rent posts

For years now, Blockbuster has boasted that it doesn't charge late fees for movie and video game rentals by telling its customers to "Celebrate the end of late fees." But starting this week, it appears the celebration will be over as Blockbuster begins to reinstate late fees for video games at select stores. The practice, which a reader of consumer blog Consumerist discovered through a notice on his receipt and confirmed with store employees, removes the 10-day grace period that Blockbuster formerly allowed for game rentals.

Now, instead of getting a 15-day game rental for the price of 5 days, renters will face a 99 cent per day fee for each additional day and, on the 15th day, the rental will be converted to a sale just like it did under the old policy. Renters can still return the game, minus a $1.25 restocking fee, to reverse the sale but the 99 cent a day late fee will still be charged. What's not immediately clear is if the $9.99 in late fees apply to the purchase price of the game or if they are above and beyond the price.

Last week it was announced that Comcast plans to increase the cost of renting a cable modem from $3 to $5 a month -- an increase of 66% or $24 a year. Comcast points to the cost of new technology for the increase, telling Multichannel news that it reflects a cost increase to Comcast of 167%.

Sure, $2 a month isn't going to break your budget. But it's actually very easy to buy your cable modem and cut the whole rental fee off your bill, which could save you $60 a year in fees. Getting your own cable modem is simple,and pretty much anyone paying rental fees for a modem can buy their own and save in the long run.

Lockergnome.com points to two popular Motorola cable modems for sale at Amazon.com that are compatible with Comcast and will be paid for in just over a year's time. The Motorola SB6120 Surfboard is compatible with the newest technology which will give you higher speeds when the tech rolls out at Comcast, and the Motorola SB5101, which costs less than you'd pay for a year's worth of rental and still provides great speeds. There are also other deals to be found be searching for sales and looking on eBay.

If you don't have Comcast or your modem isn't one of those listed above, just look at the bottom of your modem to find out what its model number is. Searching for it or taking it into your local electronics store should provide you with some prices and alternatives.

If buying your own modem doesn't sound like your way to beat the fee increase, you could always call up your cable company and ask for a discount. It's surprisingly easy, and if you don't do it at least once a year you're probably paying too much or paying for channels you don't watch. If you call for a discount, don't mention any competitors by name because this will just give the representative the opportunity to list the bad things about the competitor. All you have to do is ask for a break on pricing and cite "other offers." Since it's costly to get a new customer, the odds are good that you'll get a discount.

From tuxedos to DVDs and cars, renting something for the short term makes a lot of sense.

For college students spending the annual nationwide average of $700 to $1,100 for textbooks, Chegg.com and sites such as bookrenter.com offer textbook rentals by the quarter or semester, saving students hundreds of dollars each year on books they might otherwise sell back to college bookstores for much less than they paid when classes started.

Students renting from Chegg save 65% to 85% versus buying new books, said Aayush Phumbhra, co-founder of Chegg and senior vice president of operations, in a telephone interview.

"When you sell the book back to the bookstore, you get virtually nothing," Phumbhra said. A bookstore might pay 30% of the list price, and won't buy a book back if it already has enough in stock, he said.

The two young women who showed up with checks to rent the third-floor apartment in our building seemed nice. My husband, who is the caretaker of several apartments his family owns, took their checks, had them sign the lease, and expected to see them back on June 1 for their move-in date. He turned away two other seekers and went to bed happy.

The next morning at 7:30am, one girl's mother called. She was practically crying, and started in on a long story with me about how her daughter was in over her head, couldn't afford the apartment and needed her check back. And this was just in twenty seconds until I could hand the phone over to my groggy spouse. He held back from completely blowing his top, but was not exactly yielding about returning any money. The point of a security deposit to hold an apartment is to take that apartment off the market and seal the deal. The custom to make that money non-refundable is a safety mechanism.

What these girls did could have turned out to be an expensive lesson for them. But instead, it turned out to be an expensive lesson for us. My husband ended up giving them back their money and is still trying to rent out our open place.

