NYC apartment hunting: broker edition
April 26, 2017 7:22 AM Subscribe
Should I get a broker for my NYC apartment hunt? Bonus question: what exactly can a broker do for me?
I will be moving to New York with a loved one in August for at least a couple of years. It will be our first time apartment hunting in NYC, and, based on other people's estimates, we're thinking of starting to look for apartments in late June/early July. Neither of us are in the city right now and we'll only have one weekend together to really look at apartments, though one of us is weekend-trip distance and can visit again if necessary. We'd prefer to move straight into an apartment, without having to futz around with sublets (though attempts to convince me otherwise are welcome - especially with specifics about where to find these sublets).
Given our naïveté, long-term plans, and less-than-ideal availability, plus the student housing rush in August, is working with a broker worthwhile? I'm willing to swallow a fee, especially less than 10%, for a good apartment the first time around - but I want the person who's getting the fee to actually pull some weight helping us, as opposed to what appears to be the uniquely New York experience of finding my own apartment and still having to pay a fee to the landlord's broker. I'd also rather not get totally scammed. Can I have it all?
Specific company or individual recs or warnings are greatly appreciated, along with thoughts on the current lay of the NYC broker land.
If it's pertinent - we're aiming for brownstone Brooklyn (in the vague triangle between Fort Greene, Carroll Gardens, and western Crown Heights) for a studio/1 br, ideally $2000 and under. Feel free to adjust my expectations on that price point. Subway line flexible.
I will be moving to New York with a loved one in August for at least a couple of years. It will be our first time apartment hunting in NYC, and, based on other people's estimates, we're thinking of starting to look for apartments in late June/early July. Neither of us are in the city right now and we'll only have one weekend together to really look at apartments, though one of us is weekend-trip distance and can visit again if necessary. We'd prefer to move straight into an apartment, without having to futz around with sublets (though attempts to convince me otherwise are welcome - especially with specifics about where to find these sublets).
Given our naïveté, long-term plans, and less-than-ideal availability, plus the student housing rush in August, is working with a broker worthwhile? I'm willing to swallow a fee, especially less than 10%, for a good apartment the first time around - but I want the person who's getting the fee to actually pull some weight helping us, as opposed to what appears to be the uniquely New York experience of finding my own apartment and still having to pay a fee to the landlord's broker. I'd also rather not get totally scammed. Can I have it all?
Specific company or individual recs or warnings are greatly appreciated, along with thoughts on the current lay of the NYC broker land.
If it's pertinent - we're aiming for brownstone Brooklyn (in the vague triangle between Fort Greene, Carroll Gardens, and western Crown Heights) for a studio/1 br, ideally $2000 and under. Feel free to adjust my expectations on that price point. Subway line flexible.
Everything layceepee says is right. The way you find an apartment is:
1. Look at ads on Streeteasy, Craigslist, etc.
2. Contact the advertiser for apartments you like.
3. In most cases, you will now be in touch with a broker who will charge a large fee. In some cases, you may be contacting a small scale landlord (eg a two family house with a rental unit) who will charge a lower fee or won't charge a fee at all. You won't have any choice about any of this.
Your alternatives are:
1. Ask everyone you know. Sometimes someone is leaving an apartment and has a landlord who will allow you to sign a lease without using a broker.
2. Sublet (may or may not be fully legal).
Also, since you asked, your price point is probably unrealistic (certainly in Ft Greene and Carroll Gardens, maybe doable in Crown Heights).
posted by cushie at 8:15 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
1. Look at ads on Streeteasy, Craigslist, etc.
2. Contact the advertiser for apartments you like.
3. In most cases, you will now be in touch with a broker who will charge a large fee. In some cases, you may be contacting a small scale landlord (eg a two family house with a rental unit) who will charge a lower fee or won't charge a fee at all. You won't have any choice about any of this.
Your alternatives are:
1. Ask everyone you know. Sometimes someone is leaving an apartment and has a landlord who will allow you to sign a lease without using a broker.
2. Sublet (may or may not be fully legal).
Also, since you asked, your price point is probably unrealistic (certainly in Ft Greene and Carroll Gardens, maybe doable in Crown Heights).
posted by cushie at 8:15 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
I used TripleMint to find a place in NYC and then used the broker they provided me with. Worked out well.
posted by loganabbott at 8:35 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by loganabbott at 8:35 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
Also be aware that some brokers in rapidly gentrifying areas like Crown Heights can be super shitty. I was looking for places around there and the guy showed me apartments that were just absurdly awful - a brownstone divided down the middle so that it was essentially one long hallway with two bedrooms and a massive kitchen and no living room and the bathroom in a former utility closet, a bunch of obviously former studios or one-bedrooms split into two-bedrooms where the bedrooms were the literal size of a bed, places where the windows were directly facing the elevated LIRR train tracks. And all of them, of course, as expensive or more than the perfectly nice apartments in the exact same neighborhood. Those guys were definitely preying on people who don't know too much about New York real estate and assume that every horror story is true and that better apartments don't exist for their price point. If you go with a broker, research the hell out of them first.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:37 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:37 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
Yeah sorry, finding an apartment with only two days to look with a broker is not enough time. Brokers will waste your time showing you apartments above your budget, hoping to prey on your desperation. At least one of those days will be taken up by you saying no to more expensive apartments before they even show you things in your budget.
I really would maybe do that thing you don't want to do, where you get a Pod (to save you on getting movers twice), put all your stuff in it minus what you would need for a month and sublet a furnished spot for a few weeks. You are going to need time as newbies. I've moved within New York 7 times in 8 years and I have lots of DIY and broker experience and it still takes at least a week of full-time searching to find, tour, and sign on to a place. If you want to find a permanent place you really want to take your time to get the lay of the land and find the perfect thing.
That being said, I do think you'll be able to find a studio/1br in your budget in those areas. $2500 would be an ideal budget, but $2k is totally doable just don't expect something super nice or recently renovated with all the bells and whistles.
As a recommendation, I looked at some spaces with L. Nelson & Associates in Fort Greene recently and they had some nice reasonably priced properties in the area. Maybe worth giving them a call. I have also worked with Rapid Realty a few times and the brokers were very helpful (though their fees were steep). And Street Easy is really helpful in hooking you up with brokers. If you see something you like, contact the broker listed and see if they will show you other places. Totally okay to say you are working with multiple brokers. Make them compete a bit for your business.
posted by greta simone at 9:15 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
I really would maybe do that thing you don't want to do, where you get a Pod (to save you on getting movers twice), put all your stuff in it minus what you would need for a month and sublet a furnished spot for a few weeks. You are going to need time as newbies. I've moved within New York 7 times in 8 years and I have lots of DIY and broker experience and it still takes at least a week of full-time searching to find, tour, and sign on to a place. If you want to find a permanent place you really want to take your time to get the lay of the land and find the perfect thing.
That being said, I do think you'll be able to find a studio/1br in your budget in those areas. $2500 would be an ideal budget, but $2k is totally doable just don't expect something super nice or recently renovated with all the bells and whistles.
As a recommendation, I looked at some spaces with L. Nelson & Associates in Fort Greene recently and they had some nice reasonably priced properties in the area. Maybe worth giving them a call. I have also worked with Rapid Realty a few times and the brokers were very helpful (though their fees were steep). And Street Easy is really helpful in hooking you up with brokers. If you see something you like, contact the broker listed and see if they will show you other places. Totally okay to say you are working with multiple brokers. Make them compete a bit for your business.
posted by greta simone at 9:15 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
If you're only making one trip, make it in early July. Most inventory doesn't come online til the month before the move, and you don't have visits to spare.
Broker fee is most likely going to be 15 percent of a year's rent, so more than a month's rent. It's usually a take-it-or-leave-it situation. May/June and August/September are the worst times to be looking for apartments, due to people moving to the city at the end of the school year or the summer, so you're not going to have much bargaining power, especially with that budget.
posted by praemunire at 11:26 AM on April 26, 2017
Broker fee is most likely going to be 15 percent of a year's rent, so more than a month's rent. It's usually a take-it-or-leave-it situation. May/June and August/September are the worst times to be looking for apartments, due to people moving to the city at the end of the school year or the summer, so you're not going to have much bargaining power, especially with that budget.
posted by praemunire at 11:26 AM on April 26, 2017
Absolutely sublet or you will end up getting suckered into some of the BS mentioned above. Your price point is realistic for a modest studio in the neighborhoods you mention (in parts of Crown Heights east of Franklin Ave, maybe even a nice/new one). But I'd up your budget 100-300 bucks for a one bedroom. Crown Heights is very different from Fort Greene/Carroll Gardens in terms of prices.
Expect brokers to try to tell you 15%. A coworker just went through this last year thinking that he'd be paying one months rent as a fee or even just 12%. Apparently everyone was telling him 15% or to fuck off. He was looking in a higher demand neighborhood than Crown Heights though so your experience may differ.
posted by windbox at 3:14 PM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
Expect brokers to try to tell you 15%. A coworker just went through this last year thinking that he'd be paying one months rent as a fee or even just 12%. Apparently everyone was telling him 15% or to fuck off. He was looking in a higher demand neighborhood than Crown Heights though so your experience may differ.
posted by windbox at 3:14 PM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
I did succeed in finding a (thus far--it's been five months) satisfactory apartment in about three days. Got into town on a Tuesday afternoon, saw a place, saw places Wednesday, put in an application Wednesday evening, spent Thursday in limbo, signed the lease Friday.
I basically combed StreetEasy, assembled a list of places I wanted to see and phoned/emailed brokers. Inevitably, most didn't respond, but, perhaps surprisingly, I only went to see decent apartments. Most were from my list, plus one or two suggested by one of the brokers. In other words, despite how much noise people make about the difficulty of finding an apartment in New York and how different it was to other places, it was much the same as other places. (And, in fact, more like my Minneapolis experience with no brokers involved than my Austin experience, where landlords pay the brokers. I was taken to see some shitty places in Austin.)
I tried TripleMint, but it was a complete failure. I had the distinct impression that my budget (roughly yours) wasn't worth their time. I talked to one of their brokers on the phone, who was trying to sell me on the UWS (I think because that's all he knew--I was aiming Washington Heights/Inwood) and said he'd send me a list of places. I had to pester him for the list and there was not a single place on it worth seeing. It probably was representative of what was in my budget in those neighborhoods, but that's why I wasn't planning on looking in those neighborhoods! (And if I say I have a cat, damn well only send me places that allow cats.) My suspicion is that they're worthy of their good Yelp reviews if you fit their customer profile, but despite being up front that my budget was at the very bottom of their stated ranges and explicitly asking them to tell me if that wasn't going to work, they didn't.
posted by hoyland at 3:36 AM on April 27, 2017
I basically combed StreetEasy, assembled a list of places I wanted to see and phoned/emailed brokers. Inevitably, most didn't respond, but, perhaps surprisingly, I only went to see decent apartments. Most were from my list, plus one or two suggested by one of the brokers. In other words, despite how much noise people make about the difficulty of finding an apartment in New York and how different it was to other places, it was much the same as other places. (And, in fact, more like my Minneapolis experience with no brokers involved than my Austin experience, where landlords pay the brokers. I was taken to see some shitty places in Austin.)
I tried TripleMint, but it was a complete failure. I had the distinct impression that my budget (roughly yours) wasn't worth their time. I talked to one of their brokers on the phone, who was trying to sell me on the UWS (I think because that's all he knew--I was aiming Washington Heights/Inwood) and said he'd send me a list of places. I had to pester him for the list and there was not a single place on it worth seeing. It probably was representative of what was in my budget in those neighborhoods, but that's why I wasn't planning on looking in those neighborhoods! (And if I say I have a cat, damn well only send me places that allow cats.) My suspicion is that they're worthy of their good Yelp reviews if you fit their customer profile, but despite being up front that my budget was at the very bottom of their stated ranges and explicitly asking them to tell me if that wasn't going to work, they didn't.
posted by hoyland at 3:36 AM on April 27, 2017
I did most of my searching on Zillow and generally found the experience to be pretty good. Most of the listings were by brokers, but all the brokers I met through Zillow were unscammy and pretty nice. The interactions generally involved an email and a phone call, a meetup to see the apartment I was interested and, if the broker had something nearby, maybe we look at one or two other spots. No Bard sells or super terrible places or places way over budget.
In the end I got a spot listed by an agent of the landlord but not a broker. I saw at least one other place that was similarly listed.
I was looking in Ft. Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed Stuy and Bushwick.
I know my experience isn't typical, but I thought it useful to share. I had a lot of success with Zillow.
posted by wemayfreeze at 5:19 AM on April 27, 2017
In the end I got a spot listed by an agent of the landlord but not a broker. I saw at least one other place that was similarly listed.
I was looking in Ft. Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed Stuy and Bushwick.
I know my experience isn't typical, but I thought it useful to share. I had a lot of success with Zillow.
posted by wemayfreeze at 5:19 AM on April 27, 2017
late to the party but found a really nice apartment in crown heights on street easy, which i prefer to craigslist. (nice interface and you can filter to only see apartments with no broker's fee). my apt. has a washer dryer and was recently renovated. it's not really a hip or happening part of the neighborhood but it's a really nice apartment and would fit your budget. here's the landlord i leased from/their currently available apartments in crown heights.
posted by iahtl at 7:52 PM on May 2, 2017
posted by iahtl at 7:52 PM on May 2, 2017
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However, your question asks whether the broker will actually pull their weight helping you, and typically they will not. The broker exists to make the process of renting apartments more efficient for the landlord, rather than actually serving as an advocate for a potential tenant. And it's rarely the case that you engage a broker and expect them to find an apartment for you; more likely is that you search on line and find an apartment that looks good and discover the only way you will be able to view (and then rent) the place is by working through a broker.
You mention that you don't want to pay a fee to a broker in addition to the landlord's broker, but in my experience in New York, there isn't any other kind. In 30 years in the city moving at least 10 times, I've never encountered a broker who provides services for prospective tenants in the way a realtor works with people looking to buy a house.
posted by layceepee at 7:32 AM on April 26, 2017 [10 favorites]