Our apartment lease is up for renewal on May 1. A few weeks ago we received a letter from our landlord offering to renew the lease with a rent increase of $25 per month.
Ordinarily that would be fine, but in this economy, with rents falling all over the city, any increase struck us as ridiculous. And a search of Craigslist showed that our managment company was offering a couple of other one-bedrooms in our building for at least $500/month cheaper than what we’re currently paying. Obviously their offer to renew with a rent increase was meant for the stupid, timid or uninformed.
So I’m proud of myself that I managed yesterday to negotiate a $533/month reduction in our monthly rent. We’d actually be getting a month free in the new lease, so the total annual rent would be spread over 11 months instead of 12, but over the course of the year it works out to $533/month less. (That explains the awkward amount of the decrease.)
I should be happy about this, but instead, it’s gotten me stressed. Because it entails making a decision. Should we renew at this better rate? Or should we look for a one-bedroom at an even cheaper rate? Or, since I’ll soon be working from home a few days a week and rents are going down, should we find a two-bedroom that is more expensive but still perhaps a little cheaper than what we’re paying now?
I am awful at making decisions, because instead of seeing a few upsides to choose from, I only see the downsides to choose from.
Ultimately we’ll probably renew our lease at the reduced rent. The free month will be an instant jolt of money to the bank account, and we don’t really feel like dealing with a move, and we’re reasonably happy where we are.
This all ties into a big meta-issue I’ve been experiencing in several areas of my life lately. What do you do when nothing in your life is perfect? Do you accept things the way they are? Or do you try to change them, even though perfection is impossible and you don’t know whether a change will make things better or worse? How do you live a happy life when you wish things were different? If you accept imperfection in your life, aren’t you admitting failure? And doesn’t that mean that nothing will ever get better? And if you give up idealism, aren’t you also giving up hope?
Accept the things you cannot change, and change the things you cannot accept, but how the hell do you actually decide which is which?
Still, I at least wrote a journal entry yesterday in which I congratulated myself on the rent negotation. Sometimes I can at least try to be good to myself.
I don’t expect life to ever be perfect. I don’t just think the glass is half empty: I think it’s empty, and broken and I’ll cut myself if I try to drink from it. I’m not sure how much one can do to improve life, but I think there are choices between the horrible and the intolerable. You should be proud of yourself for negotiating a way to make your life less horrible. That’s the most I think anyone can reasonably expect. Looking for a new apartment would be ridiculous — especially since you would have to move all of your stuff. That is the worst part. As much as I hate where I live, the prospect of having to move all my stuff is a major hurdle to progress.
I just wish there was a chance that this economic downturn would last long enough for me to be able to afford to live in Manhattan, but I have resigned myself that that will never happen. I will never be one of the cool trendy people, the real New Yorkers, who look down on people like me as uncultured hicks.
Where’s that glass again?
I have a friend who is never happy because he always finds one small thing about where he lives that he dislikes, so as a result, his whole life has been spent moving from city to city looking for the perfect place.
There are many things about Tucson that I don’t care for:
1). lack of direct flights
2). that it is in Arizona
3). difficult to find a bf
but these are outweighed by good things, so I am reasonably happy
Wanna call my landlord for me?!
Good heavens. What was your rent if one month free equates to a $533/month deduction?
OK, to clarify, the one month free alone isn’t what gives us a $533/month reduction. The monthly reduction plus one month free works out to a $533/month reduction.
Jeff,
Here comes the systems engineer to help you make a choice! Fire open Excel, list your options on along the columns (stay in current, cheaper 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom). Then on the rows, start listing criteria for making your choice (price, distance from places you frequent, distance to work, broadband availability, safety, cost of moving, etc.). Find a consistent way to rate the criteria, and then score away! The choice falls out from the best score! This process also makes you look at considerations other than price and helps you to fairly evaluate pros and cons without focusing too much on one or the other.
Most important is that Matt is part of this process!
Hope this helps! Good luck!
Jonathan
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