Rent increase

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

We are hoping this is a typo, but it seems that our landlord may have just increased our rent from $1500 for a 2br, 5 room place quite near to Davis to $1825. Craigslist does not indicate that this is consistent with the market, as far as we're seeing. Seem a little odd to anyone? Is there something we haven't considered? We were braced for a $25/month increase as of a notice in April, but this is quite a bit more than that, as you can see.

ETA:

Thanks everyone! We finally got in touch with our property manager and it WAS a typo.

Comments

[nowalmart.livejournal.com]

Could you define "2 br, 5 room"?

Does five room include the bathroom?

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

living room, large kitchen, dining room, two bedrooms. In real estate ads the bathroom is not counted as a 'room' generally speaking.

[srl.livejournal.com]

When was the rent set at $1500? What street are you on?

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Willow. June of last year.

[chriskalen.livejournal.com]

My guess is that it's a typo; 5 is right below 8 on the number pad on the keyboard. It would make sense, since you were prepared for a $25 increase.

Or at least, I sure hope it's a typo!

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

It was, whew!

[overstim.livejournal.com]

check your lease and make sure your landlord is ALLOWED to raise it that much...

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Mass law, at least, says they are allowed to raise the rent any amount when resigning a lease, but yeah, we should check.

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

Definitely call the landlord to verify it. That's a crazy-high increase, so here's hoping it's a typo.

I hadn't realized the market had turned around that much - my impression was that rents had been coming down a bit, even around Davis.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

It WAS a typo, thank god.

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

Whew. I know other folks living right on that street, and they hadn't reported any insanity.

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

It does seem likely it's an error, especially if you saw a notice in April that said something about $25 a month. Everything going in that price range seems to have something special. I know you'll contact your landlord ASAP, but I hope that at least all those CL listings in your price range will help you sleep easy tonight.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

It turned out to be a typo, thank goodness, so tonight maybe I can sleep.

[ellf.livejournal.com]

My guess is that you're seeing a market-relative price increase. Davis is an increasingly trendy neighborhood -- my girlfriend and I just picked up a 2 bedroom for $1800/month, and it's .4 miles from the Davis T stop.

Best of luck, though -- perhaps you have some negotiating room?

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Gut feeling on that is that it CAN'T have jumped that much in a year. We just signed this lease last June, after all.

[koloratur.livejournal.com]

I think it really depends on the landlorad - my bf and I just signed a lease on a 2 bedroom near Willow for $1250. I think we were freakishly lucky, though, so ymmv.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Rents have been dropping, not going up. They kind of peaked about 4 years ago, leveled off for a couple of years, and now are dropping. Our landlady had to drop the rent on the two open apartments in our house several times becore she got any takers. When we were looking for a new place 4 years ago, we were running into studios for $1300! Nowadays, you could easilly get a studio for under $1000.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it turned out to be a typo here. I was STUNNED last night to think of it escalating so quickly in a year in which the real estate market is tanking.

[ron_newman]

Glad to hear it was just an error. My rent is also going up $25, which I can live with; if it went up $325 I'd seriously wonder whether I wanted to stay around here.

[lissie930.livejournal.com]

Yay, I'm glad it was a typo!

We had the situation where our landlord raised our rent $400 a month, and gave us TWO weeks notice. This was on an apartment in Porter Square, and we had had a verbal agreement that he wouldn't raise it more than $50/month. I spoke to the Attorney general's office and they said, basically, "sucks to be you, yes he can do that." This was a few years ago and the market was way tighter than it is now.

[push-stars.livejournal.com]

These questions are not necessarily for the original poster. I am just curious in general. Why is it re-listed on CL anyway? Are a lot of apartments listed when the lease is up? Is that a good practice for landlords in case your tenants decide to move out at the last minute? Or is this the agency goofing up or the agencyusing inventory to play bait and switch?

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

You misunderstood, I think. We were comparing apartments in a similar location with similar characteristics.

[push-stars.livejournal.com]

gotcha, so the typo was not in a listing for your apartment that was on craigs list. I don't why I pictured that.

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

glad it was a typo!

fwiw - watch out for "verbal agreements over the phone that (elderly but sly) landlords don't remember"

My landlord and I agreed on $1000. but when it came time to sign the lease it was $1400. Clearly she had talked to some of the nasty carpet bagger real estate agents (aka scum) who have flockd to Davis Square in the last few years. (sorry if you are, know or are involved with a real estate agent. Maybe my bad luck but I haven't met any who were not complete sluts (meant gender agnostic) with dollar signs in their eyes. Ugh.

So... what is the going rate for a 1 bedroom with a dining room which a landlord cliams is a 2 bedroom? (hey, it's cool to walk through my bedroom to get to your's. Let me intorduce you to my girlfriend. Yes, she usually sleeps in the nude).

Rent control? Oh yeah...

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

It actually hadn't been a verbal notice, and apparently our landlord is quite young (mid-thirties)