Would you have given the money back? I turned to Twitter for some advice.

It's time to buy a home! That's what I hear several times a week from friends, co-workers and commercials. I've heard the same prediction since I graduated four years ago and signed a lease on an apartment to share with my new wife. We've been living in the apartment ever since, and despite its small size, it has served us well. Even though I want to get a house, and I assure everyone concerned with my living arrangements of this desire, lest I be cast as a financial fool or someone who doesn't buy into the American dream of home ownership, it doesn't stop.

When I graduated I was still swept up in the dream of owning a house, but for lack of money, settled for an apartment, despite the fact that it seemed like we could afford one of the zero down variable rate mortgages at the time. It didn't take too long, six months, before we realized just how much the last four years of education was going to cost us, and put our dreams of home ownership on hold. That's right; we made the responsible decision to hold off on buying a house we couldn't afford; even when banks would have gladly given us money, showing restraint that even more informed individuals, like an economics reporter for the NY Times, failed to exercise.

It sounds like something to be jealous of: A guy whose home is the road, who moves about as he sees fit, just him and his four dogs. He calls his van home.

That sounds kind of ideal, like Easy Rider without the drugs or the sand in your hair. But this guy, Jimmy Tarangelo, isn't roaming the road. He's literally living on it, the victim of twin afflictions of mental illness and recessionary times. He parks and re-parks his mini-caravan (a Ford Econoline and a 20-foot camper purchased for $750) on the streets of New York City's lower West Village, where in the buildings above, lofts sell for well into seven figures. Every so often, as the street signs require, to dodge tickets. Ever since he got kicked out of his home, eight years ago, he's lived this way.

The New York Post paints a pathetic portrait of how the bottom rung of society is coping with the times. For the ranks of the homeless, patching together an existence takes ingenuity and hours of evasion. His survival depends on working the system.

You'll find lower rent prices nationwide because a double-edged sword - job losses and unsold condos - drives rent prices down as apartment vacancies skyrocket. If your lease is about to expire, don't just accept the offer you get from your landlord for a renewal, negotiate a better deal.

Even before you try to negotiate that deal be sure to check out the marketplace because you may find something that is so much better it's worth moving. Also, your market research will help you to build the ammunition you'll need to get that lower rent.

Luxury high-rises have been the hardest hit, especially in the New York Financial district. So many people have lost jobs that some landlords are offering three months free rent or dropping their prices by as much as 20 percent just to get tenants.

The dog rental business started off as one of those crazy Japanese trends that Americans couldn't quite believe really existed. In Japan everybody has mind-blowing electronics, wears eyelash wigs, competes on wacky gameshows like live Tetris. And, oh yeah, they rent out dogs for $19 an hour or $100 a day.

An American company FlexPetz has tried to copy the formula here, staring with a small office in Iowa. No, just kidding. Where would someone start the Zipcar of dogs but in Los Angeles and New York? They claim they are for people who don't have the time or pet-friendly apartment for a real dog but the more popular theory is they're for singles who want to pick someone up.

FlexPetz tracks their dogs with GPS and says they use rescue dogs "where possible." The dogs in their pictures all seem to be purebreds, but FlexPetz tells the stories of some that come from shelters or were given up by owners. By all accounts they take great care of their dogs. What these dogs' emotional life is like after work, I'm not sure.

During the Depression, it was so common for homeowners to share housing costs by renting rooms to strangers that a whole romantic milieu arose from the practice, with teenage (or, in Lolita's case, younger) girls falling for the remote, lonely, mysterious older men who shared a kitchen table with their family. Signs show that practice may be returning. It's green -- more people on your square footage means your ecological footprint lessens! It's friendly -- sharing your lives with others, even just at occasional mealtimes, is a way to break down the barriers that keep our communities stark and lonesome. Best of all, it's financially savvy -- spending to light and heat a 2,000 square-foot home when you really only need 1,200 or so is both expensive and hard to avoid, without the considerable and not easily reversible process of selling your home and buying a new one.

