The conclusion (that a landlord will reward "good" tenants with lower rent) is hopelessly naive. Found the same thing when renting in the Boston area in the ea

The conclusion (that a landlord will reward "good" tenants with lower rent) is hopelessly naive. Found the same thing when renting in the Boston area in the early aughts. My roommates and I were good tenants - paid rent on time, were quiet & low key, didn't call the landlord except for real emergencies (we were all mechanical and electrical engineers so we basically took care of stuff that didn't require a licensed professional ourselves), etc. For our trouble we got whacked with 15 percent annual rent increases for three years. Ninety days before our last lease expired, the landlord offered another 10% increase. When we hedged about accepting it for a few days, the landlord decided that he wanted to renovate the place and withdrew the lease offer. We moved out a couple of months later, but lived near the house and we could keep track of what was going on. After 2 or 3 months of painting/cleaning/etc, the house went back on the rental market. It sat empty for more than two years. He finally rented it when he offered a price that was lower than we were paying when he booted us out. Lose, lose. I am glad to see that there are landlords that appreciate good tenants, but certainly not all of them do.