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The old middlemen make incredible amounts of money for approximately nothing, as far as I can tell as someone who has rented in/around NYC for 10 years, but nev

The old middlemen make incredible amounts of money for approximately nothing, as far as I can tell as someone who has rented in/around NYC for 10 years, but never actually paid a broker. I'd love having new middlemen that do about that same nothing for 20% of the price.

mathattack 11y ago
The NYC middlemen do a lot: They bribe doormen and janitors, they screen for "undesirables" that owners don't want in the building, they make you wait long times.... Apartment hunting in NYC is one of the sleaziest businesses out there. The brokers make bankers look clean. I applaud any effort to cut them out of the system.
colinbartlett 11y ago
I have used brokers here in Manhattan and find their services well worth the 15% cost. The occupancy rate is around 99%. Apartments come on the market and leave the market very, very quickly. I am very happy to pay someone to keep their eyes out for me and weed out the ones that sound good but aren't. I also had someone to go before the condo board on my behalf and explain why I would be a great tenant. Do people who use a broker ever regret it? Or do the objections stem from other less competitive markets where such a thing would not be as beneficial?
- smeyer 11y ago
  I've used a broker without feeling like it was worth the money. My roommate and I came across our current apartment on craigslist, checked it out, decided we liked it (even with the broker's fee on top of the rent), and then signed the lease. The broker did show us the apartment and do a bit of coordination with the landlord, but it's not like he was showing us lots of apartments or coordinating with a coop board. Our landlord runs a shop right below the apartment, so it's not an issue of someone living far away or anything. I understand how it makes it easier for the landlord and can be beneficial for the tenant (I've had beneficial experiences myself), but I don't think the broker added a lot of value in this particular process. Edit: this was in Boston, which tends to have a pretty competitive rental market, and brokers are pretty standard. I had a more positive broker experience when I went with a broker who showed me around to a variety of apartments rather than using one because they had an exclusive on a particular apartment that was interesting.
- dcosson 11y ago
  I used a broker for my last 3 NYC apartments (luckily the first two were new developments so only the most recent one did I pay myself). I can't exactly say I regret it because the alternative was settling for a much worse apartment, but I absolutely despise brokers and the current system. My biggest problem is that whether you take your time and have a broker show you 30 apartments over the course of a month, or whether you find the place on Craigslist and the broker literally opens the door and does nothing else, you pay the same fee of 10 - 15% the annual rent. I've been in the latter category and it's infuriating, you're paying literally thousands of dollars per hour. Why can't you pay this person a reasonable hourly rate for their time? Another problem though, even if they did charge hourly rates I'm sure those would be unnecessarily high anyway, just because for whatever reason these people need certifications and a certain number of hours training so it takes an investment to become a broker. That's also insane to me, for renting in NYC to someone who's lived in the city for a while, a broker's "knowledge" has absolutely zero value (buying/selling a house might be a little different, but even then I'm skeptical). The only advice a broker has ever given me is trying to convince me that a terrible apartment, which they had obviously been trying and failing to rent for a while, was worth considering. I'm glad you had a good experience. But the system is completely insane!

mathattack 11y ago

The NYC middlemen do a lot: They bribe doormen and janitors, they screen for "undesirables" that owners don't want in the building, they make you wait long times.... Apartment hunting in NYC is one of the sleaziest businesses out there. The brokers make bankers look clean. I applaud any effort to cut them out of the system.

colinbartlett 11y ago

I have used brokers here in Manhattan and find their services well worth the 15% cost. The occupancy rate is around 99%. Apartments come on the market and leave the market very, very quickly. I am very happy to pay someone to keep their eyes out for me and weed out the ones that sound good but aren't. I also had someone to go before the condo board on my behalf and explain why I would be a great tenant. Do people who use a broker ever regret it? Or do the objections stem from other less competitive markets where such a thing would not be as beneficial?

smeyer 11y ago
I've used a broker without feeling like it was worth the money. My roommate and I came across our current apartment on craigslist, checked it out, decided we liked it (even with the broker's fee on top of the rent), and then signed the lease. The broker did show us the apartment and do a bit of coordination with the landlord, but it's not like he was showing us lots of apartments or coordinating with a coop board. Our landlord runs a shop right below the apartment, so it's not an issue of someone living far away or anything. I understand how it makes it easier for the landlord and can be beneficial for the tenant (I've had beneficial experiences myself), but I don't think the broker added a lot of value in this particular process. Edit: this was in Boston, which tends to have a pretty competitive rental market, and brokers are pretty standard. I had a more positive broker experience when I went with a broker who showed me around to a variety of apartments rather than using one because they had an exclusive on a particular apartment that was interesting.
dcosson 11y ago
I used a broker for my last 3 NYC apartments (luckily the first two were new developments so only the most recent one did I pay myself). I can't exactly say I regret it because the alternative was settling for a much worse apartment, but I absolutely despise brokers and the current system. My biggest problem is that whether you take your time and have a broker show you 30 apartments over the course of a month, or whether you find the place on Craigslist and the broker literally opens the door and does nothing else, you pay the same fee of 10 - 15% the annual rent. I've been in the latter category and it's infuriating, you're paying literally thousands of dollars per hour. Why can't you pay this person a reasonable hourly rate for their time? Another problem though, even if they did charge hourly rates I'm sure those would be unnecessarily high anyway, just because for whatever reason these people need certifications and a certain number of hours training so it takes an investment to become a broker. That's also insane to me, for renting in NYC to someone who's lived in the city for a while, a broker's "knowledge" has absolutely zero value (buying/selling a house might be a little different, but even then I'm skeptical). The only advice a broker has ever given me is trying to convince me that a terrible apartment, which they had obviously been trying and failing to rent for a while, was worth considering. I'm glad you had a good experience. But the system is completely insane!