Our experience renewing our lease

Wow, that sounds expensive to me. Just posted that I rented my 2BR on UES between Park/Lex (prewar, doorman, elevator) for $4.5K. Now I know why I rented in a day...

Sounds like quite a cut! Well done negotiating. I too am counting on a weaker market at the end of my lease.

And I thought we were paying a fortune for our UWS doorman prewar 2-bed, 2-bath at $3500. Sheesh. Maybe we'll stay put after all...

ueside - what school district is that in?

A pretty bad one, unfortunately, we are not PS6...

printer, we are PS6. Apt. is in 80s.

Derek - can you give some tips on how you managed to negotiate that? I assume your landlord didn't just offer that up. Thanks in advance.

My landlord is a major commercial landlord. Beginning back in November, I checked the landlord's website regularly and wrote down all vacancies in comparable units. I then called the leasing office to determine the asking prices, or where the units had been rented. I noticed very early on that the landlord's prices were high through January, and that there were multiple vacancies in my line. Toward the end of February, all of the vacancies disappeared as the landlord cut prices. Each time, I called pretending to be interested in my unit type, and asked where the other units rented. (The most recent answer was $4700/month on a lower floor.) In my first lease renewal conversation, I laid out all of this price information, and they came back to me at $4650. The big sticking point was a partial year renewal, as it turned out. They obviously didn't want to move the unit's anniversary date to a slow time of the year, and I was told that they had a "waiting list" of people interested in my apartment type. But I guess they didn't want to take the risk of vacancies, and they liked us as tenants.

So Derek, what percent discount does the $4650 offer reflect over your current lease. How much time before the actual contract ended did you do all this?

It's in the OP - 5400 - 16% - I find that to be a typical cut for those who renewed in March.

I'll blow my brains out before I give up $4650 a month in rent to anyone!!!

You'd rather be owning this year and losing 5x the yearly rent in principal value?

while you're paying 1/2 of the rent as maintenance?

I don't need to live in the city and piss away that kind of money renting or owning!

derek- how many square feet is your apt?

It is hard to trust square footage measurements. We're told we have 1200 sq. ft, which doesn't seem unrealistic. All of the rooms are large, and we have unobstructed high floor Southern and Eastern views. The apartment was renovated before we moved in, although in that sort of rental way (i.e., speckled granite countertops and tile floors in the kitchen, one piece Home Depot style vanities in the bathrooms, etc.) It is a perfectly nice apartment as a rental unit, but nothing special (except on 4th of July, when I swear we have the best view of the East River fireworks in the city).

Hey Derek = what building are you in? Sounds like ours. I'm hoping rents keep falling too when I renegotiate next december. I know that when we moved in our apt was about $800 off the previous year's rent. Sounds like you're in my bldg unless you're across the street.

Sorry, but $4650 still seems like a lot to me. It's more than a grand higher than what we're paying for a similar-size doorman prewar with open s/w views (including river) on the UWS.

And as I said before, I often feel like WE'RE getting ripped off...