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I love lying to my landlord. “We’re currently looking at a comparable unit in the area at $[a hundred dollars less than our current rent]/month, so if your offer has any flexibility to come down on the rent, that would help us reach a decision about whether or not to renew our lease here” and the comparable unit exists only in my own beautiful mind
Actually, no! And since several people have replied asked for my script for negotiating lower rent, I’m gonna share that below, as well as the philosophy behind it. Full disclosure that I’m not a leasing office person or a realtor or god forbid, a landlord—I’m just someone who has been a renter for 10+ years across different states, and I know for a fact that I have saved myself thousands of dollars by successfully negotiating a lower monthly rent on almost every lease I’ve ever signed. (Also, I’ve only ever rented in the U.S., so this advice may not be as applicable elsewhere.)
Step 0: Know Thy Enemy
The key thing to understand about all residential landlords, whether they’re corporate conglomerates or Just Some Asshole, is that their asset—the property—is a Cinderella carriage that magically turns back into an expensive ass pumpkin of a liability any time it’s sitting empty. The property taxes, insurance, mortgage, HOA fees, and maintenance costs all still come due every month/quarter/year whether they have a tenant to cover it all and then some, or not.
Because of this, at the end of the day, their ultimate goal is to fill every unit at all times with someone who will reliably pay the rent on time and in full. And because everything else is secondary to that goal—and because with the exception of Just Some Asshole landlords, the person responding to your emails and writing up your lease paperwork is several degrees of separation removed from the shareholders who profit off your rent money—they’re almost always willing to negotiate with you. As long as it gets the liability converted into an asset faster or keeps the carriage from turning back into a pumpkin for longer, then in the long run, it’s actually in their best interest to give you a better price.
Step 1: Identify Your Leverage
If you understand how supply and demand works, you can figure out how much leverage you have pretty easily. High supply and low demand = you have more leverage, and vice versa. Do they have an “AVAILABLE NOW - MOVE IN TODAY” sandwich board on the sidewalk or a web banner that says “First month free”? Does their website and/or Apartments.com show a bunch of currently open listings? Do you already live there and know at least two families on your floor have moved out in the last several months with no one new moving in to replace them? These are all indications that they have more than one unit currently sitting empty, meaning higher supply and lower demand. No sandwich board and a website that just says “call for availability”? They might just suck at marketing, but more likely, supply is lower and demand is higher.
You have the least leverage if you’re a prospective tenant looking to move in somewhere that has a waitlist. They have no reason to offer you a discount if six other people are already in line to pay full price for apartments that aren’t even vacant yet (but you can still ask!). You also have no leverage to negotiate if you’ve already signed a lease and you’re in the middle of the lease period; you legally agreed to pay $X/month for Y months, so you’re stuck with that until the lease is up.
At the other end of the spectrum, you have the most leverage if you’re a current tenant who has always paid your rent on time and you’re being offered a renewal on your existing lease with higher rent than you're currently paying, especially if they already have some units that have been empty for a while. If you move out, not only is your unit going to sit vacant for at least part of a month, they’re also probably going to have to put in some work to “turn” the unit (repainting, professional cleaning, etc) to get it in move-in condition for the next tenant.
All of this means that if you move out, even if they can fleece you out of your security deposit and find a new tenant the very next month, it’s still gonna cost them at least a few thousand dollars to turn that pumpkin back into a carriage again. They’re probably willing to come down by $100-$200/month or so on the renewal offer rent if you ask, because they know it’ll actually save them money in the long run. Similar situation if you’re a prospective new tenant—if they can’t get you or anyone else to sign a lease and move in this month, that’s $[whatever the monthly rent is] down the drain, and they’ll never get it back. It’s a perishable item about to spoil.
Step 2: Get Their Opening Offer
This is the first number they’ll quote you for the rent—the sticker price that you’ve always just accepted as set in stone. The truth is, they’ve built some buffer into that number. There’s almost always some room for them to come down, and depending on your leverage, they will if you ask nicely. But for reasons that baffle me, most people don’t!
Step 3: Wait, Research, & Counter
Don’t reply to their initial offer right away—unless there’s a waitlist (in which case, you have little haggling power anyway), wait a few days. It makes them sweat a bit, and it shows you aren’t desperate. The person who is rushing to reply is not the one who has more leverage in the negotiation, and making them wait reminds them of that. In the meantime, use Apartments.com or Zillow to get an idea of what similar units in the same area are currently going for. Then you come up with your counteroffer.
As a general rule, anything more than about 20-25% below their opening offer (or below market rates) will probably just piss them off or make them take you less seriously. But when we’re talking about your monthly rent over the course of a year or two, even a 10% discount adds up to a lot of money!
