Multiple Year Leases

Sorry moved to Rentals. Posted in wrong forum.

Good move. Although the 60 day notice would be countered with a 60 day notice to cancel your lease. A better method would be to put a $ dollar amount to terminate lease fom your end. Like 2 months.

When you buy, just roll in the 2 month termination option into your in price. Fwiw, it's a great idea to 'force' yourself into not buying into this lemming mkt for at least 1/2/3 yrs. Don't worry mkt is going nowherez fast.

So it would be 2 months noticE plus 2x rent.

w67thstreet, thanks I appreciate the advice.

Lowndes, this isn't exactly the same as your scenario, but I've been able to negotiate a one year lease with an option on my part to renew for a second year at the same rent. However, I can't imagine a landlord letting you have an option to renew at the same rent for more than one additional year. I've not been successful at negotiatting the right on my part to terminate early, for example, on 60 days notice.

On two places I negotiated a couple of months back (but ended up not taking), I had 2- and 3-year leases with my option to terminate with 60 days notice any time after the first year, pre-set rent increases of something reasonable. In both cases the owner roughly had no issue; in one case, maybe a 90-day notice was requested. In neither case did the landlord come back with a symmetric option to terminate. My answer would have been "you pay half the broker's fee and half my moving costs, and fine". Didn't even come to that. Heck, in one case the owner had already agreed to pay the full fee.

While w67th's suggestion may be a fine compromise, don't negotiate against yourself. Ask for what you want and then some, let the owner respond to what he/she doesn't like. E.g., if owner says 2-month termination fee, you say 1-month as a response. Mind you, it's a much different market out there than a couple of years ago: owners are very willing on terms just to get a place providing cash flow.

Mine was a renewal, and I have an excellent relationship with my landlord, but we settled on 3 months notice no penalty. I'm almost 100% sure he would have gone for a multiyear lease if I'd suggested it. It's a tough rental market and he is happy to have a tenant that causes no issues and always pays her rent on time (been there 3 years though, so I'm not sure it would fly in a new place).

By the way, if you're doing this in case you want to buy, you're better off agreeing to 3 months no penalty than less with a penalty. Closing/moving into an apartment often takes longer than you think.

Thanks everyone for the replies. And no I am not doing this because I want to buy. Don't have a desire to do that for quite a while. Main reason I would like an option to terminate is because circumstances can change in three years and I don't want to be locked into an apartment with no way out.