How One Man Negotiated Half the Typical San Francisco Rent

When it comes to saving money, it seems that everyone has a great story of their own. However, I’m pretty positive that no one has a better story than Davis Nguyen. In a city where the average rental payment is approximately $3,500 per month (higher than the national average), he managed to score a $2,500 per month rental for approximately $1,050. That’s less than half. Now do you understand why his story is the best savings story around? Here’s how he did it.

Davis approached the situation hardcore. He gave himself a full month to search for a home when he was first living in San Fran before he began his new job. That’s when he decided to do something pretty spectacular. He created a packet called a “Get to Know Us” packet. It included resumes, biographies and even cover letters from he and his friends.

How did that work? Quite well, actually. He and his friends received offers from all the landlords they gave their packets to, and each one was lower than the asking price. Basically, he called each landlord prior to visiting and asked the landlord personal questions about what they want in a tenant, what problems they’ve had with past tenants, etc. He made notes, tailored his packet to each landlord and passed it out to them at the open house.

His concept of finding out what landlords wanted, how to make their lives easier and how to get to know them resulted in more than a dozen offers from landlords for Davis to be their tenant. After he chose one he felt most comfortable with, he spoke once again to the landlord and made it a point to speak to her further about her desires, and she offered to lower the rent a bit more so that she could guarantee a good tenant in her home.

Photo by Getty Images