What's Negotiable?

Three years ago, I was in the parking lot at school, wiping snow off my windshield.  An announcement came over the loudspeaker that my son was on the phone.  With one son in Montreal and the other in Boston, I figured it must be an emergency if either was asking to page me after school hours.

I also remember there was snow on the ground and it was still falling hard and fast.  Several of us arranged to follow each other to the highway to go the ‘long way’ home to avoid a very steep hill on our end of town known as ‘Pope’s Corner’.  I asked them to wait and not start the caravan without me.  I dashed inside to see what was up.

It was our younger son who had apparently began looking for his first college apartment.  With six months left until sophomore year began, I didn’t realize he had started looking.  I’ll cut to the chase and say that the conversation was something like, ‘Mom we found a great apartment and we need $20,000 but my portion is only $5,000 because there are four of us.  This apartment will be gone if we don’t commit.’

Of course scam went through my mind right away.  $20,000?  Right away?  The apartment would go fast?  He went on to explain that he and three friends found a four bed, two-bath apartment, which was big, perfect, safe, and walking distance to school.   He explained that they each had to put up $5,000 to cover first month, last month, security, and fee. Doing the math you can figure out that this perfect apartment was running $5,000 per month.  For students!  Can you say Back Bay, Boston?

My mind went back to the present and the snow falling outside.  I explained that I would have to call him back when I made it home, which would not be my usual seven-minute drive, but to count on 45.  When I did finally walk in the house, there were three messages on the answering machine, each sounding more desperate than the other to please call him back when I got in.

I found out that the rush was that they were still in the apartment with the broker waiting for me to give a ‘go’ signal.  I explained that we had not budgeted that much for rent … it was very expensive … couldn’t they keep looking … they still had six months.  I was also not aware of any fees associated with rentals.  Granted my only experiences with renting was in New York, California, and in Montreal for our other son.  I made it clear that I was not going to pay a fee when they could find an apartment on their own.  I asked to speak to the broker, as I was a little annoyed with the pressure tactic being used on these 19-year olds. 

Poor guy.  I grilled him and asked him if charging fees was even legal.  He assured me ‘mam’ that it was how things were done in Boston and was perfectly legal.  I assured him back that my son was not going to be renting an apartment that involved fees.  I then asked him to put my son back on the phone.

What transpired next broke my heart, and it was truly sincere.  ‘Of course you are right mom…I’m sorry…this is too much…you and dad have already done so much for me…I’ll figure something out…’ 

Well, now I started to feel bad.  I wasn’t concerned about the loss of this particular apartment but didn’t want to jeopardize the roommate situation.  Apparently money was not issue to them.  

After hanging up, I called a few other rental agencies around Boston and found out that indeed ‘…many rentals are handled by agencies that sometimes pass the fee on to the renter.’  When pressed to explain what sometimes means, I was told that for September rentals, the fee is passed on to the renter but the landlord generally pays it for leases beginning in the other months.  So, reading between the lines, that means that many landlords are adding an additional burden to college students, the ones who start leases in September.  Well, this just made me madder.  If landlords could afford to absorb the fees the rest of the year, they could certainly absorb it for September rentals too.  Like college isn’t expensive enough!

We talked more that night and I offered a compromise.  “Tell you what,” I began.  “If you can get rid of the fee, somehow dad and I will figure out a way to pay that rental amount.”

He didn’t see how he could make $5,000 go away.  I broke it down that his portion of the $5,000 was $1,250 and that a $3,750 finders fee was a nice day’s work for the broker.  Basically he would have to have the broker, who knew I was not going to pay a fee, agree to a reduced fee.  Our son said the fee was non-negotiable; I told him everything was negotiable.  I reminded him how we learned to haggle at markets in Europe.  He pointed out that going from 20 euros to 15 euros was easier than making $1,250 go away.  I agreed, but that was my offer.  If he really wanted that apartment, he was going to have to work for it and make it work.

The next day we got a phone call that the broker agreed to the reduced fee and that they were going over to sign the contract.  I asked if his other friends were okay with the ‘fee deal’.  He said they were a little annoyed but okay with it.  (I thought that they might be annoyed that they hadn’t thought of it.)

A good lesson learned; everything is negotiable. 

P.S. – I have since learned and understand all about brokers’ fees.  I don’t mean to put down the way they make their living.  This is just one story of our introduction to fees and our subsequent philosophy of searching for apartments on your own.