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How to Counter a Low Salary Offer

Question: I just received a job offer, but I feel the salary is too low. How can I negotiate a higher salary?

Answer: More money. Let's be honest, we all want it. So how can you get it?

When it comes to negotiating your new job offer, you walk the fine line between coming off like a savvy employee looking to maximize your worth and being greedy. Here's what you do.

1. Know what you're worth.

Knowledge is power. It's much easier to negotiate if you know where you stand relative to others in your field. Your first stop should be the Yahoo! HotJobs salary calculator. Also check with friends and family who may work in your field or at your level. See what they make.

Once you have that information in hand, here's what you might say:

"From the information I've pulled from salary surveys, a financial analyst with four years of experience in Cleveland makes between $65,000-$75,000. I feel that your offer of $62,000 is low. Based on my experience and accomplishments, a salary of $70,000 which falls in the middle of the range would be more appropriate."

2. Think beyond salary.

Salary may be cool, but the job offer is king.

Often, companies have fairly set salaries based on pre-determined compensation "bands." For instance, they may never pay a four-year accountant more than $62K per year. However, there are a host of other benefits you might have more luck negotiating:

• Signing bonus
• Relocation allowance
• Clothing/car allowance
• Vacation days
• Year-end bonus
• Medical and dental benefits
• Profit sharing/401(k)
• Flexible work hours/days
• Company computer/phone

Some companies may offer these benefits and might be persuaded to up the ante for you -- if you ask. Think about it this way. If you make $104,000 a year, and you can negotiate an extra week of vacation, you just gave yourself a $2,000 raise.

Here's what you say: "I understand that you can't raise my salary, but at my former job, I had three weeks of vacation. I'd like to see if it's possible to get an extra week of vacation each year."

3. Just say it.

Don't beat around the bush, don't hem and haw, and don't think that you should feel bad about negotiating. Once they are ready to have the talk, many job seekers ruin their chances by not being assertive.

• Bad: "I was wondering if perhaps you might consider offering some type of compensation for my move. I mean if not, it's no big deal, but hopefully you have a few extra dollars. Maybe?"
• Good: "Since I'll be moving from Pittsburgh to New York, I'll be incurring substantial moving expenses. What type of relocation assistance do you offer?"

Negotiating your offer is never easy, but with the right approach it could turn into some extra cash. Good luck!

Whether they're waiting out the housing storm, or smack in the middle of it, an increasing number of Americans are choosing to rent, not own. And that's good news for landlords and investors.

Foreclosures and risky lending have dogged the housing market. As lenders have tightened their standards, attractive mortgages have grown harder to come by. Yet rental fundamentals have remained strong, especially in the 10 areas that made our list of Best Markets for Landlords.

Tops on our list: New York City, where in the last 12 months rents have jumped between 7.4% and 7.9% across the Class A, B and C apartment classifications ("A" being the most luxurious, "C" being the least). In the Big Apple, 80% of the population rents, and the city's unaffordable housing entices few to make the leap to home ownership.

In Pictures: Best Markets For Landlords

Rounding out the top five are Seattle (where rental-property construction has been low since 2003), San Francisco, and Oakland and Orange County, Calif. Credit the giddiness of West Coast landlords to the general lack of affordable housing in those markets.

Methodology

With the help of Marcus & Millichap, a real estate investment firm, we took into account dynamics that affect the supply and demand for real estate. Present vacancy rates and planned new construction of apartments and condos effect supply, while job growth (which encourages people to move to a city) and affordability (which tilts the rent-vs.-buy dynamic) play with demand.

One curious finding: The best locales for landlords and investors aren't necessarily the worst for renters. Take Las Vegas. While vacancies there have jumped over the last year and rental rates have remained low, the city ranked seventh on our list due to its job growth: 4% year-over-year. Sin City is the second best city in America for job growth, at nearly three times the national average, according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

The Also-Rans Foreclosures have a direct effect on the rental market, and the subprime debacle has certainly contributed its fair share. According to RealtyTrac, in the first six months of 2007, the number of home foreclosures is up 58% vs. the same time period last year.

The homeless are flocking to landlords' arms. In Detroit and Cleveland (not on our list), where foreclosures have surged, rental markets are tightening at some of the nation's fastest rates. Typically, rental markets tighten when the population and number of jobs increase--the direct opposite of what's happening in both cities. In the last year, Detroit's rental vacancy rate has dropped to 5.4% from 6.9%, and Cleveland's fell to 5.7% from 7.3%, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Landlords in Salt Lake City are grinning too. Though it barely missed our top 10, Salt Lake City has asserted itself as the small-market-that-could. In the last year, rents jumped between 6.8% and 6.1% across the three rental classes and vacancy rates fell to 2.6% from 4.3%. Small fry Portland, Ore., gave it a good run too: Rents there increased between 5.9% and 6.6% across the classes and the vacancy rate dropped to 3.2% from 4.1%.