NYC Broker fees? (sales, apartments, rentals)

[jojoindy]

I will be moving to NYC on March 1st. Early in the process I was not planning on paying for any broker fees. However, I met up with a broker that chrages fees. The places that he showed me were all nice. I think he ended up showing me 6 units in Harlem/Morningside area.

He said that he is negotiable on the fee? How should I negotiate? Isnt the going rate 1 months rent fee+deposit+1st months rent. I'm not sure what to offer? Are they truely flexiable on fees or is this a sales gimmick. Should I offer 1/2 months? Maybe the second 1/2 after I move in after 1 month in the unit?

Thanks!

[polityka]

When I got my apartment five months ago, I told the broker that she should get her fees from the landlord. The economic conditions at the time pretty much ensured that this wasn't too hard to do. I doubt that the rental market has improved very much since then, and perhaps you could try to get your broker to squeeze the landlord for his fees, or at least to pay more and for you to pay less.

[larsarne]

Absolutely no reason to pay a fee in the current rental market. Just let the broker know that this is a matter between him and the landlord.

[pureistheword]

That may not always work for fee apartments. Always be up front to ask for no fee rentals, there are plenty of them available now. I think landlords should always pay the fee, some are stubborn, so its worth asking but otherwise you cant really convert fee apartments to no fee, because if the agent does notconvince the landlord to cough up, they are stuck working for free.

[nyctobk]

You should have def asked for no fee apartments where the building pays the fee, the going rate is about 1 months rent or anywhere from 7%-15% depending on the agent. But the fee should have been discussed before you went forward with the agent and went to look at the places.

[Sbudsky]

This thread had been dormant for a while, but I thought I'd revive it to see if anyone has any additional thoughts...

We are new to the city and intended to go at the apartment hunt on our own, but met a really great agent and she's ended up showing us a lot of nice properties that weren't listed anywhere yet. Some of them have a fee, some don't. We're on a pretty tight budget, but have high standards so we feel like we'd miss out on a lot of potentially good rentals if we totally avoided places with fees (there is virtually nothing that meets our criteria on Craigslist in our range without a fee). We haven't decided to move forward on any particular apartment yet, but we're just wondering as to whether and how to negotiate the fee. Our agent has clearly put a great deal of work into trying to meet our requirements, and we don't want her to be the one who gets the short end of the stick. Any input would be very much appreciated.

[misha_panda]

Why not just avoid broker fees? So many people want to rip you off.
My boyfriend almost fell for a scam where they charged $200 for a credit check. I suspect that the person asking for the credit check pocketed a lot of money this way.
I found an apartment through toshiapartments.com and they have been really good people to deal with.

[BearMM]

Unfortunately, fee apartments are often nicer than no-fee apartments for the same price.
But the fee can usually be reduced at least by 10%.

[hutais]

The place we are in now had a fee and we said no. One week later they called and offered it to us fee free. The landlord payed our fees.
Good luck