This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Anna Cooper, 32, who worked as a resident services coordinator. Business Insider has verified Cooper’s employment history. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
From 2018 to 2020, I worked as a resident services coordinator for a luxury multi-family property in Washington DC and learned a lot about the rental process from the landlord side of things.
The pandemic made people more sensitive about their finances, and as a result, many became more proactive about negotiating their rent. It was great to see rent negotiations firsthand because before then, I didn’t even know that was something you could do.
I’ve since moved on from working in property management, but I’ve used the tips I learned from the job to negotiate my own rent.
Understand the leverage you have
Many people don’t think they have the option to negotiate, but you can definitely make your renting experience work in your favor.
When you think about it from the landlord perspective, it’s important for them to retain you as a tenant. It’s really expensive to turn a unit over. They have to push out marketing to let the public know, “Hey, these units are now up for lease,” and there are different companies that they use and have to pay for to put a unit back on the market.
Once you take that into account, you realize you can negotiate to stay and lock in another lease. That way, the landlord doesn’t have to worry about a unit sitting vacant for X amount of months or a year when they could continue to bring in profit just by negotiating with someone to resign.
Line up your negotiation chips early
You want to start doing your research 60 to 90 days before your lease renewal date. If you start thinking about the renewal process a few months ahead of time, you can get a better idea of the rental market.
Are there better properties with cheaper rates? What’s my experience at the building I’m in right now? Could it be better? These are all good questions to ask yourself.
It’s also important to keep track of your experience on the current lease because these could become negotiating chips. Maybe you’ve had a lot of service requests and maintenance orders for things that are no fault of your own. For example, maybe you have a washer and dryer that has just not been great. Maybe there’s a new building across the street, but you were told you would be living across from an empty lot, and the construction has impacted your peace of mind. Keep note of things that have impacted your quality of living, and be prepared to bring them up in your negotiations.
People don’t often consider starting early. They’ll wait for a letter or an email from their property manager to start the lease renewal process, but by that point, they’ve lost the edge on time.
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Don’t be discouraged by a ‘no’
Sometimes, when you send a letter or email to your landlord to negotiate, you get told “no.”
It sucks, but if that happens, be prepared to ask them again. Check to see if there’s someone above your landlord, like the regional property manager. Everyone answers to something above them if it’s a larger property. For mom-and-pop landlords, you may have less leverage.
It also doesn’t hurt to ask your neighbors what they’re paying for rent, if they negotiated, and if they’ve experienced any issues living in the building. Getting more information can help you negotiate with your landlord more effectively.
Negotiate different amenities, and keep a paper trail
When I moved to LA, I created an Excel spreadsheet of all of the properties I toured. I tracked things like the rent, the square footage of the unit, what amenities were included, parking, and other important details.
After I went on these tours, I compared each of them to see what made the most sense.
If some properties were a couple of blocks away or within a mile of another one, I would open up negotiations with the property manager and say something like, “It’s between this apartment and another one. This one has a bit more square footage, but this one here is charging a bit more for parking.”
When it came to signing a lease, I spoke to the leasing agent who gave me the tour.
Anytime you’re negotiating something like this, you want to have that trail in writing. I sent a follow-up email to the leasing agent saying, “Hey, thank you so much for the tour. As discussed earlier today, I would love if we could look into potential options for a longer lease term, plus a parking credit.”
He replied back to the email saying that he would loop in his regional manager. In the end, instead of signing a 12-month lease term, I negotiated a 13-month lease term that made my rent cheaper and included a discounted rate on parking.