When I negotiated our original lease for my current place, I also asked for and got a two year lease term instead of the standard one year. But whatever automated calendar event system they use to remind their leasing office staff when it’s time to send out renewal offers didn’t get the memo about that, so they mistakenly sent me a renewal offer the following year, meaning I got to see how much they would have jacked up the rent if they could’ve. For that second year of the lease alone, my negotiating saved us $3,000!
Step 4: BDE (Big Dick Emailing)
Here’s the tricky part. You need to write an email—always negotiate over email if you can, it’s too easy for a salesperson to bowl you over on the phone and anything they say that isn’t in writing means nothing—which simultaneously makes it sound like you would sign a lease with them in a heartbeat and like you are actively flirting with five other apartment complexes right now who all want you so bad it makes them look stupid, because you are just so sexy and fun and your credit score is eight inches flaccid. You need to make them believe you are both highly motivated and ready to sign on the dotted line and willing to just walk away from the table at any second, but if they could just come down a little bit on that number, you’d delete those other hoes’ numbers forever! Here’s the rough script I use every time:
“ Thank you for [your email/the tour/sending over the offer letter/etc]. I have had a chance to review and consider it. I think [name of apartment complex] would be the perfect fit for me, but I am also exploring and touring other options in the area, including a comparable unit nearby at $[a little below your counteroffer number]/month.
If we could come down to $[your counteroffer number]/month on the rent, I would be prepared to sign the lease today. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks! "
Step 6: You Win Either Way
Sometimes they really do just accept your counteroffer without question and send you over a revised lease to sign. (When this happens, I make a note for next time that my counteroffer was probably too high and I should’ve asked for more!) More often, they get approval from The Powers That Be and come back with a number that’s higher than your counteroffer but lower than their initial offer. Assuming I can afford it, I always accept this offer; you’ve achieved your goal of saving yourself money from sticker price, and they’re likely to lose patience if they have to keep going around and around with you. And sometimes (though only very rarely), they may come back and say the price is firm—in which case, guess what? You still didn’t lose anything by asking!
THIS!!! Exactly this. I didn’t mention it above because I just couldn’t fit it neatly anywhere, but once while negotiating a lease renewal, I got as far as receiving their counteroffer, which was basically “price firm :(”, but then life happened, so I forgot to respond and accept. The email sat in my inbox for a week. And then, completely unprompted, they magically replied again saying, “actually, nvm, how’s $[number that is lower than our opening offer] sound?”
To them, it looked like I was staring them down cold as ice like
I was literally just busy with other stuff! and they were sweating!!! BULLETS!!!
This is great - but I have a big question. HOW do you figure out WHO TO EMAIL for Step 4?
I tried negotiating a lease once before, not even on the price but on some minor clause that was unreasonable and probably illegal to enforce anyway. But the property was owned by one of these landlord corporations, you know the type.
So I was sitting there with the representative (Property manager? Sales associate? who knows) and said, "This clause [abc] here seems unreasonable, can we change it to [xyz]?" and she looked at me with the most blank, baffled expression and said, "Change... it? You can't change it..."
It became evident quickly that she wasn't stonewalling me; rather she didn't seem to be familiar with the concept of negotiating a lease. To her, if it's printed on letterhead it's written in stone, and SHE certainly didn't seem to have the authority to sign off any changes to the contract—nor did she have any idea who would.
So back to the original question: How do we figure out the right person to contact for Step 4, especially when dealing with a big corporate landlord?
Modifying the actual language or clauses of the standard lease is kinda beyond the scope of this tutorial (it would involve them contacting their lawyers.) But as for negotiating lower rent, if the person you’re talking to about leasing the place (whether in person or by email—again, ideally you always wanna be doing this by email) just straight up doesn’t understand what you’re talking about, you ask for their manager. If they are the manager, you take your leverage and walk away from the table—either they will very quickly demonstrate that they actually do understand how negotiating works by chasing you down the proverbial block to give you a lower price, or you’ll dodge the bullet of having to live somewhere run by dunces who will no doubt be just as (un)helpful about fixing your plumbing when it breaks.
hbo max blocks screenshots even when I use the snipping tool AND firefox AND ublock which is a fucking first. i will never understand streaming services blocking the ability to take screenshots thats literally free advertising for your show right there. HOW THE HELL IS SOMEBODY GONNA PIRATE YOUR SHOW THROUGH SCREENSHOTS. JACKASS
somewhere out there is a guy who meticulously takes screenshots of every individual frame of his favorite tv shows and then painstakingly etches each one onto a roll of film which he puts into his old timey projector and recreates the footage as a silent film with his own lavishly hand-lettered dialogue cards and original score that he plays on his upright piano and charges audiences one shiny penny a play. at last, big media has finally outsmarted ol' Zachary Zoetrope
PSA for everyone who doesn't know, explained simply
this is NOT because of blocking screenshots, it's because of HOW streaming sites use your computer's hardware to optimise performance, which means the thing rendering the video and the thing capturing your screen aren't the SAME thing. so they can't talk together.
you can fix this by going to your browser settings, searching for "hardware acceleration", and turning that off.
