Landlords accepting reduced rents?

trican

Hi all,

I was speaking to a couple of friends last night who have rented rooms in owner occupied houses/apartments that were advertised on Daft. In both (separate) cases they negotiated the rent down from the advertised price on daft. One guy managed to get rent reduced from €300 to €250 for a double room in in dooradoyle (before christmas), whilst the other guy got a double room ensuite in an apartment in the city centre reduced from 380 to 300.

Is this the norm now?! I find it hard to believe, but maybe this is the fear factor (of dell etc etc closing) for landlords, particularly own occupiers? I'd almost feel bad haggling, but I guess its worth it? Would you try bargain down the price? Anyone have any thoughts?

Hooked

Why would you feel bad about haggling. Personally, I rarely pay full price for anything - DIY materials, clothes, especially cars I've bought - There's always room for a few bob to be made. Better in my pocket than theirs I always say.

As a home owner, if I ever did decide to rent a room, I guess in the current climate I'd expect to be beaten down a bit on the price. Maybe it's just me, and the many years spent in the company of my auld man, but I feel it's par for the course - especially in the case of renting property, buying cars.

The owner/occupier is allowed tax relief on a good wedge of rental income IIRC, and you'd be paying a good percentage of their mortgage - so I wouldn't be concerned about haggling. Obviously if you find a place you really like, then be settled to pay full whack. But it's definitely a renters market IMO.

Just my EUR 0.02

trican

cheers for that. I guess I feel awkward about it, because I never have haggled much before. But it seems more common/necessary now.

Whats a reasonable first offer on a €300 a month room then? Would 250 or less be insulating?

Hooked

It depends on the person/personalities involved really.

i.e. how willing/confident you are to haggle and how much he or she has in their head as their bottom dollar. IMO 250 wouldn't be insulting...

If it were me (as the haggler), I'd be throwing the idea about that I had 250 in mind as my top price... Using a weekly figure of 12.50 as my back up plan... "Sure you'd only get 2 pints with that" Come on.. you're not going to lose out on 250 a month for the sake of a couple of pints... Or something to that effect.

If you really like the place/location etc.. then you'd have to be prepared to pay the asking price. But with DELL and the economic climate, I'd be happy to haggle on something like this... But I've actually embarrassed female friends when buying negotiating the price of cars etc for them... Not that they were embarrassed on paying 2400 for a car advertised for 3000. Really depends on your personality... and theirs, of course!

And always have the "split the difference with me" line ready...
Say the best brice the renter has is 280 and you' want to pay 250, then offer to split the difference (30 euro) and settle half way at 265. I once tossed a coin for this and won! The seller didn't know what was going on till it was all over... He hee heee...

It all really depends on how much room there is for this "haggling" and whether or not what you're haggling for can be found elsewhere...

Is any of this making sense or am I just rambling again?

Limerick Dude

Id advise to haggle all you can! Especially with landlords! They have been ripping of the irish public for years now, its about time they got whats coming to them.

trican

Well I emailed a couple of ads on Daft asking whether they'd be open to a reduction. I got one response who said would include the bills in the rent price. But another two who i got the impression were almost offended that I would even dare ask such a question about their "pretty homes".

The more i think about it, the more I think that land lords (particularly owner-occupiers) are going to have to stop living in cloud cuckoo land. There is approx a 6x increase in the number of places to rent in limerick in the last year ( source: http://daftwatch.atspace.com/daftcounty_17.html) and there is effectively going to be a further 10,000 people unemployed in limerick within the next week (Dell + local jobs). Supply and demand will surely drive rents considerably lower in the next three months

krudler

My rent has gone from 700 a month to 800 over the past 2 years, 50 a year, at the time wasnt pushed as where I live is perfect for me and my flatmates needs, city centre, secure parking, walking distance to work, but if it goes up again I'm gone, considering going anyway to get a bigger place and I'm defintelty going to ask if our rent can be reduced, if I find out new tenants have to pay less our landlord will be getting a bollocking

Itsdacraic

trican wrote: »

Well I emailed a couple of ads on Daft asking whether they'd be open to a reduction. I got one response who said would include the bills in the rent price. But another two who i got the impression were almost offended that I would even dare ask such a question about their "pretty homes".

The more i think about it, the more I think that land lords (particularly owner-occupiers) are going to have to stop living in cloud cuckoo land. There is approx a 6x increase in the number of places to rent in limerick in the last year ( source: http://daftwatch.atspace.com/daftcounty_17.html) and there is effectively going to be a further 10,000 people unemployed in limerick within the next week (Dell + local jobs). Supply and demand will surely drive rents considerably lower in the next three months

You won't have any success trying to bargin over email. Go make an appointment to view the house and try to do your negotiation face to face. Much easier to guage their reaction then and see how willing they are to get the place rented asap.

trican

I think you're right regarding email versus face to face. But I still think its inevitable the rents have to fall in Limerick (as well as through Ireland), or am I overlooking some basic economic principal why it won't!?

Sorry for the rant!!

old boy

regardless of what you are paying for HAGGLE HAGGLE HAGGLE

TheLoc

I will probably be moving in the next 2 months. can someone go about what to say to the landlord? as in a piece of dialogue or something. I know it sound silly but I wouldn't have a clue how to bring the prices down without sounding like a prick. Do I just tell him I'm only looking and then tell the landlord i'm looking for something a small bit cheaper or what? Thanks in advance. This would be really REALLY helpful because i'm counting my coins trying to save for deposit and the whole lot.

cooperguy

After you have viewed a place mention how much you like it, how its very convenient for work etc. (he now knows your not a time waster when your looking for a discount) ask the landlord what the rent is. He says €400. Then a slightly disappointed "Oh to be honest that is a bit outside my budget", "I was hoping to pay somewhere around €80/week"

You then have to judge by his reaction what you do next. You probably wont get the first price you state but hopefully you find a happy middle ground.

lfc1892

I was reading daft recently as I'm paying over 700 a month for my place (I'm heading up to pay it in a few minutes!) and found better 2 bedroom apartments with city centre locations now reduced to around 600. AND, there is an awful lot more of them available.

Last year when I moved to this place because my previous landlord was being too greedy with upping the rent, I could only find about one worthwhile apartment to look at a week. There is literally dozens of them available now (that does include the infamous apartments on the Dock Road)

trican

lfc1892 wrote: »

... the infamous apartments on the Dock Road)

Why infamous!?!

lfc1892

I've several friends that have been burgled on more than one occasion whilst at work as well as noise complaints. Oh and the smell of wee in the lifts.

This particular complex has a very poor reputation wouldn't you agree?

badboyblast

yeah heard of doors being kicked in on them apartments constantly!!