joe's Profile

  • joe
  • 04
  • not sure
  • Brooklyn
  • Bushwick
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Author's Posts

October 17, 2007

renting advice needed

Hello all,

This is my first forum post...as they say: long time reader, first time caller.

Anyway, I am currently beginning my search for a one bedroom apartment in Park Slope with a move-in date of January 1st, 2008. This is the first time i have had to look for a place since i've moved to the city and I am wondering if it is easier/harder/same to find and secure a rental in the month of December versus other months. Between the holidays and the general unpleasantries of moving in the winter/on New Years day my hunch is the available rental inventory might be slighly higher than usual. Could this be true? If i do need to use a broker, it seems like December/January would be a slow time in terms of volume thus opening the door for some negotiation on the brokers-fee. Maybe I am way off base. any advice would be greatly appreciated from the Brownstoner community.

Thanks.

Posted in Forum by joe at 12:46 PM | Comments (6)
Categories: Renters

Author's Comments

Thanks for all your feedback. i'm definately interested in staying out of larger buildings as brownstones tend to have lots of character even in disrepair. Any advice on how to get in contact with small building owners or small building management companies?

Posted by: joe at October 18, 2007 10:00 AM in response to renting advice needed

Thanks 1:04,

It will probably be a bit of a catch-22. In your experience, how long does a unit need to stay on the market for it to become 'stale'?

Posted by: joe at October 17, 2007 1:54 PM in response to renting advice needed

Das,

A friend of mine recently purchased one online from this retailer:

http://www.nokey.com/foxstylpollo.html

Posted by: joe at October 17, 2007 1:01 PM in response to Police Fox Lock

Responses to Author's Forum Comments

check craigs list. and use brokers too.

first start too look for a place early. if you find a place you like. sublease out new or old place. this way you won't get too much stress about finding a place in jan 1st.

Posted by: armchairwarrior at October 17, 2007 1:54 PM in response to renting advice needed

Actually, this timing is ideal, because landlords who have apartments come up for rent now won't have a large pool of people looking. So if you see something you like, you're more likely to actually get it, and not be one in a long line of people trying to rent it. Landlords know there aren't so many people looking then as well, and they want to get the place rented ASAP.

But trying to negotiate broker's fees - well, good luck. They don't have any incentive to rent it faster - they actually work for themselves, and not really for the landlord - their interests are not fully aligned.

If you like renting in brownstones, or a privately-owned coop or condo, as opposed to a rental unit in a large rental building, then your best bet to avoid a broker's fee is cragslist.

Word of mouth works even better - so get the word out that you are looking. I got my best rental apartment ever before the brownstone-owners gave it to their broker - by finding out about it from a friend of the tenants who were moving out the city, needed to break their lease, and hadn't even yet told their landlords. So they had me as a proposed new tenant when they told the landlords they were leaving - worked out for everybody all around, no fee.

Posted by: guest at October 17, 2007 3:10 PM in response to renting advice needed

Gm... last year we had an apartment for rent in Park Slope available 1 of Dec.

We rented our apartment in 1 week and had a lot of interest. We used craigslist. Apartment is really nice but price was market/not bargain (it seems that prices went up more since last December).

Posted by: guest at October 17, 2007 4:39 PM in response to renting advice needed

Thanks for answering. I got lucky.

For the benefit of anyone else out there looking, a friend turned us on to: http://www.countrywidelocksmith.com/shop/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=33&cat=Progressive+Locks

The police locks are $150 each (as opposed to nokey which is $279).

But thanks again.

Posted by: das at October 18, 2007 2:33 AM in response to Police Fox Lock

Thanks for all your feedback. i'm definately interested in staying out of larger buildings as brownstones tend to have lots of character even in disrepair. Any advice on how to get in contact with small building owners or small building management companies?

Posted by: joe at October 18, 2007 10:00 AM in response to renting advice needed

please check again because www.nokey.com is $149 for a Police Lock.

Posted by: guest at October 19, 2007 10:23 AM in response to Police Fox Lock