IAC Lease Negotiation

socal78

socal78

Well-known member
I'll get this lease negotiation thread kicked off. We just renewed our IAC lease. Since they wanted to raise our rent by $100/mo., we looked for other ways to try to bring down costs or get some concessions. Ultimately, we negotiated and signed a 12-mo lease staying at the same rate we pay now, $600 off our lease-break fee (from $3,600 to $3,000), and four free movie tickets.
 
Our renewal isn't up until summer '10, but I'm already leery that they'll try to raise based on the fact that we got a great (at the time) rate when we moved in.

Regardless of my background provided on the Settling In thread, I'd like to stay here until we buy. So, I don't know if I can pull the "I'm leaving unless..." card. I suppose I shall wait and see.
 
wow, socal, that is great... you got the same rate, plus a disc on lease break fee, and movie tickets? I would also opt for free club house rentals...
 
Nice work. When I renewed my IAC lease a couple of months ago, they dropped my rent just under $200 a month without me having to do any negotiating, which was nice.

One thing that can make it easier to negotiate rental rates for IAC apartments is that you can easily find out what price ranges each floorplan in your complex or any of the other IAC ones are going for by clicking on the "Prices & Floor Plans" links at http://www.rental-living.com/.
 
I received my renewal letter today and its offering me the same rent as i'm currently paying.

The rental living site is quoting the same price as well, so Im not sure how much negotiating room i'll have. Lets see what happens..
 
We'll be up for our lease renewal towards the end of May. We're not sure what we'll do at that point with the prices being extremely high, but that's kinda what you get for renting a townhome with IAC.

I wish I could work a great deal like you did, socal! What's your secret? Hehe.
 
They want us to renew a 13 month lease..

I think we might leave the IAC and rent a 3 bedroom house with my brother...
 
It's that time of year again for us. (Oh, gosh. Two and a half years ago when we moved into our IAC, I certainly never thought I'd still be contemplating another lease renewal!)

Has anyone renewed their IAC leases lately? Had any luck negotiating rates?

So, we currently pay $1,950 on a 12 mo. lease for our 1,131 sqft. apartment.

The office gave us a notice saying we have to respond by Nov. 1 (our lease is up end of Dec.) if we want the following rates:

15-18 mos. @ $1,975
12-14 mos. @ $1,975 (that's not a typo. Same as above.)
6-11 mos. @ $2,040
month-to-month @ $2,240

So, we would be looking at a slight increase of $25/mo. to keep our apartment on the same terms. We don't want the same terms, though, as we'd ideally like to be out by June (of course, that is not guaranteed but we've taken baby steps towards getting ourselves ready to place offers if the right place comes up, which I'm not confidant that it will soon.)

I checked our apartment availability and it looks very low, so I don't think that's a good sign. Ever since they started taking renters with bad credit and foreclosures on their record, they've had less incentive to work with us. I'm not too hopeful I can get them to budge, (but haven't entered negotiations yet. Need to be certain what it is that we're shooting for first.) I'm certainly not looking forward to a rent increase but it looks like that may be the case, especially if we want something short-term / non-committal. Oy. I'm just really not a happy camper right now. Moving (to buy) would be very expensive. Staying to rent would be more expensive than ever. Feeling the pinch here.
 
100 more per month is cheaper than a breaklease fee of 3000. 800 dollars more vs 3000.  So you could resign for 8-9 months (to end in Juneish) and then see where you are with the home buying - if you're really close or just waiting on paperwork you can pay for one more month at the month-to-month price and get out -- if you think it'll be another 6 motnhs you can resign a 6 month lease and maybe renegotiate then too.
 
SoCal78,

Not sure if this applies to you but if you are looking to get into a new construction from TIC, for example, Montecito in WB, there's no lease break fee. 
 
SoCal78 said:
jumpcut said:
SoCal, there was an article just in today's paper that IAC is ending its rent cuts:
http://lansner.ocregister.com/2010/10/27/irvine-co-sees-end-of-apartment-rent-cuts/86060/
Click to expand...

Thanks for the head's up! I had no idea there was an article that ran on this topic. I will definitely read it.
Click to expand...

Sooooo... I'm wondering if I should wait for the ink to dry on my lease renewal before posting that I expected no room for negotiation due to the press release... but still managed to work a discount.  :D (I think I want to at least submit it back to the office before posting the "how" & "what".)
 
