NYC One Of The Few Places With Brokers Fees For Rentals (Greenwich: real estate, apartments)

[BugsyPal]

Back in the day it was rather easy to find an apartment with no brokers fee. That and or if you did have to shell out it was equal to first months rent. Now persons are paying 15%? What a sin.


Add to this the various application and credit check fees you are talking about some serious money just to get an apartment. Should you happen to do so all those fees in effect raise the effective rent over the first year.


NYC Is One Of The Only Cities Where Renters Pay A Broker's Fee: Gothamist

[mathjak107]

i always used a broker for finding tenants going back to the 1980's and it was always at no charge to me . i would run an ad in the ny times for a tenant . brokers would see it and would call us and ask if they can send people . sure!

100% of the time it was the brokers people i ended up renting to . i guess few would take the time to look in the ny times

[BugsyPal]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

i always used a broker for finding tenants going back to the 1980's and it was always at no charge to me . i would run an ad in the ny times for a tenant . brokers would see it and would call us and ask if they can send people . sure!

100% of the time it was the brokers people i ended up renting to . i guess few would take the time to look in the ny times

Well back then the NYT along with Village Voice were the major sources for finding apartments in Manhattan if not other parts of the City.


Remember people used to down to the VV's offices in Greenwich Village late Tuesday night to get a jump on the new issue that hit the newsstands on Wednesday. Similarly you got the Sunday NYT on Saturday night to get a jump on apartment hunting.

[mathjak107]

a tiny ad in the nyt used to run me 149 bucks in the 1980's . i can only imagine what it cost today .

but who know's . with the internet competition it may be cheaper .

since 2000 we use douglas elliman exclusively so they handle everything for us .

[NYer23]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

a tiny ad in the nyt used to run me 149 bucks in the 1980's . i can only imagine what it cost today .

but who know's . with the internet competition it may be cheaper .

since 2000 we use douglas elliman exclusively so they handle everything for us .

I got over 20 hits a week for rental property on Craigslist (free internet ad). I found my real estate broker through Craigslist. I ended up going with real estate broker because they provided free screening and are gatekeepers to higher quality tenants. I met too many creepy people who knew where I lived through Craigslist. I would only rent to people off Craigslist if I was comfortable in being a slumlord, given I don't own a lot of apartment units it is not worth my time to deal with high maintenance tenants.