If you’re like most renters, rent is the biggest expense in your monthly budget. That means it has the greatest potential impact on your savings rate. But you probably think of your rent as a fixed cost – a set rate that’s not at all flexible. Sure, you might have had a chance to get a discount before you signed the lease, but once you’re there, you simply write the check each month and forget about it.
When it comes to household costs like groceries and utilities, if you’re frugal, you’ll keep looking for ways to cut back. When it comes to rent, however, most people assume that the only way to lower the cost is to move to a cheaper place. They forget that everything is negotiable, especially rent.
Don’t fall into that trap. There are ways you can save money on rent where you’re currently living.
I shared my first home with a housemate, and the asking rent was $1,000. We negotiated it down to $925, and five years later when I moved out, the rent was still $925. It wasn’t omission or thoughtlessness on the part of the landlord. It’s because my housemate and I took good care of the house and worked with the landlord however we could. Since then, I’ve learned many more tactics to reduce my housing payment, which has now dropped to around $200 a month, all of which is utility bills
Try these tips out for yourself and start saving without having to move all over town.
Tactics for Negotiating a Lease
Landlords have their own challenges and goals. Collecting rent isn’t always easy, and chasing late payments costs landlords and property managers a lot of time and money, even if they force you to cover their legal bills in the end. Even when tenants move out congenially, turnovers are both expensive and time-consuming for landlords.
Before getting into any of the specific tactics below, consider timing before approaching your landlord to negotiate. If you’re on a fixed-term lease rather than month-to-month, start the negotiation talks at least two or three months before your lease term expires. Bear in mind that the hardest time of year for landlords to fill a vacant unit is the holidays and subsequent winter months. If possible, time your talk so that the landlord must choose between filling a vacancy during these slow months or working with you on rent pricing.
Lastly, always practice your pitch before approaching your landlord. Go into the negotiation with the confidence born of knowing your pitch inside and out, keeping these effective negotiation strategies in mind.
1. Sign a Longer Lease
Lower turnover rates mean higher profits for landlords. Signing a longer-term lease contract secures low rents for you for years to come and reliable payments, with no vacancies or turnover expenses, for your landlord.
This tactic also works if your landlord tries to raise the rent on you. Make them an offer such as, “If you lock in my rent payment at its current rate, I’m willing to sign a long-term contract and continue our relationship for years to come. But I’m not looking to pay the higher rent amount, and I’ll start looking at other places if higher rent is the only option on the table.” If you can’t get a break on the rent, you might be able to score other perks such as free cable for a few months.
You can negotiate rent price with both small mom-and-pop landlords, such as those who own condos, and larger landlords of apartment complexes. No property owner wants to risk having a vacant apartment, and they want to avoid paying the fees associated with hiring a real estate agent to find a new tenant. A dependable good tenant is a landlord’s dream. Negotiation even works in a bustling, high-demand city.
2. Offer to Pay Early
Landlords hate late payments. And wouldn’t you, if you had a hefty mortgage payment due and weren’t sure when the rent would come in every month?
I once negotiated several hundred dollars off my monthly rent, on the condition that I get every single rent payment to the landlord before the first of the month. We wrote a trigger clause into the lease contract that if I failed to pay the rent early even one month, the full original rent would be triggered and due every month after that.
Another approach is negotiating a bi-weekly payment plan that corresponds with when you get paid. You’ll get the side benefit of more effective budgeting while lowering your regular expenses.
If cash is king, then certainty is queen, as far as landlords are concerned.
3. Prepay Rent in Bulk Up Front
There’s nothing more certain than collecting many months of rent in advance. If your landlord won’t accept the other options above, they may change their tune when you show them a large envelope stuffed with cash. Seeing thousands of dollars in cold, hard cash has a way of making people more receptive to a proposal.
Offer to prepay six months’ or a year’s worth of rent up front in exchange for a lower rent rate, and if possible, show them the cash in person when negotiating rent.
4. Work for the Property Manager
Property managers are often overworked and underpaid. So why not ask them if they need any help? It’s no different with landlords, who usually have an unrelated full-time job. If your property manager or landlord won’t lower your rent outright, doing some tasks around the apartment complex can earn you a nice rent reduction.
Can you shovel snow or do yard work? Show empty units? Are you willing to be “on call” for other tenants? It’s not glamorous, but it could save you some serious rent money. If you enjoy DIY projects, see if your superintendent or property manager needs an extra set of hands. Mull over your specific skills that might be valuable to your landlord.
Former Money Crashers writer David Bakke came up with a creative way to help his landlord: “The last apartment complex that I lived in was located in a generally Hispanic neighborhood, and approximately 75% of the tenants in my complex were Hispanic. I’m fluent in Spanish, and one day at the rental office, I saw the property manager struggling to communicate with a Hispanic tenant. I jumped right in and helped out. After that little exchange, I developed a relationship with this manager, and whenever she needed help translating for one of her tenants, I would pop by the office and help out. Each one of these visits gave me a small discount on my monthly rent.”
5. Ask About Referral Fees
Are there vacancies in the building or apartment community? Ask your landlord or property manager about whether they’re willing to pay referral fees for new tenants you send their way. It’s a win-win for everyone involved. The landlord fills their vacant units faster and with qualified tenants referred from a trusted source; you get a rent discount or referral fee and get to live close to your friends.
