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Email templates · Apartment leasing office

Email template to negotiate the rent on your lease renewal

Your renewal offer arrived and the rent is going up more than you expected. A renewal offer is a starting number, not a verdict. Replacing you costs the building real money: a month or more of vacancy, cleaning and painting, marketing, and often a leasing commission, which together can run to two or three months of rent. That is the room you are negotiating in, and it is why a tenant who pays on time and does not cause trouble can usually get the increase trimmed. Email is the right channel because renewal decisions at managed buildings are made by someone above the leasing agent, and your written case with comparable rents attached is what gets forwarded up.

Before you send

  • The renewal offer: new rent, lease length, and the deadline to accept. Note whether shorter or longer terms were offered at different prices.
  • What the building is advertising your same floor plan for right now to new renters, including any special. This is your strongest comparison.
  • Two or three comparable listings nearby: same bedrooms, similar age and amenities, with the rent and a link or screenshot.
  • Your record: months or years in the unit, on-time payments, no complaints. Say it briefly; do not oversell it.
  • Your target number and your walk-away number, and whether you would trade a longer lease for a lower rent.
Subject Lease renewal for [unit number]: request to adjust the rent 
Hi [leasing office or renewal contact name],

Thanks for sending the renewal offer for [unit number]. I've been here since [month year], I've paid on time every month, and I'd like to stay.

The offer raises my rent from [current rent] to [offered rent], which is [dollar or percent increase]. Right now your website lists the same floor plan for [advertised rent] to new residents, [with a special, if any], and comparable units nearby are renting for [range], for example [building or listing name] at [rent]. I'd like to propose renewing at [your proposed rent] for [lease length] months. That saves you the turnover cost of an empty unit, and it's a number I can commit to today.

If [your proposed rent] doesn't work, I'm open to [a longer lease / a small increase phased in / keeping the current rent with a shorter term]. Could you let me know in writing by [date before the acceptance deadline]?

Thanks,
[Your name]
[Your phone number]

Everything in brackets is yours to fill in. Keep the rest as it is or change the tone to match how you write.

After you send

  • The typical reply is a counter between the two numbers, sometimes with a longer lease attached. Get the final rent, term, and any concession in a revised renewal document before you sign anything.
  • A bad answer is "the rate is set by our pricing system and can't be changed." Reply once and ask that your request be sent to the property manager or the regional manager. Pricing systems set the opening number; humans approve exceptions.
  • Do not bluff about moving. If the counter is close to what you would pay elsewhere once you add moving costs and a deposit, take it. If it is not, tour a couple of the comparable units so your next email can name a real alternative.
  • Watch the deadline. Some buildings switch you to month-to-month at a much higher rate if you have not signed by the date on the offer, so ask for an extension in writing if the conversation is still going.

Or don't send it yourself

Forward the job to myagent@standinfor.me and let StandIn run the whole thread.

StandIn is an email assistant that handles conversations with businesses for you. You write it one email saying what you need. It writes to the business, waits for the answer, follows up when they go quiet, pushes back on the number when it should, and brings the results back to your inbox for you to decide. You don't need to install an app or sign up. The first email you send is already the start of the task.

Hand this to StandIn opens an email to myagent@standinfor.me with the job already written out

To myagent@standinfor.me Subject Negotiate my lease renewal rent 
Hi StandIn,

Please negotiate my lease renewal down to a rent I'm comfortable with.

The building: [name, address, and the leasing or renewal contact].
My unit: [unit number and floor plan].
Current rent and the renewal offer: [current rent, offered rent, lease length, and the deadline to accept].
Since: [month and year I moved in].
What I'm aiming for: [target rent, and the most I'd pay to stay].
Flexibility: [open to a longer lease / prefer twelve months / would consider a shorter term].

Check what the building and nearby comparable units are listing for, make the case, and bring me their best written offer before the deadline.

Thanks,
[Your name]

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