Everything’s negotiable

Including the rent increase you were told to just accept.

Rent increases feel personal. The email is polite. It’s professional. It asks for hundreds more dollars a month, and it lands like a punch to the gut.

Then everyone tells you the same thing. That’s just the market. Accept it or move.

That advice is wrong, and I can tell you exactly how wrong. Maya was facing $1,500 on an apartment she was paying $1,275 for. She kept the $1,275. A single mother with a Section 8 voucher came to me facing a 25% increase she couldn’t afford, and had been told the extra insult that landlords don’t negotiate with voucher holders. She negotiated anyway. She saved $2,700.

Neither of them had leverage in the way people mean when they say leverage. What they had was an understanding of what a vacancy actually costs a landlord, and three options to put in front of him that were better for him than losing a good tenant. That’s the whole thing. That’s the PREP Framework™, and it works the same whether you’re renting a studio, a three-bedroom with housing assistance, or your first place out of your mother’s house.

This section is where that work lives. What to say and when to stop talking. How to read a rent increase for what it’s really asking. What voucher holders can push on that nobody tells them about. Where rent comparability data comes from and how to use it on your own behalf. What to do when the answer is no.

Some of it will be scripts you can copy. Some of it will be me thinking out loud about a market I’ve spent my career inside of. All of it assumes you can handle the actual numbers, because you can.

If something is about to be decided about your housing, start with the Rent Negotiation Toolkit. It’s free and it’s specific.

Eve

Everything’s Negotiable.

Eve Moss, Founder, Women + Real Estate™ womenplusrealestate.com

The Women + Real Estate™ Opportunity Fund: a portion of all product sales fund scholarships and micro-grants for women in housing transitions. When you purchase any Women + Real Estate product, you’re helping another woman negotiate from strength.

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This newsletter is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or investment advice. The PREP Framework™ and Everything’s Negotiable™ are trademarks of Chavah Media Ltd.

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