6. Other Negotiation Ideas
In any negotiation, the key is to find what the other party wants, rather than what you want them to concede.
What might your landlord want besides higher rents? If you don’t have pets, you could offer to refrain from bringing in a pet as part of a lease contract with a lower rent payment. If you don’t have a car, and the rental unit includes a parking space, you could offer to forgo your parking space in exchange for lower rent.
Alternatively, you could offer to give the landlord more notice before moving out than is required by state law. Remember, landlords hate vacancies, so offer to give them enough notice that they can advertise the unit and find a replacement tenant before you’ve vacated. Be sure to emphasize that you’ll keep the unit immaculate during the advertising period and cooperate fully with all showings.
Get creative in your offers to make your landlord’s life easier, and you may be rewarded with a lower rent payment.
Outsource Your Rent to Others
Whether you successfully negotiate a lower rent or not, you can always approach the problem of rent payments from another angle: having someone else pay part – or all – of them for you.
7. Bring in a Roommate
Splitting the rent is an easy way to score a huge reduction. Even if you thought you were past that stage of your life, looking for a roommate doesn’t carry the stigma it once did. In fact, as rents have risen over the last decade, more adults have doubled up as roommates. A Zillow study found that by the end of 2017, 30% of adults ages 23 to 65 had roommates – up sharply from 21% in 2005.
And the savings don’t end at the rent. Roommates cover half the utilities too, which can total hundreds of dollars per month. Try these roommate money management tips to stay organized and keep the peace.
Make sure you have the proper consent from the landlord, though, and be careful if you end up considering strangers. Be sure to carefully screen potential tenants and make sure you get satisfactory answers to these questions to ask a potential roommate.
8. Upsize for a Better Roommate Layout
OK, this one does involve moving, but you can keep it within the same building or apartment complex.
Ask your landlord if they have any larger units available. The cost savings between living alone in a one-bedroom versus sharing a two-bedroom apartment with a housemate is staggering. In late 2020, the median cost of a one-bedroom apartment was $960, according to Apartment List, compared with $1,101 for a two-bedroom. That’s a per-person rent of $960 versus $551.
9. Rent Out Space on Airbnb
You don’t have to bring in a full-time housemate to take advantage of outsourcing extra rooms. I have a single friend who lives alone in a two-bedroom apartment. She rents out her spare bedroom on Airbnb for seven to 10 days a month, which typically covers around three-quarters of her rent. She rarely sees or interacts with guests. They come for one or two long weekends each month, spend most of their time running around the city as tourists, and use her spare bedroom for sleeping. Her utility bills barely budge higher because the occupancy and usage are low.
The vacation rental model isn’t the only option available. Another approach is to rent out your entire apartment while you’re not using it – while you’re traveling, for example, or while you’re spending the weekend at your parents’ or significant other’s house.
It’s an easy way to outsource rental income without having to live with anybody. But before you list your home on Airbnb or VRBO, double-check your lease to make sure it allows subleasing and your local laws to make sure they allow short-term leasing.
10. Host a Foreign Exchange Student
My business partner and her husband still live in the large suburban home where they raised their five children, but their kids are all grown now and no longer live with them. These empty nesters weren’t quite ready to downsize to a smaller home but realized that the home felt empty with only the two of them living in it. They managed to solve two problems with one fix.
By bringing in a foreign exchange student through a placement service, they filled the house with youth and energy again – and managed to cover over half their housing payment at the same time with the monthly stipend from the placement service. My partner used Cambridge Network; other reputable options include Ameristudent and the American Homestay Network.
Cut Your Expenses
When all else fails, you can always cut your costs the old-fashioned way. Here are a few old-school ideas to trim your housing expenses.
11. Downsize
Ask your landlord if they have a smaller unit available. If you currently occupy a one-bedroom, for example, you could save a few hundred dollars per month by moving to a studio.
Again, you’d have to take on a slight move, but it’s easy enough to relocate within the building where you currently live. Plus, there are many advantages to downsizing your home beyond lower rent payments, including lower utility bills and less cleaning.
12. Reduce Other Living Expenses
When you can’t cut your rent, you can boost your budget by cutting other apartment-related expenses. For example, look for ways to lower your monthly utility bills, such as by adjusting your thermostat or swapping in a smart thermostat. You can always take it with you when you leave; just make sure you keep the old one and replace it before moving.
You cut out your cable bill and switch to Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime instead. Or, for that matter, you can stop watching TV altogether. You can also trim your household spending by saving more money on groceries. While you’re at it, get more efficient at reusing leftovers and making freezer meals in advance.
Final Word
Tightening your belt, especially when it comes to rent, isn’t always easy. But even relatively small savings in a big bill like rent add up over the course of a year. Whether you stay in your current home or move, remember that rent is negotiable. Look for what you can offer your landlord to make their life easier, other than a higher rent payment.
And remember: With a little creativity, you can find ways to share the burden. Let other people pay your rent for you so that you can funnel more money into savings.
Have you had success lowering your monthly rent payments? What worked for you?
