Speaker 1: Episode three twenty seven, Saving Money on Rent.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life. Here your
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my
Speaker 1: name is Jill, and today we are talking about rent.
Speaker 1: I know we talk a lot about home buying, so
Speaker 1: many of you are saving to buy a house or
Speaker 1: own a home. But we wanted to do a specific
Speaker 1: episode on renting because renting has definitely seen a resurgence
Speaker 1: in the last three to four years that it is
Speaker 1: becoming the preference for more and more people, and we
Speaker 1: think that's great. We are for that, so let's talk
Speaker 1: about how to save money on it.
Speaker 3: We're going to do it, Jully, in a time when
Speaker 3: rent everywhere seems to be increasing as our mortgages for
Speaker 3: various reasons. So yeah, we want to cut expenses on
Speaker 3: the big things like housing wherever possible. And I'm excited
Speaker 3: about this one, yes.
Speaker 1: But first, this episode is brought to you by a
Speaker 1: very special way to save money on rent slow Tworking. Yesterday,
Speaker 1: Jill sent me a video of an influencer teaching his
Speaker 1: audience how to save money on rent and his tactic
Speaker 1: was slow twerking. He did this as he asked his
Speaker 1: landlord not to raise his rent, and as a landlord myself,
Speaker 1: I was shocked. I was dismayed, and I instantly wanted
Speaker 1: to keep him at the same rate he was paying.
Speaker 1: I don't know what his rent was, but I knew
Speaker 1: this man deserved fair rent. So if you're looking to
Speaker 1: keep your rent the same or lower, try slow tworking
Speaker 1: fully clothed, and if you're not the torking type, subscribe
Speaker 1: to the friend letter. We send out freebies, saving tips,
Speaker 1: life hacks every week to help you save money so
Speaker 1: that you don't have to record yourself slow Talking Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast dot com slash frind letter. You can also
Speaker 1: do both Try everything Get creative BSA.
Speaker 3: That's not actually a part of our episode where we're
Speaker 3: telling you to send slow tworking videos to your landlord, but.
Speaker 1: It is hilarious saying that please don't crazy rent. That's
Speaker 1: what he says in the video.
Speaker 3: Please don't raise my rent, And I was I was impressed,
Speaker 3: I mean saying please.
Speaker 1: We do recommend that, yeah, absolutely so, whether you rent
Speaker 1: or not. If you want to queue up a few
Speaker 1: other home related episodes to play after this one. Episode
Speaker 1: two sixty five how to save money on monthly bills
Speaker 1: a great one. We have tips not just for homeowners
Speaker 1: but for renters as well, and then episode two forty
Speaker 1: six frugal home cleaning tips, because when we are and
Speaker 1: maintaining our appliances, even if they're not ours, then you
Speaker 1: can definitely prolong their life, prolong the amount of time
Speaker 1: you will have to go with a deadbeat landlord not
Speaker 1: fixing something, as I have heard horror stories from many friends.
Speaker 1: So even if it's not your stuff, it does behoove
Speaker 1: you to keep it clean and keep it working, just
Speaker 1: to save time. So on this episode, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about some practical ways to save money on rent,
Speaker 1: and we're going to wrap up with a whole talk
Speaker 1: on how to negotiate rent. So this first one is
Speaker 1: from in charge dot org. It is ten ways to
Speaker 1: save money on monthly rent payments, and we're not going
Speaker 1: to go through all of them. The first one is
Speaker 1: obviously get a roommate. We're not you know that, we're
Speaker 1: not going to talk about that. We're going to just
Speaker 1: talk about the ones that we found most interesting applicable. Obviously,
Speaker 1: if you want to remake it a roommate. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not a requirement.
Speaker 3: So in talking about rent affordability, I appreciate some of
Speaker 3: the empathy and commiseration offered at the beginning of the article.
Speaker 3: And rent is going up steadily just across the country,
Speaker 3: and they reference how since twenty ten it's steadily risen.
Speaker 3: Where on average Americans are spending twenty five percent of
Speaker 3: their income on rent, it's now at thirty percent of
Speaker 3: their income. For many people it might even be higher
Speaker 3: than that depending on where you're living. So definitely a
Speaker 3: timely conversation. And reality is is landlords do still need
Speaker 3: to pay their mortgage in most instances, and insurances and
Speaker 3: taxes are also going up steadily, so that in part
Speaker 3: explains why rent is so high. But I think also
Speaker 3: landlords are trying to make a profit, so the margin
Speaker 3: of profit is really where there can be room to
Speaker 3: be able to save Well, start off here with number
Speaker 3: four on this list as far as a way to
Speaker 3: be able to save money on your rent is to
Speaker 3: sign an extended lease. So what landlords want always is stability.
Speaker 3: It costs landlords between fifteen hundred to five thousand dollars
Speaker 3: to turn over to a new tenant, So it behooves
Speaker 3: landlords to keep tenants, and especially good tenants. So if
Speaker 3: you know that you plan to stay in a particular area,
Speaker 3: you are happy with the location, maybe even the apartment
Speaker 3: or condo or home that you're renting, if you were
Speaker 3: to rent for one and a half to two years,
Speaker 3: the ball is definitely in your court to be able
Speaker 3: to get a lower rent than if you were to sign,
Speaker 3: say a six month to one year lease. There's a
Speaker 3: definitely more room to be able to talk that rent
Speaker 3: rate lower. But of course then you have to be
Speaker 3: willing to stay in that area for that amount of time.
