In an article at MSNBC Real Estate a spokesperson for Apartments.com urges tenants to deal with rising rents by negotiating for a long-term lease that enables them to lock in rents:
“You can definitely talk to your landlord and ask to negotiate,” she says. “A two-year lease is a pretty popular option.”
The article illustrates the pitfalls of applying advice that might work in one market to another market: real estate is local, local, local.
Negotiating a two-year lease might be possible for exceptional properties, but the typical Chicago landlord has no incentive to sign a lease that locks in the landlord’s revenue but doesn’t lock in the tenant. The reason? The Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance requires landlords to accept a suitable sublessee if the tenant wants to move on.