As a newbie on the board I welcome any advice.
We have been presented with our new 2011/2012  lease option. (for Apartment Homes in Irvine)
We have only been with this complex 14 months, I was surprised to see they RAISED our rent by $40.00 a month. Here I was thinking they would LOWER our rent due to the mass exodus of people leaving the complex.  It?s U Haul City on the weekends where I live.
Do you think the Irvine Company (aka the apartment manager) will be willing to negotiate? We are one of the few ?non-pigs? who do NOT smoke, We don?t party, we do NOT have any pets and we actually use our garage for?ok, get ready, our car! And we pay our rent on time.
I can make a whole shopping list what?s wrong with the place but I have to admit, there are some nice things as well. I am finically strapped and moving would be a huge burden right now.
Do you guys think the management will work with us or do I bite the bullet and leave?  Of course, the my next question would be, where do I go?Irvine is a nice place to live and it?s REALLY close to work.
Thanks in advance for your advice.
 
Go to rentalliving.com and see how many of your units are available in your building and what they are going for. If there are a lot available and for significantly less than what they are offering you for renewal, you have room to negotiate. If your unit has no vacancies, than that is another case.

With all of my renewals I have always demanded that I receive the same price as what they are offering for new prospective tenants, at first they will scoff at you and say no. Each and every time they did with me I put in my notice and got the offer I wanted eventually. Now this is with the premise that my unit was one with others similar to it on the market for a while sitting vacant so they know that it is a slow moving unit.

They claim they cannot give you the same price as a new tenant and that is BS.  Also don't believe any BS they give you about market rate. The building manager can do whatever they want without getting too outrageous.

I ended up lowering my rent over $200 with my stay at the village over 3 years. On each renewal I also got $1000-$1500 off the first month since that is what they where offering new tenants. If you are willing to play this game you also have to be ready to move if they do not bight.

 
Unfortunately, you wouldn't technically qualify for the "longevity discount" which shaves off a percentage for renters who have been there at least two years. (It starts at 3%.) However, I would still ask if they can make an exception by applying that discount since you've been there 14 months. With me, they always conveniently forget to include it but are quick to give it even when I don't renew for the minimum 12 months required. Try not to let it slip through your fingers. I bet if you play with the terms, you can at least get it to the same as where you are now. See if they will lower your rate on a longer lease, if you're willing. The other thing is just to highlight that you've consistently paid on time and ask for a better rate. It does not hurt to ask -- the worst anyone can say is, "No". -- and if you don't ask, you won't know. If it matters to you (and maybe it doesn't), see if they can sweeten the pot with a few extra goodies like a free clubhouse rental or even some movie passes if they are determined to keep the rate up. I have a couple extra "secret" negotiating tips that I will PM you as I feel they could apply to your situation from other faint details I detected in your post.  ;) I got a discount off my renewal for an even shorter term, after a proposed rent increase, on a unit that there are no more of.
 
My lease renewal is coming up at one of the TIC properties in July.  I was paying about $120/month below what their lowest rate is for my floor plan.  They are looking to increase my rent by $75/month and are not willing to come down one dollar.  I'll have to decide by next weekend what I'm gonna do.  I'm leaning towards renewing my lease for another year before I buy a home next year because they aren't willing to do a 6 or even 9 month lease without increasing the rent more. 
 
Trojan - same here. IAC wants to bump me up $120/mo (going from a 6 mo. lease to a 1 yr. lease). The lease expires end of June. We are currently at $150/mo. below market rate for this unit. They were talked down to a $65/mo increase by the mister but I haven't had my swing at them yet. I'm waiting. Not mentally prepared to deal with this. Finding it hard to accept reality that I'm actually thinking about renewing. The amount of rent makes me want to throw up. We're getting near twice what the mortgage was on our old house before we sold and moved to Irvine. I feel physically nauseous thinking about the money going out the window. We can afford it but I don't like it.

I have a feeling that bottom line number they gave of the $65/mo. increase is bogus and there is wiggle room. Maybe not much but some. They say they won't consider a term shorter than a year except for mo.-to.-mo. at market rate plus about an extra $300/mo. which would bring me to a total increase of $450/mo.

 
If anyone reading this has 5 minutes to spare and access to a telephone, would you contact me via PM? I would like to request some assistance with fact-checking. I will also offer the same for you, if you need it.
 
SoCal78 said:
If anyone reading this has 5 minutes to spare and access to a telephone, would you contact me via PM? I would like to request some assistance with fact-checking. I will also offer the same for you, if you need it.
Click to expand...
Check you PM.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top