My renewal is up and the building wants a premium for month to month. For anyone who has done both, which one did you actually regret?
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I did month to month at my old place in Culver City and I would not do it again. It felt great until the day they decided they wanted the unit back, and suddenly I had thirty days to find something in a market where everything decent was gone in a weekend.
The other thing people forget is that the premium is not just the extra hundred a month. On month to month they can hand you an increase or a notice whenever it suits them, and unless you are in an RSO building, anything built before October 1978 in the city, the protections are thinner than people assume.
My rent went up 400 dollars in one shot with the whole neighborhood improved speech, so trust me, lock the number in for twelve months if it is a number you can live with.
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We sign the twelve every time, mostly because there are three of us on the lease and nobody wants to gamble on the whole apartment being fine month to month. The stability is worth more to me than flexibility I would probably never use.
The one thing I do is ask for the renewal in writing about two months out. Twice now they came back lower than the first number, just because I asked early and was polite about it.
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Sign the twelve. Month to month is how they price you out quietly.
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I rent a room so my situation is simpler, but the one stretch I was month to month I paid about a hundred more and moved twice in eighteen months anyway.
If you know you are staying, the lease is just cheaper. If there is a real chance you leave, do the math on the premium against what breaking a lease costs you.
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Twelve months, and ask them what the month to month rate is anyway. Hearing the number makes the lease feel like a deal, which is exactly what they want.
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I would always do the 12 months. Month to month seems too scary. Waaay too scary.
On top of that it’s more expensive.
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Did both. Month-to-month is only worth it if you actually use the flexibility. Most people I know stay put and just eat the higher rent. The building managers know that. Just my two cents..
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This.
I don’t do month to month anymore. Yeah, breaking the contract might be two months rent plus the lease-break fee, but how likely is that?
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Not very likely at this point. My jobs seems pretty stable, so you guys got a point.