We are at Postmark, but I'm guessing your experience will be similar at most of the big buildings. They have a website where you can go select the apartment you want and the term you want and it calculates out the rates. The rates changed frequently, at least weekly, but not for every apartment. We knew what apartment we wanted, so we waited until the slow season and watched for the price to drop. This took some patience. Once it did, we pulled the trigger via the website.

Rates definitely do move up and down. But they are not 'negotiable' in the traditional way of the leasing agent tells you X, you counter offer Y, and so on. The leasing agent won't have the ability to make concessions because the price is controlled by the technology.

Instead, I'd suggest saying something like "we really like the apartment, but our budget is Y, we would sign if we can get that, but we're going to keep looking." And then you leave. You look at the other buildings. And you watch the website and wait. Hopefully the leasing agent will circle back with management and get them to drop the price for you.