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Rent negotiation advice

Started by Gkcomp, August 30, 2019, 09:19:42 AM

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Gkcomp

I wonder if anyone can help please? I'm a first time poster here but have found this forum to contain helpful advice.

I live in Edinburgh and put in an application to rent a flat but offered a lower rate. The flat was up for £1295 but we offered £1100 as the property had been on the market for 6 weeks at the time of application and it is not in the best condition - the bathroom is very 1980s and it has old carpets. However my partner and I really liked it. We offered less in the hope of negotiating and we can go up to 1165 max. Edinburgh is also a fast moving rental market and things don't stay on the market for long at all and in our opinion the property is not renting out because it's overpriced considering it's condition.

We applied for the property 2 weeks ago and after chasing early this week heard the landlord is happy to reduce the rent but needs to double check with his wife. That was on Tuesday and every time I call the letting agent they ignore my calls. What do you think we should do? I know that they may well just be waiting on the landlord but I also am concerned they are lying to us. Should we offer the higher rate? My thoughts were to wait until the landlord got back to us first but I am not sure.

I do not want to place an ultimatum as if it was me it would annoy me. However, we really need to know one way or the other as if it's a no we need to move on with our search (our landlord is selling our flat and we have to be out by October 8th) but we do really like this property but feel waiting for 2 weeks is a bit unreasonable.

We are also actively looking for other properties at the moment.

Thanks for any advice

Mortimer

After a lifetime of trading property, my advice is:

1) When you see a property you like, always offer the amount that it's worth to you.  Don't wait.
2) Keep looking for somewhere else, as you are rightly doing; and
3) Don't overthink it.

Sometimes the other side decide not to let or sell to you.  When they do, they'll always give you a reason that makes it look as if it wasn't their fault.  This will usually not be the real reason or the whole reason.  You'll never know what the real reasons are, and there's no point worrying about it.

Hippogriff

#2
I, on the other hand, would wait... and keep looking. Car salespeople, houses, anything really... silence and patience are great tactics to get people freaking-out... but at some point there has to be communication, ignoring you forever obviously doesn't work for their side. I'd redouble my efforts into looking elsewhere... because the rent you've offered is quite a bit lower than the asking price, 15%?, and even though I appreciate a haggle I'd not be tempted by that if I thought there was any chance of getting more elsewhere... and your maximum is still a drop of around 10%. Sometimes it's a bird-in-the-hand and sometimes it's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

You also have time... right?

Gkcomp

Thank you both for your advice. I think I will wait it out and just redouble my efforts looking for other properties. My thoughts are if we don't hear by next week we will withdraw our application. We have not told the letting agent we can go up a bit further - do you think we should? I offered less as I thought the landlord would prefer to have tenants than a vacant property as it has now been sitting empty for coming on 9 weeks but it does make sense also to wait to see if anyone else can pay more.

Perhaps I am just overthinking it and I am certain if this property does not work out something else will come up and it will work out fine. 

Hippogriff

I don't know if there's some law or something up there but the act of "withdrawing your application" sounds a bit passive-aggressive to me... like you're trying to prove something... the better approach is to just let it die on the vine, pretend you don't care and then really don't care. For that to be true you probably need an alternative to run with. You can offer, say, the £1,150... rather than the £1,165 and then you might feel as though you still won-out... but what is your line of communication - you had implied you were being ignored currently? It is not unknown for someone to run their figures again and see where they can make a tiny improvement to the budgeting... and that extra willingness can often grease the wheels.

Maybe £1,125... you dunno, it's possible the Landlord is stuck with an expensive mortgage and your offer is not only unpalatable, it's possibly impossible... but time will certainly tell if it's sitting there. It's also not unheard of for incompetent Agents to have not done anything at all with your offer... it's not their void period, really... any one that is professional should want to get it off their books though.

Focus elsewhere, see what comes from this without putting into too much effort. Last contact was Tuesday... that is not 2 weeks... that's 3 days.

Gkcomp

Thanks so much for your help - you are right that does sound passive aggressive and having considered your valid point, I won't do that. I also meant it has been 2 weeks since we applied for the property not since we last had contact.
My line of communication is by calling them - I last spoke to the lady who is property managing it on Tuesday but I have tried calling since and left messages for her to call me back and she doesn't. She might just be busy though, I am aware of that as it is student season. And it's also entirely possible the receptionist isn't passing on messages.

Okay thanks and I will take this all on board - you are quite right I will just take a back seat and focus my efforts elsewhere. I'll maybe offer a little bit more but just focus on other houses now. Thanks for the well needed perspective!