Speaker 3: So that's definitely a look at your situation to decide.
Speaker 3: But I've heard this work for a lot of people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can attest to this. I think I would
Speaker 1: definitely be more interested in negotiating with someone who has
Speaker 1: said that they want to stay for longer than a year,
Speaker 1: because it is turning over after year every year is
Speaker 1: kind of annoying. So if I know that I have
Speaker 1: somebody that wants to stay two plus years, then I
Speaker 1: would definitely be willing to negotiate something with them, at
Speaker 1: least to where it offsets the cost of that I
Speaker 1: would put in doing tours of the house and posting
Speaker 1: it places, and all the time that I would save
Speaker 1: from that for sure. The next one is to give
Speaker 1: up your parking space. So this one won't work for everyone.
Speaker 1: But if you don't have a car, obviously you don't
Speaker 1: need a parking space, or if you can get creative
Speaker 1: and where you park you may not need a car
Speaker 1: every day because you work at home and you have
Speaker 1: an e bike or a regular bicycle, then maybe trying
Speaker 1: to put your car somewhere that's more affordable. So just
Speaker 1: getting creative. If you can give up the parking space,
Speaker 1: maybe the spot at your complex is three hundred dollars
Speaker 1: a month, but you can find somewhere to park it
Speaker 1: for one hundred and fifty bucks a month, and you
Speaker 1: may only need it once or twice a week, who knows,
Speaker 1: depending on where you live. But you can often give
Speaker 1: up your parking spot in exchange for discount and rent.
Speaker 1: Another option might be to rent out the space. There
Speaker 1: are websites that allow you to rent parking spaces, So
Speaker 1: if you can rent out your space for you know,
Speaker 1: three hundred dollars for a few days, like if you're
Speaker 1: near an event space or something, then and that can
Speaker 1: pay for your parking spot every month, and you just
Speaker 1: move your car to a friend's house or something. So
Speaker 1: get creative on if you truly need your car in
Speaker 1: your like in front of your apartment or house all
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 3: The next one is to look for apartments in the winter.
Speaker 3: So this one's particularly for those who are apartment hunting
Speaker 3: at the moment, but they are saying that landlords typically
Speaker 3: have a tough time finding renters in the winter, mostly
Speaker 3: because in most parts of the country it's cold out,
Speaker 3: people aren't wanting to leave their homes. People aren't wanting
Speaker 3: to move when it's snowy and icy, and oftentimes rent
Speaker 3: will increase in the summer. That's when a lot of
Speaker 3: maybe if you live close to a college, college students
Speaker 3: are going to be flooding the market, or families with
Speaker 3: children are looking to move in that timeframe to be
Speaker 3: in the school district that they want to be in
Speaker 3: for the upcoming school years. So that makes winter an
Speaker 3: advantageous time to be looking for an apartment or a
Speaker 3: house or a condo, and then also having it in
Speaker 3: your favor to potentially negotiate which we'll talk some tips
Speaker 3: on that in the next article, but it's the timeframe
Speaker 3: when you could potentially lock in the lowest rate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is for sure more competitive to rent over
Speaker 1: the summer. It's not as big of a difference in Florida.
Speaker 1: The rental market is busy here year round. It actually
Speaker 1: gets just as hard in the winter. But if you
Speaker 1: are in a place where it snows and it's hard
Speaker 1: to get around, this is definitely one and you probably
Speaker 1: have better negotiating power in the winter as well, So
Speaker 1: not only less competition, but more power to negotiate. Next,
Speaker 1: and I think this is probably the most important of all,
Speaker 1: is to go with private rentals. So a private rental
Speaker 1: is a property owned by an individual or family as
Speaker 1: opposed to a corporation, as is the case with most
Speaker 1: large apartment complexes, not all, but most, and so private
Speaker 1: rentals can be housed, but they can also be apartments.
Speaker 1: Especially anything for units and under is going to probably
Speaker 1: be a private rental. Anything five or higher is usually
Speaker 1: a little harder. But when you go with a private landlord,
Speaker 1: you can negotiate much more easily than with a corporation.
Speaker 1: If you're looking at a really big apartment complex. Your
Speaker 1: options are extremely limited, and most of the things we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about today will not apply to you.
Speaker 1: The corporations just do not care. They make enough money
Speaker 1: where apartments can sit vacant for very long periods of time,
Speaker 1: and they do not lose money because they have so
Speaker 1: many other rentals that are filled. So definitely, if you
Speaker 1: can find a rental that is maybe a little higher
Speaker 1: but is owned by a private individual or family, it
Speaker 1: can still be an LLC if you look it up.
Speaker 1: A lot of individuals will have LLCs for the rentals,
Speaker 1: but you can more likely negotiate and get stuff off
Speaker 1: of that one than you ever would be with a
Speaker 1: hedge fund or corporation that owns a crap ton of rentals.
Speaker 3: This next one might seem a little extreme, but we
Speaker 3: like thinking outside the box. Number eight is consider a
Speaker 3: new location. So this could be one of the most
Speaker 3: cost effective ways to save money, especially if you're living
Speaker 3: in a big city with a high cost of living.
