Reply
Tue 8 Jul, 2008 07:16 pm
HM #3 and I are trying to organize for the eminent departure of our beloved Dagmar (schniff), may she rest in peace. We will start looking for a housemate soonish and want to offer the second bathroom as a private one with the third room, for a bump in rent. Second bathrooms are hard to come by in the Boston renter's world - a private bathroom is unheard of in a housemate situation.
HM #3 suggested they'd pay an extra 50/month for their own bathroom. I thought we might get 100. She pointed out (ever the practical scientist!) that my idea would equate to a 150 dollar rent difference (they 800, we 650).
What would you pay?
craigslist offers (toward the upper end)
Quote:Two nice ... females ... are looking for a roommate (male or female) for our 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom, apartment in Harvard Square. The apartment is ... a 5 minute walk to the Harvard Square T Stop and 1 Bus. The apartment is gorgeous and the room for rent has a nice view. The $825 includes heat and hot water (electricity and cable is separate- about $50/month) and there is laundry in the building. The room is available 9/1 but early move in may be an option.
$800 with a bathroom doesn't seem unreasonable
A woman willing to pay extra for her own bathroom??? Add $100 to the rent. Bet you get it.
geez, is that OURS??? No......
what business is it of theirs what the rent is anyway?
If an extra bathroom adds to the rent, most people looking will know that.
I say 800 is not unreasonable either. You could get that HERE !
I mean.. what YOU are paying for the other half of the rent.
Not having to sign a lease is a luxury people pay for.
If they get half the space and can walk out at anytime , they pay half the bill plus their utilities..
It all depends on how badly they gotta go...
<I thought they did sign a lease>
Does your rent include any utilities?
Just for reference, I get $600 per room in both places, one room I get $670 which includes a private living room, all with no utilities included. One place is 4 br/2ba, the other is 3br/2ba. And you're in a much more desirable spot than I am...Cambridge vs. Medford/Somerville, and a mile from the red line.
$800 plus all utilities may be a little high, but I'm not sure...you've got a pretty nice apartment though. It's bigger & cleaner than a lot that's out there. I can't see why you can't get it....especially if you've got some time to find someone. And if it includes heat, I think you'll easily get it. Just put up a good ad on CL with pictures, put it up twice a day every day, and I'm sure you'll get it. If you don't get a lot of positive response, then you can drop it to $750.
Plus, if a man takes the room, I would want him to have his own bath, in fact, I might lower the rent if it happens to be a man...
Have you ever known a man with a good aim?
I think Slappy made a good suggestion; ask for more up front and see if you get any responses. If nobody responds, you know it's too high. If you get too many, you know it's too low...
$50 for the bathroom isn't too high. We got 10 responses in less than 24 hours. We've met 3 of them, the rest come sunday evening. We decide sunday night.
littlek wrote:$50 for the bathroom isn't too high. We got 10 responses in less than 24 hours. We've met 3 of them, the rest come sunday evening. We decide sunday night.
Nice. There's definitely no shortage of people looking for roommates in the area...
While we tried to get everyone to come en masse, open-house style, a few came earlier. One oif the early birds told us she'd pay 100 extra for the bed and bath rooms. She really wants the place!
That's awesome...I've never had a problem finding people, but don't get enough interest to do open house style.
littlek wrote:While we tried to get everyone to come en masse, open-house style, a few came earlier. One of the early birds told us she'd pay 100 extra for the bed and bath rooms. She really wants the place!
sounds like it might be slightly under-priced for the location ... and you'll really be able to pick who you want. that's great!
You want to come over and make people show true colors?
So, the one woman who we liked, who really likes the apartment, who offered to pay extra..... she emailed us a follow up email, which was nice. But, when she didn't hear back from us, she called. We'd left it that we'd let her know Sunday night after the open house. Is that weird? Is she just really really wanting to make sure we know she wants it, or she's weird.
My main apartment as an adult I found by driving through several west los angeles neighborhoods just about every day for a couple of weeks, taking me, say, an hour and half each time. Saw a fair sized spanish style house with a small blackboard (!) sign on the front lawn, stopped and rang the doorbell. Got the apartment immediately, a whole floor over that house, an apartment to die for, and I was very happy there. Six years and they never raised the rent, as they liked me well enough too (even despite the one time giant party). Why do I mention this? I might have been that woman doing the phone call, as I was in love with the place when I first saw it from the outside. I just knew it was perfect.
On the other hand, pushy, she might be pushy.
Beth - I didn't see that last post of yours! We were just talking about the place being underpriced. We figure it's for the same reason as Osso's rent never went up. Our landlord values highly having stable, good tenants.
We didn't go with the 800/month lady. We went with an anomaly. She's in her early 20s (too young for my profile of a housemate) and is a financial consultant (too cut cash oriented for my profile). She was born in India, but her family moved to LA when she was 7. She's warm and seems to have a sense of humor.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace