Aside from Craigslist, does anyone has suggestions for no fee strategies in NYC? I’m looking for something either in the financial district or UWS and would appreciate any advice…
Do a google search for management companies. They will list their no fee apts on their sites. Also, look at the apt buildings when you are walking around the area you are seeking to live. They sometimes have a contact number on the building for no fee apts.
There is a site that I used a while back called rent direct. Just google “rent direct” and it comes up. There is a small fee (something like $200) and it gives you access to lots of listings without brokers’ fees. I found it to be a decent aggregator for a fraction of the cost of going through a broker.
Great, thanks Phil and Tobias. Very helpful advice.
If either of you ever paid for a broker instead of going direct, was it worth the fee? What about in this market with (I’m assuming) so much supply?
I am in the process of moving this month (just a few blocks, intra-Manhattan) and we ulimately did what philip suggested, going directly through the owner via their website. After we found the place, we wanted to make sure we were getting the best that was out there, so we called up a broker and gave him a price range and neighborhood. He was TERRIBLE. He knew less about the neighborhood and its buildings than my wife, took us to buildings that required appointments without having made one, etc. The only stipulations we gave him were location - 20s and 30s between 3rd and 5th, 1BR,
Thanks again, really appreciate the help. Its interesting the hear that you don’t always get better service out of a broker. I’m poking through the rent direct website now - I thinking about paying the fee for a membership. It might be a great resource that saves me a lot of time.
They are such arrogant, use-less…pieces of…
Nyc chinese newspapers have listings to rent by owners.
Best advice you will ever get – spend a weekend, walk around the target neighborhood and go into every building that you find interesting and ask the doorman or super if there are vacancies. The last two apartment searches I did that and ended up with very good apartments, no brokers fees, and I knew what I was getting into since I hand-picked the places myself. Granted I would say 75% of the time they will tell you “I don’t know” or say there is nothing available, but even if that’s the case they almost always have the number of the management company you can call to put your name on a list for the next available apartment in the building.
JTLD - Partly based on what Phil said earlier, this is exactly what I’m planning on doing this weekend. Good to know that it worked for you.
So I just spent Saturday and Sunday in the UWS looking at apartments. I spoke with someone at rentdirect NY and looked at the free listings (no landlord contact #s until you subscribe). There were only about 15 that fit my search criteria and only a handful looked interesting - not worth the $220 to sign up. Also walked into a few random buildings and asked to see units but this type of access was basically limited to the luxury, pure rental buildings (eg, couldn’t find any co-ops with an owner looking to rent this way and no way to view a place if no doorman). Went and saw about 7 no fee apartments that I found on Craigslist. These were all by brokers that were being paid their fee by the building management. Everything I saw looked amazing online but had some kind of major flaw (eg, major walk up, beat up lobby, government housing next door) and was not nearly as great as it seemed in Craigslist. By talking to other people and stopping in a couple offices, I’m down to two brokers that are great. They’ve already shown me a handful of places that blow all of the rentdirect/craigslist apartments away. Some are no fee, about 80% are fee (the norm right now is one month’s rent, not 10-15% of annual rent like the last few boom years). I was totally against brokers at first but these two have proven their worth. On top of the access to the nicer apartments, they have had a lot of insight and added some valuable color to the rental situation. That being said, the 7-8 brokers we met thru Craigslist were a major waste of time and it ended up being pretty easy to tell when you’re working with a quality broker. Referrals from people you trust are important. If I had infinite time for this search then maybe I could whittle down all of the no fee stuff on Craigslist and Rent Direct into something useful (would probably take 30-40 actual showings to find a few keepers). But I don’t have much time and I’m ok with paying one month’s rent as a fee to a broker since it looks like this is the way to get into a place that I will be thrilled with and be willing to stay there for 3-4 years.
Paulsons Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Everything I saw looked amazing online > but had some kind of major flaw (eg, major walk > up, beat up lobby, government housing next door) > and was not nearly as great as it seemed in > Craigslist. Welcome to New York. Market’s efficiently priced, when something seems too cheap there’s almost always a reason why.
Definitely. Its too bad there aren’t any steals out there but its good to know you’re getting what you pay for.
UWS is tough Paulsons…my girlfriend used to live in the area and there are some nice buildings but to be honest there is a lot of government housing projects up there…it was the strangest thing to see beautiful luxury buildings and then next door you would have a project…Im just speaking on her area specifically but in my experience the UWS certainly has a diverse population in every sense of the word My experience in the apartment searching is to stay persistant and keep on looking until you find exactly what youre searching for…dont settle just becuase you are getting sick of looking…it can be frustrating and tiresome, but take it from me that you can find something in your wheelhouse without having to pay an exorbant fee…Just to let you know I found my place through an owner listing on craigslist and I couldnt be happier…given the market, I definitely think you can find good deals out there GL to you
Thanks Bill. Its encouraging that you had such great luck with owner listings. My thoughts are to stay very persistent for now. One of the brokers has repeatedly explained that he has access to all the other listings on Craigslist, etc and that I should just let him know if I hear of any other interesting listings and not get mixed up with someone else. I’m going to keep working with at least one other broker and keep browsing Craigslist (with a very critical eye) to make sure that I’m not missing out on anything.
Bill.S.Preston,Esq Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > UWS is tough Paulsons…my girlfriend used to live > in the area and there are some nice buildings but > to be honest there is a lot of government housing > projects up there…it was the strangest thing to > see beautiful luxury buildings and then next door > you would have a project…Im just speaking on her > area specifically but in my experience the UWS > certainly has a diverse population in every sense > of the word My gf went to middle school and high school in the city back in the mid-'90s, she said that the UWS was the armpit of Manhattan because of all the projects in the area. I read a NY Times article a year or two ago where one of their columnists wrote about getting his @ss kicked by a group of black teenagers in the middle of the day at Columbus Circle near 15 Central Park West, that fancy new highrise where apartments are still going for over $5,000 per sqft. He said he was walking past a group of teens that were just hanging around the sidewalk harassing people when they should’ve been in school, one of them bumped him and he said something to them and immediately got decked to the floor. Of course like the pansy @ss writer that he was he ended up apologizing to the thugs and walked away.
living near the projects is really not a big deal, imo. follow some common sense, and no one will bother you.
wutsaCFA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > living near the projects is really not a big deal, > imo. follow some common sense, and no one will > bother you. What’s the closest you’ve ever lived to a project? Your answer will determine whether your advice has any merit or not.
Paulsons – I found a studio in the west 80s last month and used Craigslist exclusively in my search. I stuck to the By-Owner ads only, and while I did see some terrible apartments, I was able to find a decent place in a brownstone for a good price (owner/landlord lives in basement apartment). I wouldn’t sweat the projects… I feel no less safe in the UWS then when I lived in UES or anywhere else in the city.