All Forum Posts by: Jeremy Lee

Thanks - was the landlord charging slightly higher than market rents when you negotiated lower? Or was it at the average fair market rent and you negotiated lower due to the longer lease?

Makes sense. I guess what I'm trying to figure out is the best way to find out if what's being asked for is fair or not factoring both with and without appliances. For example, there was one place that was on the market (and still is) for above regular market rent at $3200. They lowered it to $3000 and still not much traction. We initially negotiated down even less but then found out more about the landlords themselves and realized it would be a difficult relationship for multiple reasons unless contract terms were changed, which they didn't agree to so we dropped it. In this case though, they obviously priced it way too high (as well as other potential tenants probably getting a bad feeling about the landlords) - the point is that not all landlords are going to price something "fairly" or "appropriately" out of the gates. AND these landlords were using an agent, in which case you'd think he would have advised them accordingly!

It seems every rental unit is unique and different both in of itself as well as the landlords you deal with. Unless we're talking about an apartment complex owned by the same group where all the units are 100% identical (which isn't the case in terms of places I'm looking at).
 

Seems like it's a mixed bag in terms of landlords who are willing to negotiate. I mean, it doesn't seem like it would hurt to ask even before applying if there's a willingness to negotiate right? (versus throwing numbers around from the get-go prior to or after applying)

Thanks! Was also curious about places that have appliances like a refrigerator, washer, dryer etc versus one that doesn't and if lack of appliances is another point that can be leveraged to negotiate rent down?

Hey all,

Curious to know, as prospective tenant, what the 'etiquette' is as far as lease and rental negotiation for those who seek to negotiate a lease. Do you typically apply to rent first, review the lease, and then negotiate the price down after reviewing the lease but before signing? Also, how much do you typically negotiate down? And based on what?

Thanks @Chris B. This is the feeling I get - I'm not even sure I'd say it's that great of a deal that we negotiated down. It's more of a 'fair' deal IMHO. We would have paid less than the prior tenant, but they totally nickel and dimed her after speaking with her and realizing the things that are broken and that she had to deal with. It's already a telltale sign that they are all defensive about that in addition to not wanting to budge on *any* of what we wrote up on the addendum. If they were one ounce reasonable, they'd at a minimum have said "ok we'll cover the copay and take care of the major broken items before you move in like dryer and faucet" but not even that. I feel so bad for the tenant that signs their lease - the idea my agent got was that they were really looking forward to finally getting a good tenant in. I'm not so sure the issue is with their tenant selection as it is with them....

We drafted an addendum to the lease to remove the language they inserted on the tenant being responsible for co-pays as well as maintenance of landscaping (the attorney who I retained to review the lease quickly looked over it and pointed this out, in personal amazement that a landlord would have the tenant be responsible for landscaping in a condo unit situation). Landlords won't budge on either thing. Considering the things I pointed out that aren't even right off the bat, it sounds like he wants us to go through the trouble of contacting home warranty to get everything fixed. Uhhh, no thanks. If he wanted passive he should have just hired property management. This landlord sounds unreasonable definitely for a year. I think this is a hard pass. We'll figure out how to make it work but I don't feel like we're passing up a great opportunity here at all. 

We did another walkthrough of the place tonight and there are a number of things not right. The dryer seems broke and missing the lint screen, in addition to a faint smell of gas. Microwave vent fan filter is old, dirty, bent and needs to be changed. A few bulbs burnt out. And two of the shower head fixtures have so much calcium build-up that they don't freely move as well as one of the tub redirect switches doesn't fully work to redirect water to the shower head. 

I mean, are these the types of things that are reasonable to expect to be working/replaced upon a tenant moving in?  

My agent is already on it to amend the contract with something more along the lines of

"Tenant shall call AHS Warranty for any repairs and landlord will pay the co-pay. In accordance with 11A, if determined by AHS warranty that damages were caused by the tenant, the landlord will bill the tenant the cost of the co-pay or deduct it from the security deposit." 

I'm even hesitant to keep that second line in there. Just keep it short and sweet like "Tenant shall call AHS Warranty for any repairs and landlord will cover the cost of co-pay unless the damage was caused by the tenant" - the problem is that AHS makes you pay up-front before they send someone out. So if you know you did something wrong then yea I guess you should call and pay. However, if it's a wear and tear issue that the landlord should be paying then I'm not sure how that would work (unless you have the option to bill it to them hahaha). Either that, or the provision states "Tenant pays co-pays but if the repair was due to normal wear and tear, landlord shall credit tenant and deduct the equivalent co-pay amount from the following month's rent" - I don't know... these home warranty programs just sound like a headache to deal with and actually more complicated than just finding a good handyman that you trust and have a good relationship with who can just take care of a majority of issues. 

I doubt he'll want to amend the contract to exempt stuff like the furnace and AC since presumably those are covered under warranty. But the general/overarching provision indicating damages caused by the tenant shall be paid by the tenant should be enough to cover stuff like that I'd think. I believe this extra line they added is just them trying to cut their costs as much as possibly, justifying the fact that they're having to pay for the home warranty service and out of pocket when the cost exceeds their deductible... as if it's some sort of "amenity" to the tenant to not have to call the landlord and deal directly with the home warranty rep LOL.

 I agree - we likely will jump on it at this point. I'm relatively handy so I'm somewhat confident. It's more things like the furnace and AC, which look older when I walked through the place. Also, the prior tenant reported issues with the washing machine and how it wasn't functioning well. And I noticed what appeared to be minor water damage in the area around the washing machine, so definitely things to keep an eye out for. My realtor was saying we have a few days to report any immediate issues we find upon moving in, so the plan is to run several loads of laundry through that washing machine (and the dryer). Apparently, two prior tenants ago had a TON of animals/pets and the place was filthy - this is the same washer/dryer from that tenant, and so the tenant after experienced all these issues with the machine (probably because there was all kinds of animal hair, etc clogging things up). By now, and with all the service calls made by the prior tenant, it's quite possible the place and most of its appliance are almost back to tip-top shape LOL

Thanks @Kyle J. Nice marlin btw! Southern CA or Baja I'm assuming? 

In terms of the lease agreement (CAR Form LR), it states:

"Tenant shall be charged for all repairs or replacements caused by Tenant, pets, guests or licensees of Tenant, excluding ordinary wear
and tear. Tenant shall be charged for all damage to Premises as a result of failure to report a problem in a timely manner.
Tenant shall be charged for repair of drain blockages or stoppages, unless caused by defective plumbing parts or tree roots
invading sewer lines."

However, they added a filled-in provision (D. Landlord Tenant shall maintain:) that states: "Tenant to call American Home Shield Warranty and pay the co-pay amount of $75 for any repairs" - this doesn't seem to make much sense since this line item provision seems to be in the context of anything else the landlord will maintain not mentioned within section 11. Maintenance Use and Reporting.

I agree with you though on it not being a good idea - in terms of things going unreported that's exactly what I've read could happen. And this could, in fact, be what arose from the issue with the water heater in part.