Emails count as contract? Rent Negotiate questions

[GreenLantern]

As a landlord, if I got this email from my tenant I would respond with:

If you haven't had time to look at a comparable rental then how do you know $200 less a month it is a fair price?

You are basing it off of what you started paying but have refused to show any evidence in the current market outside of your own assumptions.

However, if I got that email with a good 4-5 solid examples of comparable properties (neighborhood, conditions, square footage etc..) asking for that price then as the landlord I would definitely give it some thought. Do I want to lose this tenant (assuming you have been a great tenant) and then compete against these other properties? Or just give them what they are asking for and not deal with the hassle when there is that much competition out there.

[shermanator]

So, you want a rent reduction but you're too lazy to look for comparables? How much do you really want the rent reduction?

If I were a landlord, and my tenant felt they were being overcharged based on the market, I would definitely be asking for comparables. You would think $300/month would be enough to motivate you to do a bit of work in advance of sending the email to your landlord.

[rain_e]

As mentioned look for the comparables first and send a complete email. Why make a half ass attempt?

[afc wimbledon]

If I'm a landlord and I know my apartment is now two or three hundred over priced and I like the tenant and don't want to lose several months rent looking for another one then I negotiate a solution no matter how half arsed their approach is.

[Kavvy]

Hey all,

Thanks for all the replies. I fully agree, comparables is a must - I was simply tired and grumpy with my landlord when I wrote my OP and thinking to myself I will just move instead of dealing with them. However, in general I try not to do half-@ss attempts in my life, so I am not sure why I was being lazy about this since I would prefer to avoid moving.

Lesson learnt - don't respond to emails when you're grumpy, or apparently post on message boards as you are not thinking clearly.

Also I was overconfident in my position - 3.5 year rental history, very rarely contact them about anything and always give them months to fix it, always pay within 1 day of due (i.e. had a couple months where the sig other forgot to pay and we received an email, but we had then paid right away) and bad market for landlords

[malcolmk14]

Well I sent an e-mail to my landlord asking for a rent decrease of $300.

He sent one back offering to decrease my rent $200 if I sign a 2-year agreement.

Nope.

[OMG!WTF!]

So did you get a rent reduction? It's obviously too late but here is a great nudge for any landlord from today's paper...

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...o-reduce-rents

All the research you could want.