Question about apartments

[biggiy05]

I've been looking at apartments and I'm starting to narrow my search...well I've got one I'm interested in because it's less than a minute from the fire station. My question is about rent.

What are the chances of talking the landlord down in price for X number of months when signing a new lease? I dated a girl about a year ago who worked for an apartment complex and would draw up leases and the rent would be lower than the usual price for the first four months, sometimes longer. The place I'm looking at is a new complex and a one bedroom is $670 a month.

 

[Riyo]

Apartments often run specials to attract customers. At the apartment I am at now, the first two months had 250 off the rent and then it went back to normal after those two months. Specials aren't just limited to that, though, some will lock in an amount if you agree to sign a contract in a specific time frame...there are many others, just depends on the apartment.

I don't know about talking down a landlord on price, from what I've seen here they are pretty firm on their prices and you're lucky to be getting a special at all. Haha.

Good luck!

 

[leoman777]

i dont know how good that would work but with the economy these days i would do it lol

 

[ajveachster]

Let the office know you are very interested, and have them draw up the lease with all included expenses. That way you can see the final cost to know if you are getting a good deal or not. For example, my apartment was not the least expensive for monthly rent, but it has a set price per month on water and gas. It makes it less than what I would have paid somewhere else with utilities. Also the rent is less for a 1 year lease than shorter term leases.

 

[fallen_angel]

$670 per month is a pretty good price for 1 bedroom, as long as the place is of a decent size. I have never talked down prices before, but it's worth a try Good luck.

 

[biggiy05]

$670 per month is a pretty good price for 1 bedroom, as long as the place is of a decent size. I have never talked down prices before, but it's worth a try Good luck.

It's a two story style apartment. I would only have neighbors to my left and right, not above or below me. It's 755 sq. ft. and has a washer/dryer in the unit. The heat type is electric which I'm still not sold on but it's one less bill in the winter months. Here is the apartment. Link

Sunbury is still a smaller town but it's growing. It's more rural than anything and I'm literally at the half way mark between my mom's place and my dad's. I'm still close to entertainment and it's an extra 10-15 minutes on the highway to get to campus.

 

[Sunrise Reptile]

It looks nice, and the price isn't too bad for a Town House. With the electric heat, the only thing I'd suggest you look at very closely are the windows. If they look to seal OK, then you should be fine. Otherwise, electric heat can be pretty expensive and even moreso if its all going out your window. :main_yes:

 

[Lovey]

I live in Canada and have never seen anyone get a deal on an apartment for the first few months? lol maybe it's a bigger city thing (I'm in a small town, they call it a village haha). But it doesn't hurt to ask?? What if you asked them to change the electric to gas? Electric could be a pain in the winter months :/

 

[2bacop]

That totally looks worth it, my friend rents a 1 bedroom/1 bathroom apartment that does not have a washer or dryer, the amount of floor space is about the same as most peoples living rooms and it is in a really bad neighborhood, and this is in a pretty small town in va, Waynesboro to be exact. There is no entertainment here, LOL. not even bowling. I think that place looks awesome, really clean.

 

[metaldad904]

The way the economy is today apartment communities are DESPERATE to keep people in them and get new renters. I would make them a fair offer and see what they do, if they counter you can negotiate. With the way things are there is definitely some wiggle room and if they won't budge then go look for somewhere that will. This industry is in extreme peril and will do just about anything to keep money flowing in.

 

[biggiy05]

I don't think I need to try and negotiate a price with them. Why? Well it turns out if I'm working at the police or fire department I get a discount!

The living room is smaller than I thought it would be but it has a nice sized kitchen. The bedroom upstairs isn't as big as I'd hoped but I've also been spoiled and had large bedrooms all my life. All in all it's a nice sized apartment for being a one bedroom. Washer/dryer come with the unit and it's out of the way. I just need to wrap my head around the fact that I don't need a lot of space because it's just me and a dog. BUT! Since I get a 5% discount on rent I could get a two bedroom for $731.50. The two bedroom is 1,000 sq. ft. and has 1 1/2 baths. Obviously the half bath will never be used.

The water and electric come on one bill and on the high end it would run $140 during the winter for the one bedroom. I can easily keep it under $100 year around if not lower. Time to make up a budget for the one bedroom and maybe the two bedroom just to see how much extra it would be.

 

[LizMarie]

Living in New York and seeing what prices are around here I can say that those prices are reasonable and I think I'll be moving to Ohio soon, lol. A lot of my friends are trying to move out of their parents houses because the smallest Studio or 1bed room apt starts off at like $800 IF you can find one that price and just keep going up and up. My sister had a hard time looking for an apartment for her and her dogs and the cheapest place was $1450 for 3 bedrooms but 2 of the bedrooms could only fit a twin size bed and skinny dresser, it was BAD she had to give half her furniture away because she had no space for it. Luckily she found another place that was 2bedrooms but was almost double the size of the other apartment for $1400 rent a month which I think included heat and water so it wasn't bad. Just evalute how much space you really need what you can afford but I doubt you can go bad either way, lol.. My other friend was renting a ROOM in a house for $500 for that he should have just stayed in his parents basement, lmao

 

[biggiy05]

I'm going to be measuring all my furniture today to get an idea of what kind of space I'll have in the apartment. I'm working on a budget but it's kind of hard to do when you don't have the money to budget with. I'm waiting on my long term disability claim to go through so I can start crunching numbers. The biggest hurdle will be when I start paramedic and whether I can afford it or not.

My friend who thinks she knows all the answers in life is trying to tell me it's a bad idea to use disability to help pay rent. How is that any different than if I were already in an apt and got injured and had to collect disability?