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If you're thinking about moving on from Spotify, I can't recommend enough getting into modern MP3 players (more properly called digital audio players, or DAPs, since they play more filetypes than just MP3) and building your own music library.
There's been a massive amount of innovation in the lower end of DAPs, and you can get a lot for under $100. Here are the main ones I recommend:
Snowsky Echo Mini - This is the most affordable one, at only $65 CAD (I think it's even less in the US) and the one that I ended up buying. Designed to look like a cassette player. The main drawback is that the interface is slightly unintuitive and it doesn't have a touch screen, but I've been delighted with mine.
Hiby R1 - This goes for $85 USD, and is the most widely recommended of the bunch for its good UI and wide range of utilities. Has a touchscreen and buttons.
Tempotec V1 - Similar to the Hiby R1, although the specific features are slightly different. Also has a touchscreen and buttons.
Innioasis R1 (honourable mention) - Designed to look nearly identical to an iPod Classic, including a fully functional clickwheel The sound quality on this is notably worse than the other DAPs I listed above, and the Bluetooth is widely reported to be unreliable, but I have to include it for people who desperately want an iPod again (and don't want to shell out $300+ for a modernized Classic) and because it has an extremely active modding scene.
You will need to buy a microSD card to upgrade the storage of most of these, although these days you can get 250GB for under $20.
I can't speak for the others, but the Hiby also has an aux/headphones jack port.
Tbh, I find its UI rather dodgy, it needs a "back" button instead of just "next" and "pause", and the volume doesn't go nearly as loud as it should (even outside of headphones mode), but it's still a solid unit. Plus, I love being able to use folders, ala my ancient PJB-100.
(guy who isnt beating the ocd voice) i know! maybe if i spend all night ruminating on something i feel guilty about until i’ve considered it from every possible angle and made myself physically ill, then i can finally forgive myself and i’ll feel better! 99% of morally abhorrent people stop self punishing right before they’re Absolved
wasn't planning to go more into detail on this, but I wanna touch on this tag real quick. Having done OCD advocacy work and some partnerships with mental health organizations, I've personally found that deciding whether something is "normal" is ultimately unhelpful (for many, at least) in figuring out your needs.
OCD is normal in that it effects hundreds of millions of people globally —making OCD about as common as having red hair.
Your intrusive thoughts are normal. Whether they're focused on morality, cleanliness, disease, sexuality, unreality—and yes, even the more stigmatized obsessions about sex and violence.
Everyone experiences intrusive thoughts. ("What if I drove my car off the road right now?" "What if I jumped off this balcony?" "What if I yelled a curse word really loud in this meeting for no reason?")
Not everyone gets stuck in cycles of obsession and compulsions. If you get stuck in these cycles, it's worth looking into OCD and how OCD treatment may benefit you.
But don't ask yourself whether you're "normal." You are. Ask yourself instead whether you're struggling. Whether you're in pain. Whether the way you think and feel harms you and whether changing the way you think and feel might help you.
Anyway, if you know me at all you already know I'm gonna recommend checking out MadeofMillions and their info on OCD for further reading. Okay I love you good luck <3
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder that causes unwanted intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and mental or physical ritua
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hey here's a website for downloading any video or image from any website.
works w/ youtube, soundcloud, twitch, twitter (gifs and videos), tumblr (video and audio), and most other websites you're probably lookin to download stuff off of.
for anyone wondering about privacy and whatnot, i'm happy to say that the developers are pretty committed to have 0 trackers and 0 data retention. you can read more in their "about" section, but here's the basic important stuff:
okay so if you need more veggies/fruit, protein or fibre (bc most people do NOT eat enough) in your diet but you struggle to do so, hear me out:
look up recipes (especially snack recipes) that are child/toddler/baby-friendly
i can guarantee there is a woman with a cooking blog out there who has found away to pack a bunch of vegetables into a surprisingly delicious little snack for her kids. this process has never failed me when i feel like i am not eating enough fruits and veggies. my entire flat is eating spinach muffins at the moment, which doesn’t sounding particularly appealing to most people and yet somehow. they’re delicious.
