LOS ANGELES – High rent prices in Los Angeles, CA is nothing new, with perks like a beach, great weather, sunny most of the year, its not a surprise that rent prices keep climbing every year. With great views and weather comes not so great living cost. Hawaii, New York and Boston are in the same high rent position as California, but one thing that those other cities don’t have is great weather most of the year.
Rent isn’t the only thing on the rise; mortgage is through the roof too. Over the past 7 years property prices have gone up 11.11%, people are thinking twice before purchasing their first home. However, this isn’t bad for everyone; landlords are benefiting from inflation every well. Since mortgage prices are high, people are left to renting high price apartments.
Having No Choice But to Rent When Times Are Tough
When times are tough everything seems to be overpriced. Sometimes it seems like prices are going up and jobs are going down. Unfortunately citations like these leave people renting small apartments in the bad side of town or renting a room in a friend’s house or even sharing a room with a few people.
All of these things are putting a great amount of pressure on landlords and apartment prices. Even though renting an apartment is a business (for the landlord of course) most apartment owners are in competition with each other, they want tenants, without tenants they will not make money.
Two Different Types of Risky Directions
Direction #1: One risky direction will be sticking with the desirable high rent price and hopping that someone will come along and rent out the unit. Since the rent is higher than other places this direction will come with financial losses, You could post “for rent” signs all over town and online but its not a guarantee that you will be able to rent every unit.
Direction #2: The second direction could be lowering the rent a few dollars. For example if rent in most apartments of a radius of 1-2 miles is $1,500 for a 1-bedroom, you could lower the rent to $1,400 or $1,450, this will catch renters attention. This may benefit you because you could keep most the units rented or at the same time hurt you. It may hurt you because by lowering rent by $50 or $100 the difference may hurt you in the long run.
Both directions have their advantages and disadvantages it’s a matter of what you are willing to loss.
Dealing With Renters Flexibility
Renters are people like you and I, sometimes people need more flexibility more than others. Don’t expect all renters to be the same.
Be flexible with credit: Not everyone has perfect credit; some people just need a little help once in awhile. I know a guy who got his identity stolen and his life became a living hell, he couldn’t even get a credit card. It’s all ready hard enough to keep a decent credit score yet some landlords ask for excellent credit like it was a mortgage to a house.
Be flexible with leases: Instead of a 1-2 year lease set a shorter lease. Some people only need to rent an apartment for a few months. Make sure to have the upper hand and ask for a down payment just like you do with longer lease renters.
Be flexible with allowing tenants to have small pets: Many potential renters avoid applying in certain apartments because small pets are not allowed. A good idea will be asking for a higher down payment or $20 to 30 extra on rent.
Be flexible with how many tenants rent one apartment: Many landlords don’t want to rent 1-bedroom apartment to 2 or more tenants because they fear the apartment will be trashed, this isn’t quiet true, most places where 2+ tenants rent a small apartment are the tenants who are usually not late in rent. If you think about it if there’s 3 people living in a 1-bedroom apartment there are most likely to pay rent because they have 3 incomes coming in.
What ever you decide on doing, think about it twice.
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