wwmd Stuck on lease

Well, im in bay area cali. The time couldnt be better to buy a house. Im stuck on a lease in apt till december. Suggestions, crying to the manager and any suggestions are welcome. I need out of my lease. I'm looking for successful crybabies, lawyer mags or genuine stories i can go to the office with. I'm off thursday and am looking for the bullet proof "ok, we'll let you out of your lease.

My initial thoughts are my mom just died, my dads got cancer and i need to go up and take care of him. I have no family down here, blah blah, they have noone up there, blah blah.

I know, its a twisted card to play but fuck.

Ive thougth about every other avenue. Looking for some suggestions on how to get out of a fucking lease. 1740 a mont lease to boot.

I expect the "fuck the manager responses", shes pregnant. Withathat said, keep em coming. Im really looking for some help here. If u got it, shout it out.

Man-the-fuck-up

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Originally Posted by cramer

Well, im in bay area cali. The time couldnt be better to buy a house.

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Why not? I'll bet it's better in 6 months, when your lease is up, and better still in a year.

Where are you looking to buy?

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Originally Posted by gatorboy

Man-the-fuck-up

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so, fuck you, ive spent 30K + here in the last 18 months, if you dont want to help me out, well, fuck off?

That was my initial thought, thanks for the input.

just break your lease. i have done it and they threaten to make you pay rent until the place is rented by someone else, but someone will always rent it. and you can advertise the place yourself to make sure that happens.

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Originally Posted by woodstocksez

Why not? I'll bet it's better in 6 months, when your lease is up, and better still in a year.

Where are you looking to buy?

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brentwood, oakley, vallejo, fairfield, american canyon.

i dont think its dropping much more. at least where im looking . 4br/3ba with pool, hardwood/pergo/central air/2000+ sq ft updated kitchens/bathrooms 250K

I can say that in our Midwest real estate market the BEST deal of the year can be had by negotiating in the few weeks around Thanksgiving. The market just shuts down, and Sellers who are still on the market at that point probably need to sell. If you wait until too close to the end of December though, Sellers see the "light" at the end of the tunnel. Most years activity picks up a pinch in January then noticeably in mid February to mid March. Every year varies, the last few more than most, but waiting it out and pulling the trigger later in the year wouldn't be the worst thing regards getting a deal... just be careful though, if you look now you might find a property you "have to" have and end up doing something you maybe shouldn't?

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Originally Posted by cramer

brentwood, oakley, vallejo, fairfield, american canyon.

i dont think its dropping much more. at least where im looking . 4br/3ba with pool, hardwood/pergo/central air/2000+ sq ft updated kitchens/bathrooms 250K

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Actually, I tend to agree with you on those areas. My father has been looking to buy a place in Brentwood (currently has a condo in Florida and wants a place out here so he can spend more time with his grandsons) for the past couple of months or so. I didn't realize how much those places had dropped until we checked them out in May, mostly on a lark. There are screaming good deals on beautiful homes in Brentwood now. However, even though I don't think they'll drop much more or at all, I also doubt they'll start going back up much or at all. I could be wrong, though. The agent my dad is working with indicated that investors are starting to buy up properties in Brentwood, so things may change in the wrong direction for you.

No ideas on the lease-breaking, other than that there's a few gun threads you might want to check for ideas.

Edit to add - Have you thought about Discovery Bay? That place looks like it might be interesting (especially if you own a boat) and it's pretty cheap, as well.

Have you talked to the manager about it (purely hypothetically at first) yet?
I am in the same situation and talked with mine the other day about maybe getting out a month or two early and he said no problem, just give me 30 days notice.
There is more to the rule than "you have to pay rent all the way through your lease"
For them to win damages against you, I think they have to show that they put the same effort into advertising your unit the same as they would any other unit, listed at the same price, didn't get any qualified applicants, etc etc. Really the worst they can do is keep your deposit, anything more and it's probably not worth their time to sue you for it.
You could also offer to advertise it yourself, or take on a subletter if allowed. Might still cost you a couple hundo a month but it's an option.
I have friends who recently bought a house and part of the terms of sale was that the seller buy out their lease. Just another option to consider.

read your lease agreement. There's got to be an early termination clause in there somewhere. usually you have to pay a fee and stay another 60 days or something, but it may be worth it for you to get the fuck out. Good luck and you shouldn't need to bullshit the Manager, as she will simply point to your agreement. Unless you fuck her, that is.

