Am I being paranoid about this early lease renewal offer?

April 24, 2018 1:40 PM

My apartment manager just emailed me personally to offer a 48-hour renewal promotion, in which I can re-sign the lease for another year without a rent increase plus $100 off my first month of rent. I'm generally suspicious of big leasing companies doing anything to residents' advantage, especially in a super-competitive rental market like the one I'm in. I had already told them I was planning to renew, so it's a little extra weird. I want to make sure I'm not missing something before I sign it.

I live in a big managed apartment complex. I like it, but it's one of the older and more run-down complexes in my area, which is generally full of brand new complexes with much more expensive units. So I can understand that they'd be concerned about losing residents to those places, but my complex is way more affordable and one of the only ones that allows big dogs. The lease would have been up for renewal in a couple months, and since I already told them I planned to renew, they really have nothing to gain by offering me a promotion. I asked the apartment manager in a friendly way what was motivating the promotion and they said they wanted to keep people, and assured me that nothing was changing in the lease. I'm probably just being paranoid, but I have a weird feeling about it- like maybe they know of some reason I'd want to move out that I'd find out about if I waited til the normal lease-renewal time. They just did lease-renewal inspections of all the units and didn't notify me of any problems.

Anything else I should consider?

posted by quiet coyote to Home & Garden (18 answers total)

Are you in a student-heavy area? The only thing I can think of is that May might be a high-turnover period for them and they want to get people to commit now so they don't have a couple of high-vacancy months over the summer. Nothing in that that would have anything to your detriment.
posted by restless_nomad at 1:43 PM on April 24, 2018 [7 favorites]

The manager themselves might get a bonus if they have enough renewals by a certain date. It is highly unlikely there is some big secret thing that is bad enough for you to leave but not bad enough for you to legally break your lease. You were already planning to renew, right?
posted by soelo at 1:44 PM on April 24, 2018 [11 favorites]

They might be looking to sell the building and want to reduce the number of leases expiring in the near term to make the transaction look more attractive to a buyer...
posted by Jacob G at 1:44 PM on April 24, 2018 [5 favorites]

I own an apartment complex in a competitive market and I can assure you that specials like the one you describe are 150% normal and almost always benign, especially for an older complex surrounded by newer ones. It’s pretty rare that a complex survive with no concessions.

Turn costs more than the break you’re getting in the rent, they just really don’t want you to move to one of the newer places (which are running their own concessions anyway, probably for new lease ups).
posted by lydhre at 1:46 PM on April 24, 2018 [20 favorites]

This also seems not dissimilar to lease offers Ive seen many times that offer lower rent increases on a 2 year lease than a 1 year lease.

The 48 hour window is probably just to get people to act in a timely fashion, but it gives an air of skeeviness to something that probably isn’t.
posted by mrmurbles at 1:59 PM on April 24, 2018 [5 favorites]

since I already told them I planned to renew, they really have nothing to gain by offering me a promotion

To quote Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross, "Only one thing counts in this life. Get them to sign on the line which is dotted!"

They know you're interested. They want to close. It's definitely about the perceived competition and wanting to minimize turnover.
posted by AndrewInDC at 2:00 PM on April 24, 2018 [8 favorites]

They might be offering this renewal promotion to more residents than just you, and they don't want you talking to a neighbor who saved some money with the promotion, which would cause you to be annoyed and go knocking on their door, saying "Hey, where's my money back?"
posted by molasses at 2:21 PM on April 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

they really have nothing to gain by offering me a promotion

Your verbal indication that you're going to stay is not monthly recurring revenue they can put in their forecasts in the concrete way a renewed lease is. They probably do want that right now instead of later, for any of a million reasons - loans, they're trying to sell, HQ's fiscal year starts in July, upcoming board meeting, etc.

