Proof that it never hurts to ask...

I received a rent renewal notice from my apartment complex earlier this week. I was dreading getting this notice, because I just KNEW they were going to increase my price. Well, to my surprise, they did not.


A little background: When we moved to Columbus, we were not yet on this financial kick to get out of debt. The "plan" was to get an apartment for 6 months, and hopefully by the end of that 6 months, be ready to move into a house.


Yeah right! Well so anyway, when we signed the 6 month lease in October 2008, our rent was $730. If we had committed to a 12 month lease, it would have only been $685...but we didn't want to be "stuck" here for 12 months because we just knew we were going to be house hunting right away.


6 months came. 6 months went. By then, we were attending FPU and knew that this temporary living arrangement was turning out to be a little more than temporary. We re-signed a new 12 month lease, but as with most apartment complexes, they up your price every renewal. We were now paying $750. Bummer.


So our current lease expires May 8th, and the renewal notice offered us 12-14 months at $750. Yay it wasn't going up, but BOO because I still felt like we were paying too much. There are banners outside the complex that says 2 bedroom blowout starting at $570. I also plugged my address and stats into Rentometer.com and was told that I was paying too much for the area of town I live in, with the features I have.


According to the apartment complex's Rent.com info, the floor plan I'm living in now goes for $650-$850. So I WAS right in the middle of the range. But geographically, the other complexes in my area are still much cheaper. 


I didn't want to go through the hassle of having to move again, but I REALLY wanted to save some money. So I just picked up the phone and called. and I said what I've told you here...and they asked "Would you stay for $700?" (which was already the price I had hoped I could talk them down to.) I said "Absolutely."


Man, that was easier than I thought! We're going to re-sign a 14 month lease this time, which will get us through July 8, 2011, and saving $50 a month - that's like getting 1 month free! Plus, we already know it's going to be next summer before we are house hunting, so by then we can do month to month, or work out some other arrangement to stay longer if we need to.


$50 a month more to my debt snowball. Yahoooooo!


Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'm hitting the road to go to the ATL to see Mom and Dad. I'm suffering withdrawal - it's been over a month since I saw them :( Boo.