Read your lease. Do you even have an offer on a place yet? No need to jump the gun! See if you can convert over to a month to month lease. I spent 2 years as a property manager and it is their responsibility to keep the units filled. Excuses don't work with legally binding contracts. There are no sob stories when it comes to business. Try subleasing it.

thanks for the input. I'll go talk to them tomorrow. Im going to ask if i can go month to month. If they say no, ill ask what the penalties are. I may just say screw em and break the lease and fight about it later. Im not going to miss out on buying a house again down here.

Woodstock, ya, prices probably wont go up for a longtime ,but this is more the american dream, own a home, quit paying rent. I dont plan on flipping it or anything. Well, unless the market shoots up, lol. As for discovery bay, im going to take a look now. Is that just a little further out?

Interest rates are pretty fucking good right now.

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Originally Posted by cramer

Woodstock, ya, prices probably wont go up for a longtime ,but this is more the american dream, own a home, quit paying rent. I dont plan on flipping it or anything. Well, unless the market shoots up, lol. As for discovery bay, im going to take a look now. Is that just a little further out?

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No one knows for sure where prices are going, but they've fallen so much in the areas you're considering, and given that you're planning on buying and living there for a while, I think you should feel confident about buying now. I'd be very surprised if you're sorry in 10 years, or even 5 (or, really, less).

Yes, Discovery Bay is a little further out, about 8 miles southeast of Brentwood. I don't know a lot about the place, just what I've seen/read online. My dad drove through there and I think he thought it was OK. (His wants/needs are different from yours. He's probably going to end up buying a place in one of the Summerset communities in Brentwood, which are for old people - I think at least one owner has to be over 55 or something like that.) No real town - e.g., shopping, restaurants, etc. - to speak of, I don't think. Just a planned residential community. It appears to be a bunch of lagoons cut out of the land: most properties have water access and it looks like most of those are geared up for people to have a boat moored in their back yard. There's also a golf course section that doesn't have direct water access.

As you probably already know, there are a number of web sites now that enable you to check out most or all of what's on the MLS. I use ZipRealty. Last time I looked, a month or so ago, there were a lot of reasonably priced, nice-looking properties in Discovery Bay and Brentwood. We rode up with my dad in May to look around Brentwood. I couldn't believe what you could buy for the price.

Good luck with your lease and your home search.

Oh, this is isn't the bottom. No way.

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Originally Posted by Benny Profane

Oh, this is isn't the bottom. No way.

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Benny, I generally agree with you. But no one really knows where the bottom is or when we'll get there, and it's going to vary from location to location. I'd say it's good enough to just be close, particularly for someone such as cramer who's looking to buy and actually live in the place for awhile. In the areas that he's looking, prices fell much faster and have fallen much further than in other parts of the Bay Area (in fact, some would probably say it's a stretch to call those places part of the Bay Area - and that's why). I really would be surprised to see prices there drop much more and I'd guess there's a good chance they're not going any lower.

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Originally Posted by woodstocksez

...In the areas that he's looking, prices fell much faster and have fallen much further than in other parts of the Bay Area (in fact, some would probably say it's a stretch to call those places part of the Bay Area - and that's why). I really would be surprised to see prices there drop much more and I'd guess there's a good chance they're not going any lower.

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So as soon as gas is back to $2 a gallon home values will shoot back up? :fm:

Just go talk to them. Tell them your situation. Worst case scenario, you're on the hook until December. However, rents have steadily increased, since the whole 'crash', as loans for homes became harder to get.

Most likely, if its in a good location, they could cut you loose and get a higher rent than you were paying. Most of our units are in Santa Clara, and if someone needs to break the lease, we generally allow it and only charge them for rent if we cannot fill the space. 99% of the time, they pay nothing, and we get a new tenant at market rates.

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Originally Posted by timvwcom

So as soon as gas is back to $2 a gallon home values will shoot back up? :fm:

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Yes, either that or the perfection of teleportation (finally).

get fckn orders somewhere, they have to let you out....of course you also need to be in the military.

Quit bitching and just ride it out.

1. Buy, close and move into a house. This will take several months.
2. Stop paying rent money once you move.
3. Somebody else's problem.

What are they going to do? Put a negative mark on your credit? Oh no! Good thing you already bought a house, or that could really hurt.

And it's the city. If they can't fill it in 30 days, they're not trying.