Speaker 3: Of course, the standouts Stunners or New York City, Los Angeles,
Speaker 3: San Diego. It's expensive there where one bedroom apartments are
Speaker 3: going for thirty six hundred dollars sometimes more, and so
Speaker 3: they're referencing if you want a more urban setting but
Speaker 3: you can't afford those prices. To consider emerging cities they
Speaker 3: mentioned Oklahoma City or El Paso, Texas. Can't say you're
Speaker 3: going to catch me move into either one of those places.
Speaker 3: But I think I could also throw in here, even
Speaker 3: just considering a slightly different area outside of the city
Speaker 3: or area that you currently live in, maybe compromising some
Speaker 3: version of ease and location to the places that you
Speaker 3: want to be. Extending your commute by ten fifteen minutes
Speaker 3: to various well trafficked spots could also save you a
Speaker 3: lot of money. I mean, I just know in Saint
Speaker 3: Pete there's different areas that you could live. Might not
Speaker 3: be as close to the things that you want to be,
Speaker 3: but you could save one hundred to two hundred dollars
Speaker 3: a month just by choosing a different area. So yeah,
Speaker 3: you can move entire life and that's a massive life
Speaker 3: decision that could have some really beneficial financial impact for you.
Speaker 3: But if that's not the massive leap you're looking to do,
Speaker 3: it's still worthwhile to think, well, would I be willing
Speaker 3: to compromise this one thing to be able to save
Speaker 3: X amount of money? Year over year, because again, housing
Speaker 3: is one of our biggest expenses, so wherever we can
Speaker 3: cut that makes more room for all the other things
Speaker 3: we really value.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's not going to be for everyone. I
Speaker 1: think the younger you are, the more you want to
Speaker 1: be in the big city. And that's fine. You should
Speaker 1: definitely do that and take in that's when you're going
Speaker 1: to want to get a roommate. If this is something
Speaker 1: that you're not going to budge on, then you've got
Speaker 1: to go with the old, tried and true methods of
Speaker 1: living together in community. So but you, I mean, you've
Speaker 1: probably come to that conclusion already. The next is and
Speaker 1: really Jill should be saying that one. But it's offered
Speaker 1: a work for the landlord. Because Jill has personal experience
Speaker 1: with this one. But I know that we let our
Speaker 1: handyman stay in our rental while he did work on
Speaker 1: our house, and so we got a really great deal
Speaker 1: on that work because of that exchange. So this one
Speaker 1: definitely definitely works. But I know Jill has an actual
Speaker 1: story on this.
Speaker 3: I do. I'm going to talk about that in our vulnerability. Right.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, yes, but you did, I mean, you did
Speaker 1: like some renovations, but it could also just be stuff
Speaker 1: like maintenance. So if you tell your landlord, hey, I'm handy,
Speaker 1: and even if you're not, like really super handy, if
Speaker 1: you've checked YouTube and you know how to, like, you know,
Speaker 1: follow YouTube instructions to replace things, then and you say
Speaker 1: you will not have to come and fix my toilet
Speaker 1: or my sink in the middle of the night. You
Speaker 1: will only be called if it is something really serious
Speaker 1: that's valuable to an individual landlord or somebody that pays
Speaker 1: for property management. They save money by not having to
Speaker 1: call somebody out or having or time not having to
Speaker 1: go out there themselves. So you can kind of leverage
Speaker 1: that if you are handy to say, hey, why don't
Speaker 1: you knock X amount off? Because this is what you're getting.
Speaker 3: I'm handy, I got hands, I can use them. Okay,
Speaker 3: So we're going to switch over into this next article
Speaker 3: that talks about how to actually negotiate. So let's say
Speaker 3: you are about to sign a lease or you're currently
Speaker 3: in a lease, both situations you can absolutely negotiate your rent.
Speaker 3: So this article comes from I Will Teach You to
Speaker 3: Be Rich, and it is entitled how to Negotiate Rent
Speaker 3: five rules to save thousands, tens and scripts to use.
Speaker 3: It is a really great article. I would encourage you
Speaker 3: all to check it out because there's more to it
Speaker 3: than what we are just going to cover. But we
Speaker 3: want to talk through the different negotiating rent rules that
Speaker 3: are outlined here. So the first one is know what
Speaker 3: you want, and this is negotiation one oh one rent
Speaker 3: or otherwise, anytime you are heading to the negotiation table
Speaker 3: or phone call or meeting on the side of the road,
Speaker 3: you want to know what it is that you're asking for.
Speaker 3: You need to have a number in your head already,
Speaker 3: otherwise you're at the mercy of the other person, in
Speaker 3: this case the landlord. So your landlord is coming at
Speaker 3: this situation with the mindset of they want to maximize
Speaker 3: their profits. So that's going to be their angle. And
Speaker 3: so if you can come with an actual number rather
Speaker 3: than just oh okay, sure, I'll knock ten dollars off
Speaker 3: of it. And so part of coming up with your
Speaker 3: own number is going to be affordability for you looking
Speaker 3: at what is twenty five to thirty percent of your
Speaker 3: household income that you can be spending on this place,
Speaker 3: but also to look up comparables in the neighborhood. You
Speaker 3: can use Zillow or Craigslist or other apartment finding sites
Speaker 3: to search your particular neighborhood within the city that you're
Speaker 3: living and determine what are other people paying for similar
Speaker 3: homes to yours. You know, if you're in a three
Speaker 3: to two, what does that look like in your area,
Speaker 3: you're in a two to one, a one to one,
Speaker 3: whatever it is, and make sure that it's truly comparable.
Speaker 3: It's in a very similar neighborhood with very similar amenities.
Speaker 3: Otherwise the landlord may not take you that seriously if
Speaker 3: you're trying to throw something at them that is not
Speaker 3: anywhere near close to the thing that you're rent and
Speaker 3: come with that number in mind. What this article also
Speaker 3: encourages us to do, which I love, is consider other
Speaker 3: things you can negotiate for as well. So not just
Speaker 3: your monthly amount, but could you negotiate for free parking
Speaker 3: or additional storage, or partially paid utilities, guest parking passes,
Speaker 3: security deposit back, waved pet fees. So there's a lot
Speaker 3: of different things that could be in your repertoire to
Speaker 3: be negotiating beyond just the monthly rent, So keep those
Speaker 3: things in mind as well, but come to the table
Speaker 3: with what you want.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So when our tenants were negotiating this time around,
Speaker 1: they've been with us for a year and they wanted
Speaker 1: to lower their rent, and it was a really good
Speaker 1: time for them to do that because I literally just
Speaker 1: had a child and was pretty incapacitated. Did not want
Speaker 1: to be doing show vulnerable, vulneraball. I really respected that they,
Speaker 1: I mean, they knew what they wanted, and I came
Speaker 1: back with a counteroffer, and then they came back with
Speaker 1: a counteroffer, and then I came back with a final
Speaker 1: offer and we agreed, and I lowered their rent because
Speaker 1: it was a good time for me. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to be doing showings. I told them. Next year is
Speaker 1: a different story. I'm bumping it back up to what
Speaker 1: it was the first year. But it was just a
Speaker 1: really good situation for them, and they knew what they wanted.
Speaker 1: They threw out the first number and we were able
Speaker 1: to negotiate from there.
Speaker 3: And that was also possible in part because you are
Speaker 3: a private landlord. Back to that other article, there is
Speaker 3: more leeway to be able to do something like that
Speaker 3: when you know they're just renting from a family.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they started mowing their own lawn. So that
Speaker 1: was another reason we were a little bit more lenient
Speaker 1: because Travis didn't want to go over there. It's very
Speaker 1: hard to find lawn made and it's in the city,
Speaker 1: because nobody wants to mow their lawn, uh, except for me,
Speaker 1: except for Jill. Jill mow's her line. I mean, we
Speaker 1: mowe our lawns. So but yeah, that was another It
Speaker 1: was another reason why we felt good about lowering it.
Speaker 1: So the second rule is to offer something in return.
Speaker 1: So this is kind of that if you are handy
Speaker 1: and you can offer maintenance, cool, If you have an
Speaker 1: eye for design and this place needs some sprucing up.
Speaker 1: Possibly that not all landlords are into that because they
Speaker 1: don't always see that their yellow beige walls need a
Speaker 1: coat of white paint. But whatever, And so the article says,
Speaker 1: sometimes you can't just say I want two hundred dollars
Speaker 1: off per month on my rent. You have to be
Speaker 1: ready to offer something in return. So he suggests prepaying
Speaker 1: for some months in advance, sign and extend lease like
Speaker 1: we just talked about. Offer to extend the termination notice
Speaker 1: from thirty to sixty or ninety days. Offered to give
Speaker 1: up your parking space again something we mentioned. Promise not
Speaker 1: to smoke in the apartment.
Speaker 3: I promise, I promise, peace, don't raise my rent.
Speaker 1: We don't allow that anyways. But oh here's here's one thing.
Speaker 1: So not that we don't allow it, but our tenants
Speaker 1: like removed the carpet from our bedrooms so that they
Speaker 1: could do, you know, do their thing with their you know.
Speaker 3: I don't know, you need to specify.
Speaker 1: They just starting to sound weird.
Speaker 3: What do you mean, do their thing?
Speaker 1: Why didn't they there so that the things they do
Speaker 1: in their bedroom, the sense did not would not permeate
Speaker 1: into the carpet.
Speaker 3: Are you serious?
Speaker 1: Yeah, the sense sense like oh.
Speaker 3: You are going that direct? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh wow.
Speaker 3: And like adults, it was no, oh my gosh, what
Speaker 3: I don't know, what are you smoking?
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, Jill, what what.
Speaker 3: I was not tracking?
Speaker 1: No, you weren't. Wow, But not cigarettes. So they went
Speaker 1: above and beyond. But they I mean, we didn't pay
Speaker 1: them for that. They did that all on their own.
Speaker 1: So and they redid the floors underneath. So that was
Speaker 1: that was above and beyond. That I think is a
Speaker 1: unique situation. But yes, so that is if that's you
Speaker 1: then that is an option. But yeah, so you can
Speaker 1: also they can also promise not to keep cats even
Speaker 1: if they're allowed, and make a deal for referrals if
Speaker 1: they have low occupancy. It's always if you have a
Speaker 1: good tenant that refers somebody, you assume they're going to
Speaker 1: be a good tenant. You still want to do your
Speaker 1: due diligence, background checks, calls and all of that, but
Speaker 1: you could give them a referral bonus.
Speaker 3: Yes, the goal here being to offer your landlord something
Speaker 3: that you don't care about in exchange for something you do.
