4
Ways to Find a No Fee Apartment
Apartment hunting in New
York City is no picnic. The current real
estate market makes finding an apartment
a particularly daunting task right now
because demand outweighs supply.
One result of the
undersupply of available apartments is
the preponderance of broker's fees that
are charged to apartment hunters. These
fees typically range from 1 month's rent
to 15-18% of the annual rent -- a pretty
steep fee to shell out up front on top of
the security deposit and moving costs.
Fortunately, New York's real
estate market moves in cycles. When the
market is in the doldrums and rents are
(relatively) affordable, don't be shy
about asking your landlords to include
enticements such as a free month's rent,
a free membership in the building's gym,
or reimbursement for moving costs.
Even with current market
conditions, you do not always have to pay
a hefty fee to a broker. We have found
that it is possible to find a nice
selection of affordable apartments and
bypass the upfront broker's fee. The
following are 4 proven strategies for
finding a no fee apartment:
1. Go Straight to
the Source
The best way to avoid paying
a broker's fee is to avoid the broker
altogether. Many companies that manage
apartment buildings handle the rental
process directly. The following is a list
of some of these management companies.
Note that some of them manage large
buildings and have onsite offices, while
other companies handle different
buildings from a single office.
Algin Management Company
(212) 725-7662
(718) 896-9600
Bettina Equities
(212) 744-3330
The Brodsky Organization
(example of building under management:
The Concerto at 200 West 60th Street)
(212) 247-4444
Liberty Residences
99 Battery Park Place
(212) 898-4800
Milford Management
Claridge House at 201 East 87th Street,
(212) 722-9242
Normandie Court at 225 East 95th Street,
(212) 289-5000
Windsor Court at 155 East 31st Street,
(212) 684-5900
30 Lincoln Plaza, (212) 956-4049
The Olnick Organization,
Inc.
(212) 835-2400
Related Management
(example of buildings under management:
Carnegie Park, The Monterey and TriBeCa
Tower)
625 Madison Avenue
(212) 319-1200
Rockrose Development
Corp.
(examples of buildings under management:
Turtle Bay Towers, Plaza East, Plaza
West)
309 East 45th Street
(212) 697-4422
Rudin Management
345 Park Avenue
(212) 407-2400
2. Use a No Fee
Broker
A number of brokers have
broken with the tradition of charging
renters a high percentage of the annual
rent as a fee. In some cases (although
perhaps not in this overheated market),
the landlord, rather than the renter,
pays a fee for brokering the
landlord/tenant match. In other cases,
the broker collects a nominal payment
(usually less than $300) in return for
providing the prospective tenant with a
list of opportunities and showing him/her
the ropes.
One of the no fee brokers we
have heard good things about is:
Rent-Direct.com
166 Fifth Avenue
(212) 645-9797
e-mail: info@rent-direct.com
3. Look Online
Use the resources of the
Internet as the ultimate way to dodge the
upfront broker's fee. In addition to
Rent-Direct, as mentioned above (which
runs a nice web site in addition to their
walk-in business), here are a few sites
we have checked out and found to be
useful:
Apartment Source
The Apartment
Store
Rent.Net
4. Scan the Ads
Of course, you should also
consider looking for an apartment the old
fashioned way -- by reading the
classified ads in the newspaper. Look for
the key phrase, "no fee," which
generally indicates you will be renting
directly from the owner or management
company. Be persistent -- although close
to 90% of the ads we checked list
apartments for which you will have to pay
a fee, the remaining 10% still amounts to
a large number of apartments.
The best papers to check for
New York City apartments are:
Sunday's New York Times
(usually available Saturday night)
Wednesday's Village Voice,
which is usually available Tuesday night
(or visit their website which is updated
daily)
Bottom Line
No matter how you find your
apartment, there will be some market cost
involved in matching the renter to the
apartment, and that cost will ultimately
be passed on to you. Much the same way
that there is a recruiting cost for every
unfilled job that an employer has
(whether an employer pays an executive
search firm, advertises in the paper or
on the Internet, or pays "referral
fees" to other employees who
recommend qualified candidates), one way
or another, landlords will pay SOMETHING
to fill an empty apartment. The purpose
of this article is to help you minimize
your costs -- so that you are not paying
a steep fee just because someone in the
middle is trying to assume the role of
matchmaker.
Happy apartment hunting!
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