Ramit Sethi negotiated his Manhattan rent down four times over 11 years using data. Rents can fall if you ask. Buying a home comes with hidden phantom costs that renters avoid.
About 11 years.
Four times.
This is one of the most common things people believe is that rents only go up. And so therefore I better buy because I can lock in my home price. First of all, rents go up and down. I lived in Manhattan for about 11 years. My rent went down four times during that 11 year period. That's in one of the most competitive cities in the world. So rents go up and they go down. But you have to know when rents are going up and down. They didn't just lower my rate because they want to be nice. Every, every year I went in there, I had data ready to go and I negotiated my rent. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. That's how the market works. Next up, just because rents go up, you have to remember that a lot of things go up because of inflation. If you are going to buy, you want to factor in all the phantom costs of your house. As a renter, you might pay all those costs, but as an owner, you definitely pay those costs. In other words, rent is the maximum you will pay. Buying a house for.