Speaker 3: So saving money in exchange for maybe a little bit
Speaker 3: of time spent monthly to do XYZ or to negotiate
Speaker 3: something in the contract. And it doesn't even require time, elbow,
Speaker 3: grease or anything from you. It's just maybe the parameters
Speaker 3: of your lease are a little bit more stringent towards you,
Speaker 3: but you don't mind.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The point I was trying to make with the
Speaker 1: car is that carpe is something I didn't care about,
Speaker 1: but getting their security deposit back is something they do
Speaker 1: care about. So they did this thing for that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so great, and now they wow do their thing
Speaker 3: in the master bedroom number three Nurow, the market and
Speaker 3: when to negotiate. So timing does matter when you're negotiating
Speaker 3: your rent. They are recommending that if you are currently
Speaker 3: in a lease, begin negotiating that least two to three
Speaker 3: months prior to it expiring. I think that this does
Speaker 3: a couple of things. It lets your landlord know you're
Speaker 3: on top of it, which is definitely a good thing
Speaker 3: as a tenant to be and aware of what's coming.
Speaker 3: If it doesn't go the way that you want, and
Speaker 3: you're truly deciding, then I cannot stay here. It gives
Speaker 3: you enough time to find another place, but it also
Speaker 3: gives enough time for some of those negotiations and neither
Speaker 3: one of you then gets stuck in this position of
Speaker 3: I waited too long to begin these conversations. This article
Speaker 3: also does reference just the time of year that again,
Speaker 3: it is best to be negotiating in the winter months
Speaker 3: when it would be more difficult for your landlord to
Speaker 3: turn the place over. They may have some difficulty finding
Speaker 3: another tenant, which is going to cost the money in
Speaker 3: the long run, so they might be more amenable to
Speaker 3: some negotiations depending on the time of year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have a sixty day notice, so at ninety
Speaker 1: days is when I expect negotiations to come in because
Speaker 1: if you're waiting till the last minute and you need
Speaker 1: to let me know sixty days in advance whether you're
Speaker 1: staying or going, you've pretty much you've lost your power.
Speaker 1: Like at sixty days, if I don't know you're staying,
Speaker 1: I'm looking for someone else. So definitely, it's in bold
Speaker 1: in the article two to three months before your lease expires,
Speaker 1: that's when you need to be negotiating, and I would
Speaker 1: push more towards three.
Speaker 3: There is a helpful infographic too within this article listing
Speaker 3: out some of the major cities and the best months
Speaker 3: and the worst months with some average monthly rent prices,
Speaker 3: and you can see between for most of them from
Speaker 3: the winter months to the summer months. It increases between
Speaker 3: fifty to one hundred and fifty dollars just from beginning
Speaker 3: rent in December to what it might be in July
Speaker 3: for a lot of these major cities, which is interesting.
Speaker 3: So yeah, you could reference that infographic two for your
Speaker 3: area to see, all right, what months should I be
Speaker 3: looking and negotiating?
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely if you're I mean in the winter, then
Speaker 1: you should be able to get fifty bucks off like
Speaker 1: what you could get in like a June July, so
Speaker 1: is pretty much what this is showing. So that's cool.
Speaker 1: Number four have the right script. So this is super
Speaker 1: important because this is I think the barrier to entry
Speaker 1: most people have to negotiating that you can do all
Speaker 1: the research and have all these other things, but if
Speaker 1: you don't know the right words, it can be intimidating.
Speaker 1: And so we won't go through the exact script. But
Speaker 1: Ramat has scripts on this blog post. And he's lived
Speaker 1: in New York City and currently lives in LA and
Speaker 1: currently rent has rented his adult his entire adult life
Speaker 1: in both of these cities, and so these are scripts
Speaker 1: that have worked for him. So they're really good. And
Speaker 1: as a landlord, I really agree with like how it's
Speaker 1: first and foremost being polite. So this thing is they're
Speaker 1: trying to lower the rent by two hundred and then
Speaker 1: the landlord responds. Of course, the landlord always their first
Speaker 1: response will be no, and so that's when you start negotiating.
Speaker 1: They're not going to write off the bat say okay,
Speaker 1: I'll give you, you know, two hundred or one hundred.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you with my experience, the girls
Speaker 1: pulled the Zillow rentals and took a screenshot and showed
Speaker 1: me what comparable rentals were going for what they thought
Speaker 1: were comparable rentals. It was outside of our area, so
Speaker 1: like our the place they were living was not actually
Speaker 1: in the screenshot, it was just a little bit off.
Speaker 1: And then not all of the three twos were as
Speaker 1: the same like quality, and some of them were even
Speaker 1: three ones. So you want to make sure when you're
Speaker 1: sending comparables that it is like, like really match for match,
Speaker 1: what you think is a match for match on the
Speaker 1: square footage and number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and then
Speaker 1: the closest like in your neighborhood. If the house is
Speaker 1: on the edge of the neighborhood and there's a lower
Speaker 1: priced neighborhood below, you don't have to necessarily include that,
Speaker 1: but just make sure you're including the right neighborhood and
Speaker 1: not a cheaper neighborhood, because they'll know what you're doing.
Speaker 1: They they've done this before, and sometimes they do this
Speaker 1: for a living, so you're not fooling them. So make
Speaker 1: sure your research is reasonable and say, like, I have
Speaker 1: looked at some of the comps and I can find
Speaker 1: cheaper rent in the area for what I'm getting, but
Speaker 1: I really don't want to move, so this is what
Speaker 1: I found, YadA YadA. So but definitely look at these
Speaker 1: scripts on this article that will be in our show notes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is definitely one of those situations where your
Speaker 3: first no you don't have to accept and just think, oh, well,
Speaker 3: glad I tried, right, And the worst that can happen
Speaker 3: is they say no, right. The worst that can happen
Speaker 3: is they say no after you've had some dialogue about this.
