You have two things to look at, was the rental price reasonable when you moved in, and the other factor, has the landlord been bumping up the rent every year?
A fair size of landlords will bump the rent $25 per year figuring that you won’t move–it isn’t worth the aggravation. If the property is as you say, I would vote with my feet and move.
You could mail the landlord a letter suggesting that you would move unless the rent is dropped because of the conditions that you have listed. Painting, re-carpeting,etc can cost about $2,500, plus he’ll loose about two months rent fixing it up, so the landlord might think twice. Its a game of poker, you can’t loose, only the owner will loose.
Our place here in San Marcos is 2,450 sq ft we pay $1,750 month (figure another $400 for utilities).
Remember one thing, a renter has to come up with a first and last months rent, your landlord isn’t going to find very many of them floating around anymore.
You need $3,000 to $4,600 cash to rent–there aren’t too many landlords that are dumb enough to piss off a good tenant.
