All Forum Posts by: Monica P.

@Ryan Hogan

You can park it in a high yield savings account. Those interest rates are around .80% - 1% right now. Better rate than a standard savings account.

@Greg H.

Appreciate the input! I’m glad to hear someone else echoes my thoughts in that Midland rents are only going to go down from here.

@Patricia Steiner

I’ve been looking at places that are a couple hundred dollars more expensive but are SIGNIFICANTLY nicer; so I’ll probably end up there. 6 months ago, I didn’t have these options so I got stuck with what I’m in now.

@Joe Splitrock

I’ve been looking at other places and noticing rents are falling. I think they’ll only go lower as the year goes on.

@Justin Thorpe

Thanks for your input! My thought is that Midland is heavily dependent on the oil industry and that doesn’t seem to be going back to “normal” anytime soon so rents are going to go down and stay down for awhile. A lot of renters are leaving town.

@Jonathan R McLaughlin

That’s what I was thinking - why not ask him to come down on rent? Worst thing that can happen is he’ll say no. But this place was vacant for months before I showed up (I now know why) and he’d probably be willing to take $600 than $0 if I move out.

Thanks for the responses!

I know...the holes...they’re on the back of the house and I didn’t go around there when I went to look at it before I moved in. Rookie mistake - it was my first time renting and I didn’t think about it.

I mainly chose it because it’s so close to work but it was also one of the very few places in my price range at the time I moved in (November 2019).

Because of the economy, I have many more options this time around.

My lease will be up in November and I’m wanting to renegotiate my rent when the time comes. I currently rent an efficiency house in Midland, TX with no dishwasher, no disposal and no washer/dryer hookups for $900/month plus utilities. The only thing that’s included in the rent is water.

With everything happening and Midland being a very oil-dependent town, I’ve noticed apartment vacancies with much lower rent than what I’m paying plus better amenities. These apartments will have dishwasher, disposal and washer/dryer hookups or laundry facilities on site for $650-700/month. These are located 4-6 miles away so it’s not far from where I am.

Since these places are offering $700 for this extra stuff, would asking my landlord to lower the rent to $600-650 be unreasonable? Side note: this place is not nice by any means and there’s holes everywhere. I had the house sprayed on Monday and the exterminator said I’m getting bugs because the house is “very porous”.

I’m an excellent tenant and always pay my rent on the 1st. Never been late and the only thing I’ve asked him to fix are the two giant holes in the side of the house. Two other exterminators said those need to get fixed because squirrels can get in. The landlord acknowledged they needed to be fixed but it still hasn’t been done.

The only reason I like this house is because it’s 3 blocks away from my work. But I will move if it means I can save $200-300 a month.

Opinions/thoughts/comments/suggestions are greatly appreciated!

@Jess White

I’ve never heard that a 401k was a scam. What are the qualities that make people deem it as such?

@Mason Moreland

What were the rental rates that you used? I’d be curious to see the difference to rates now.