Speaker 3: Don't accept that first no, and I think those scripts
Speaker 3: help with that, and which leads into number five last
Speaker 3: on the list. Practice in low stakes environments. You will
Speaker 3: not be able to win this at your first try
Speaker 3: if you've never negotiated anything before. I like the example
Speaker 3: that they give of don't shoot your first basket in
Speaker 3: the NBA. I don't think they'd let you in the
Speaker 3: NBA if you've never shot a bast get But you
Speaker 3: get the gist that you want to be practicing some
Speaker 3: negotiation before you jump into this type of negotiation where
Speaker 3: you're really looking to save close to one thousand, if
Speaker 3: not more, dollars per year. So practicing can look as
Speaker 3: simple as grabbing a friend or a coworker, and moving
Speaker 3: through some of these scripts together, just to get a
Speaker 3: feel for what does it sound like for this to
Speaker 3: come out of my mouth? Where do I get tripped
Speaker 3: up when I'm talking about my rent? What further research
Speaker 3: do I need to be doing. What decisions do I
Speaker 3: have to make before I enter this conversation. But it's
Speaker 3: also good to practice on other things, and not just
Speaker 3: with friends and coworkers, but at your local farmer's market,
Speaker 3: negotiating for a small ticket item, through your Facebook marketplace
Speaker 3: or Craigslist transactions. These are really great places is to
Speaker 3: be negotiating the price of something because especially there, I'll
Speaker 3: just go with Facebook Marketplace. No one ever lists something
Speaker 3: on Facebook marketplace for actually what they think they're going
Speaker 3: to get. That's they are raising it by fifty to
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty dollars, I mean, depending on what
Speaker 3: the thing is, maybe by five or ten dollars, imagining
Speaker 3: that people are going to talk them down. So do
Speaker 3: it talk them down? And I know it can feel uncomfortable,
Speaker 3: but I love what we meat says in here that
Speaker 3: is it awkward to save thousands of dollars a year?
Speaker 3: And ultimately no, that's a beautiful thing. So put this
Speaker 3: into practice. Get your feet wet. Know how it feels
Speaker 3: to do this. Yeah, put yourself in an awkward, uncomfortable
Speaker 3: position and then save yourself tons of money throughout the
Speaker 3: course of your lifetime.
Speaker 1: Yes, So a few things just to wrap this up
Speaker 1: about how to politely negotiate rent is to You can
Speaker 1: start off asking the landlord if the rent price is
Speaker 1: open to discussion. Again. If they say no, don't take
Speaker 1: the first no. Just come back with your research, your offers,
Speaker 1: all the stuff you've been preparing. You can obviously offer
Speaker 1: something of value in return. Know what you want before
Speaker 1: approaching your landlord. Just regoing through these things that we've
Speaker 1: talked about. Know when to negotiate that two to three
Speaker 1: months before. Use a script to make the process easier
Speaker 1: practice in low stakes environments, research the properties value, specifically
Speaker 1: the rent value. But Zillow will not tell you the
Speaker 1: right rent. You really need to compare comparable different properties
Speaker 1: that are comparable and for rent at the same time
Speaker 1: because some you know, you could find rentals six rentals
Speaker 1: that are two hundred dollars cheaper, but they're not available
Speaker 1: to you right now, and the landlord knows that you're
Speaker 1: not going to be able to go back and time
Speaker 1: and get those, so they're going to be looking at
Speaker 1: what's available for to take you away from their property
Speaker 1: right now and then negotiate directly, follow up in writing,
Speaker 1: and so a lot of this we negotiated with our
Speaker 1: tenants via text message. Honestly, the whole thing was done
Speaker 1: via text. So have it in writing. That's a perfectly
Speaker 1: fine way to do it if, especially if you're afraid
Speaker 1: of like talking face to face or on the phone.
Speaker 1: So texting is totally fine.
Speaker 3: You know what else is totally fine? Sometimes is awkward
Speaker 3: but worthwhile.
Speaker 4: Bill a week, that's right, it's time for the best
Speaker 4: minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born
Speaker 4: and his name is Williams.
Speaker 2: Maybe you've paid off your mortgage.
Speaker 4: Maybe your card died and you're happy to not have
Speaker 4: to pay that bill anymore. STUFT bills, but flow bills,
Speaker 4: Bill clan, this is the bills of the week.
Speaker 1: Hi Jen and Jill.
Speaker 5: My name is Renee, and my husband and I have
Speaker 5: a small homestead here in upstate New York and wanted
Speaker 5: to tell you about a recent bill. My husband and
Speaker 5: I both had our Mint mobile accounts come due for
Speaker 5: renewal for the year, and I've noticed an advertisement for
Speaker 5: consumer re Cellar that was a little cheaper, and so
Speaker 5: I called Mint Mobile and told them about it, and
Speaker 5: they immediately gave my husband and I both ninety dollars
Speaker 5: off our phone plans for the year. That's the total
Speaker 5: savings of one hundred and eighty dollars for the year
Speaker 5: for the two of us, all frugal win and I
Speaker 5: also wanted to comment that due to our frugal homestead lifestyles,
Speaker 5: we all each only have to work four days a
Speaker 5: week at our jobs and we do really well. That
Speaker 5: you take care and love your show and will continue
Speaker 5: to listen.
Speaker 1: Take care, bye bye, Wow, Renee, that's so great. I
Speaker 1: wish we'd had you when we did our saving on
Speaker 1: the cell phone plan. But that's a tip that we
Speaker 1: like calling. I mean, giving them the competitors' ads and
Speaker 1: saying this is what's available to me right now, this
Speaker 1: is what I could be leaving you for.
Speaker 3: Well, it's still so fitting because it's negotiation. We can
Speaker 3: negotiate across the board, and that's one of those low
Speaker 3: stakes negotiations that you can do to help practice for
Speaker 3: the higher stakes of negotiating rent, and my goodness, the
Speaker 3: amount of bills of the week we get about negotiating
Speaker 3: really cell phone bills, but a lot of different bills.
Speaker 3: Y'all are very successful with it. And one hundred and
Speaker 3: eighty dollars for the whole year, Yeah, that's not something
Speaker 3: to sneeze at. You can do a decent amount with that.
Speaker 3: That's a few time going out to eat if you
Speaker 3: value it. Or it's buying more seeds for your homestead guarden. Ooh,
Speaker 3: wouldn't that be fun? Renee, This is awesome. Congratulations and
Speaker 3: I'm so thrilled to hear the side bill about your
Speaker 3: lifestyle and what you've been able to afford as a
Speaker 3: result of the choices you've made. That's so exciting. Well done,
Speaker 3: and thanks for the listen. If you all who are
Speaker 3: listening have a bill that you want to submit, if
Speaker 3: it's about negotiating.
Speaker 1: Ooh, we want to hear.
Speaker 3: Your success stories, if it's about homesteading, if it's about
Speaker 3: your life. You want to give us a little memoir
Speaker 3: of what it's like to be Bill. Visit Frugal friendspodcast
Speaker 3: dot com, slash Bill leave us to Bill, and now
Speaker 3: it's time for the lightning.
Speaker 1: So aggressive, so aggressive? All right, So personally, what has
Speaker 1: worked for you to save money on rent? Not be
Speaker 1: archaic tips that Google gives. While most of them do
Speaker 1: actually work, you don't know until you hear somebody that's
Speaker 1: actually done it. So let's hear it, Jill. What has
Speaker 1: worked for you in real life to save money on rent?
Speaker 3: Yeah. So, at one point, probably our biggest win when
Speaker 3: it came to lowering our rent is looking for an
Speaker 3: apartment in the area we wanted to be in. So
Speaker 3: we were really wanting a specific location, but apartments were
Speaker 3: pretty expensive in that area. Eric found an apartment that
Speaker 3: was pretty trash. It was really hard for me to
Speaker 3: do that first walk through. However, it had some potential
Speaker 3: and the rent was very low. So we went to
Speaker 3: this landlord before even signing a lease, just in our
Speaker 3: looking process, and asked, would you be willing to let
Speaker 3: us do some work on this apartment and in exchange
Speaker 3: for you keeping the rent low. So the benefit to
Speaker 3: him was that once we leave, which eventually did happen,
Speaker 3: and we all knew eventually that's going to happen, he
Speaker 3: could raise the rent significantly. It did need a lot
Speaker 3: of work, it had had a cockroach infestation and the
Speaker 3: walls someone had smoked in there, like it just it
Speaker 3: needed some TLC. And I don't know m he is
Speaker 3: as crazy as we are. Don't know why he chose
Speaker 3: to say yes to us, because we ended up removing
Speaker 3: walls and gutting the bathroom and totally redoing the kitchen.
Speaker 3: I don't totally recommend this to all people, but I
Speaker 3: think a takeaway here could be what might be maybe
Speaker 3: not your best version of an apartment, but in the
Speaker 3: area you want to be in, offer to do some work,
Speaker 3: but yet keep the rent. So he kept that rent
Speaker 3: for us for the entirety of the time that we
Speaker 3: stayed there, which was two and a half years, because
Speaker 3: of all the manual labor we put in. Of course,
Speaker 3: he paid for all of the supplies and materials our
Speaker 3: labor was given. He ended up giving us our first
Speaker 3: three months there for free, kind of as a thank
Speaker 3: you for what we did to the apartment, and then
Speaker 3: kept that very low, low rent, which it was. I've
Speaker 3: loved all the places we've lived, but that's one of
Speaker 3: my favorites. We really it was a really beautiful spot
Speaker 3: by the time we worked done with it.
Speaker 1: And then you started a renovations company. Yeah, we did,
Speaker 1: and in.
Speaker 3: Other places too. I think, similar to what the articles
Speaker 3: have mentioned, we have only ever rented from private landlords,
Speaker 3: and I can attest to the ability to negotiate or
Speaker 3: year over year when the least comes due, it comes
Speaker 3: to an end that they don't raise it on us,
Speaker 3: where we can get ahead of it and negotiate for
Speaker 3: at least keeping it the same and not increasing it
Speaker 3: by a few percentage points. We of course have done
Speaker 3: the lawn maintenance or the snow removal. We've also negotiated
Speaker 3: for some additional space. There was one particular apartment we
Speaker 3: were in where there was a garage on the property,
Speaker 3: and so in exchange for taking care of the lawn,
Speaker 3: could we have access to this garage, which gave us
Speaker 3: space to put our tools and launch the business that
Speaker 3: we were launching, which then became additional income for us.