It's very unlikely they're trying to gotcha you in any serious way, they just would rather have your guaranteed presence on the books right now. If there was anything you wanted, a cosmetic improvement or some kind of thing they're not obligated to fix but would be nice, you could try asking for that to sweeten the deal, but you could also refuse and take your chances on a rent increase later if you're really worried about it.
posted by Lyn Never at 2:26 PM on April 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

I am a naturally suspicious person and this seems hinky. There's several reasonable answers already in this thread. Another option is that they are losing tenants and are going to have to lower their overall rents. They'd love to be able to lock in as many of you as possible now, so that when you find out that the person next door to you with the 2-bedroom is paying less than you are for your 1-bedroom, you cannot do anything for a year.
posted by holyrood at 2:30 PM on April 24, 2018

I live in a big complex owned by a company that owns tons of complexes. Our deposit was $100 during a special- no joke - and we get a lower rent rate by re-signing by a certain time. We also get a perk - free carpet cleaning, an upgrade, etc - for signing for a certain amount of time on our next lease. It's just to get an actual signature, keep a tenant, and reduce turnover. It's been the same since before and after they sold the complex. It's just a marketing thing to keep tenants because turnover is costly - empty apartments, advertising opening, etc. You saying you're going to sign isn't a signature.
posted by Crystalinne at 2:34 PM on April 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

As others have said, they could be prepping for a sale. Or, they could be doing a refinancing, both of which would require X% occupation, and Y amount revenue.

Those things are not your concern (in that you can't do anything about it). Your lease is YOUR guarantee against whatever changes might be coming, so really -- it's totally your business decision.
posted by Capt. Renault at 2:54 PM on April 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

Turnover is a pain for landlords. Tenants are always a gamble. Every tenant who pays on time and isn't a Problem, is an asset. Probably every decent tenant got this offer. Your verbal statement of intent to stay isn't something they can count for their projections; a signed lease is. I doubt anyone is trying to put one over on you. They just want to lock it down.
posted by fingersandtoes at 3:27 PM on April 24, 2018

since I already told them I planned to renew, they really have nothing to gain by offering me a promotion

If it's a big complex and a big company I would be surprised if they had a promo deal for renewing tenants "except for that one person who already said they might renew". That would be like a big store not giving you the sale price because you said you were probably going to buy it at full price anyway.
posted by bongo_x at 3:59 PM on April 24, 2018 [7 favorites]

This sounds like a good deal to me and not something sketchy. They want to lock you in, likely because you're reliable with your rent and therefore a good tenant for them to keep. I see this kind of thing all the time; it's common in cities that require landlords to give you a month-to-month option after the first year.
posted by capricorn at 4:47 PM on April 24, 2018

I would be concerned that they're about to start a big noisy renovation project that might prevent people from reupping if the signing date came after construction began.
posted by jamjam at 6:12 PM on April 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

My large corporate complex gave me this exact same offer, though with a little longer time to consider. I took the offer, since the city I live in is getting more expensive by the day and I was eager to lock in the price, and I'm not planning to move for awhile. It's been 8 months, and so far no regrets.

I should add that it's pretty common knowledge that most residents in this building get the same offer, and it's also common practice for the leasing agent who signed you originally to continue their relationship with you while you're a resident.
posted by rhiannonstone at 7:43 PM on April 24, 2018

I think this also depends on where you live. I'm in Ontario and based on the favourable tenant rules here (it's pretty hard to kick a tenant out of an apartment building/raise rents really high even off lease), I never sign another lease, and just go automatic month to month once my first year is up. I've had buildings try to convince me I need to sign again as a way for them to guarantee I'll be on the hook to pay for another year. So this really depends on which city/Province/State/Country etc. you live in. However, if you are sure you want to stay another year, then go ahead and sign and take the discount.
posted by devonia at 9:49 AM on April 25, 2018

Coincidentally, I received a renewal email from my apartment complex today. My lease doesn't expire until August, but I have to respond soon to have the rent increase *only* be $95 per month. Ouch.

Count your lucky stars.
posted by tacodave at 3:30 PM on April 25, 2018