Rooms for rent has been in the news a lot lately, and I know a lot of families here in Portland who choose to offer one or two rooms to a singleton who's willing to help with the mortgage payment, the electric bill, and maybe the gardening or the bike repair. My littler sister has shared a room in a family friend's home for several years, and been through all the ups and downs.

I've discovered, in my experience with house share situations, that it's important to very clearly set expectations ahead of time; whether you will share the food expenses, who can use the kitchen, when; what the rules are about cleaning up after oneself in common areas; how comfortable you feel about leaving the bathroom door unlocked; what exactly is going to be charged for rent and utilities (a flat dollar amount? a percentage?); whether the phone/internet/leftovers are on- or off-limits. What about in your town? Have you rented a room, or are you thinking about it? Any tips to share?

If you or your kid is new to college this year you've probably heard horror stories about book costs from your friends who have already crossed the archway to higher education but fear not! WalletPop is providing you with some great ways to save money on textbooks. The first part of our series covered 5 ways to avoid purchasing a textbook, while still doing all of your homework and reading. This post will help you find the cheapest version of the textbook out there.

As you'll soon find out there are many other places besides the campus bookstore to get your textbooks and companies are finally beginning to offer textbooks in new, exciting and of course CHEAPER ways. The following list will help you locate cheap copies of those books that you need to buy because borrowing just won't cut it.

Whether 'tis nobler in the minds of your parents and friends to rent; than to suffer the slings and arrows of home ownership, I have a few calculators that will help you make the decision based on your unique situation. Owning a home is an idea which is drilled into us from the moment we become financially aware of the cost to live someplace. Many people consider renting to be throwing away money which you could be using to build equity. In reality the true cost benefit of owning a home relies on many factors including home price, rental increase, home value appreciation and length of ownership.

This post is part of a series about real-life signs we're in a recession.

Does the thought of moving to a new city after graduation, as the economy heads towards a recession, frighten you? If so, you may want to do what some whippersnappers are doing: move in with grandma and grandpa in order to save money on rent. While this may induce thoughts of plastic-covered furniture and conservative talk radio blaring from the living room, many families are making it work. Living with your grandparents can also provide benefits to the entire family. They can rest easy knowing someone is around to help out around the house and be a point of contact in case of emergencies.

CNN recently provided a set of tips for living with your grandparents. It includes laying down ground rules and having separate spaces. Moving in with "Oma" and "Pop Pop", in their two bedroom efficiency in Manhattan, may not work out for any of the involved parties. If you are lucky enough to have grandparents near your new job, moving in with them could insulate you from the rising cost of living which has come in the form of gas and food price increases. Having a support system in place is another "value add" in the event your new position gets cut during a recession. One example is Jennifer Blankenship, who lives with her grandparents to save money as rent in her town approaches $1,500 per month!

As I spoke with friends from college I didn't find anyone who was living with their grandparents but several did express concern about what they would do if a recession brought layoffs. Several friends mentioned that their grandparent's houses could provide a place close to work which would allow them to maintain their jobs and friends even during a recession. If we were in a boom period I doubt we would see young adults moving in with grandparents just to save on rent. When times get tough, the tough go to grandma's!

In my last post, I wrote about the hassles of refinancing. It's been a while since I've updated everyone, and I apologize for that, but I've just been dwelling on what to do.

The wife and I sat down and talked about everything. About how we got into the position we are in and how to get out of it. Basically what it came down to is that we jumped into the "home-owners" market too quick. We got sucked in by the allure of owning our own home. We didn't realize all the side effects of owning a home; the maintenance, the upgrades, and most importantly, actually paying for it.

I received a lot of very helpful comments. My short Walletpop career has been jammed with more information than I have read in the past few months. The help and the tips I have received have been great, and have steered me in the right direction.