Speaker 3: So I think there's a lot of different things to negotiate,
Speaker 3: oftentimes beyond just the monthly amount.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. What about you, Jen, So I always
Speaker 1: had roommates. That was like the main way that I
Speaker 1: saved money on rent, and I would probably still have
Speaker 1: a roommate if I was not married with two children
Speaker 1: because I loved having like people in the house. So
Speaker 1: there was actually one point in grad school where I
Speaker 1: shared a room. So it was a four bedroom house
Speaker 1: and we had five girls living in it, and I
Speaker 1: shared a room with one of my good friends and
Speaker 1: that worked because we were good friends and we both
Speaker 1: valued saving money over privacy. But that is not everyone,
Speaker 1: So you can still be true to the time you
Speaker 1: need your Where you live is a safe space. So
Speaker 1: if you don't want other people there then and that's
Speaker 1: what you value, then you just find ways to save
Speaker 1: money on other things. But if that's not you, then
Speaker 1: this is a great way to save so much money
Speaker 1: on your rent.
Speaker 3: Well, also recognizing I think one of the reasons that
Speaker 3: rent is becoming so popular is because of the flexibility
Speaker 3: that it allows because you don't have maybe as many
Speaker 3: costs incurred, you're not responsible for the maintenance, and there's flexibility.
Speaker 3: So I think it's also worth maybe compromising on certain
Speaker 3: things for a season in order to save for certain goals,
Speaker 3: knowing that this isn't for forever. Maybe I'm not in
Speaker 3: the exact location I want to be in, but I'm
Speaker 3: renting and I can leave whenever I want and whenever
Speaker 3: the lease will allow me. But you're not set in stone.
Speaker 3: Let's say you choose to have a roommate, but that
Speaker 3: doesn't mean you're going to have a roommate for the
Speaker 3: rest of your life. Is it more important in this
Speaker 3: stage to save a little bit on my living expenses
Speaker 3: so that I can be better set up for what
Speaker 3: I want next, or is it more important that I
Speaker 3: just have my own space. I think some of that
Speaker 3: internal work is worthwhile, and remembering there's flexibility and it
Speaker 3: doesn't have to be for forever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I wanted to mention one thing before we
Speaker 1: wrap up. I know we've talked about it when we
Speaker 1: talk about like credit card rewards, but there is a
Speaker 1: credit card that will allow you to pay rent on
Speaker 1: it if your landlord allows online bill pay then or
Speaker 1: I think even with checks they can send a check,
Speaker 1: but you can pay on this credit card called built Bilt,
Speaker 1: and we're not paid by them. This isn't a sponsored episode,
Speaker 1: but you can. You can build credit and get rewards
Speaker 1: using this credit card to pay your rent. And there's
Speaker 1: no like great sign up bonus like a travel rewards card.
Speaker 1: But if you're looking to build your credit score and
Speaker 1: just get, you know, get some rewards on the side
Speaker 1: in hopes of, you know, getting better loans in the
Speaker 1: future on cars or mortgage rates. Then definitely check out
Speaker 1: build rewards dot com.
Speaker 3: Thank you everyone for listening. It's been a blast to
Speaker 3: be here with you. And one of the other things
Speaker 3: that's a blast and we love is reading your kind reviews.
Speaker 3: We really appreciate them and especially love this one from
Speaker 3: Andyo nineteen ninety seven. Love this show. They say this
Speaker 3: show is a must listen for any woman looking to
Speaker 3: take control of her finances. With practical tips and engaging guests,
Speaker 3: it's an invaluable resource for anyone and seeking financial freedom.
Speaker 3: Jen and Jill make every episode approachable, enjoyable, and informative.
Speaker 3: Highly recommend five stars.
Speaker 1: Wow straight to.
Speaker 3: The point, Andy on nineteen ninety seven. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you so much. This is exactly the type
Speaker 1: of review that we love to see because it lets
Speaker 1: other people know what they are getting into. So thank
Speaker 1: you so much.
Speaker 3: And you can review us too if you want. If
Speaker 3: you're like, oh, I want to say some nice things
Speaker 3: to them and help other people find the show, please
Speaker 3: do that wherever you're listening to this podcast. And we
Speaker 3: will see you next time.
Speaker 1: Bye. Google Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 3: You think you'll ever rent again? You think you'll ever
Speaker 3: be in a situation where you're renting.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I own two homes now, so not
Speaker 1: unforeseeable future. Sometimes I dream about it renting. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1: I dream about not having renovations. I dream about the
Speaker 1: house just being done for me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I dream about no maintenance.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I dream about not being a landlord, not having
Speaker 1: to rent out my units. It's not for everyone.
Speaker 3: I dream about it. I will not having taxes to
Speaker 3: worry about, an insurance, and.
Speaker 1: I will not own anymore. Like I'm not this is it.
Speaker 1: I'm tapped out. It's not for me.
Speaker 3: And you knew that. You even said that before you
Speaker 3: purchase the second house.
Speaker 1: This isn't for me, Yeah, it's I mean, real estate
Speaker 1: investing is a fantastic way to diversify your income. It
Speaker 1: is not for everyone. It is not for me. I
Speaker 1: don't like it, And.
Speaker 3: So we really might be renting for one day.
Speaker 1: Maybe one day, who knows. It's very expensive to rent
Speaker 1: in the city, though here we are