, the owners were super firm on price and wouldn't negotiate anything. We signed anyway. Of course, we moved in and covid hit shortly after that.
Over the past few months I've noticed our building has been having trouble filling up their empty units, so I cited a couple of deals in the neighborhood for reference and said we were thinking of moving. With the end of our term coming up, I shot a message over to our landlord asking what they would offer if we renewed our apartment lease for another year. After some discussion they came back with an offer of a free month of rent, plus no increase for the coming term (our existing lease had a 3% annual increase). All together that adds up to $2,516 saved for just a handful of emails sent back and forth. I think I could have done a bit better, maybe a second month free, with some harder bargaining. But this was my first time trying to negotiate a lease so I'll take the win.
I figured if they said no, my BATNA was we would just stay the course. Nothing to lose there as we weren't planning on moving anyway.
For anyone with a lease coming up- ask!
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Nice!
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Awesome, well done!
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Impressive. Most impressive.