Impressed with Brownstoner!
I am moving from Denver, CO to Brooklyn Heights soon, accompanying my son who will be attending acting school in Manhattan. We’ve fallen in love with BH on recent trips and plan to nest in there for a while. We enjoy the community feel of Brownstoner and are benefiting from the information. If anyone has…
I am moving from Denver, CO to Brooklyn Heights soon, accompanying my son who will be attending acting school in Manhattan. We’ve fallen in love with BH on recent trips and plan to nest in there for a while. We enjoy the community feel of Brownstoner and are benefiting from the information. If anyone has a favorite realtor or knows of a neat rental bldg near Eastern Athletic Club/Gym, we’d appreciate the info. 2-3 BR and 1-2 BA will work. Also, we will need someone to help move us in when we arrive, in case anyone knows someone. If these requests are out of line for this site, just delete this please. (Anyone need anything from Colorado when we come?) 🙂
Thank you, everyone, for all the good advice and ideas! We will be making one more trip to BH to find and lease an apartment before making the move. We’re hoping to find something very near the Eastern Athletic gym. That hot tub looks inviting!
If anyone happens to know of anyone legit who’s looking for a nice, clean, professional, reliable renter for a year or so for a 2-3 BR, 2 BA (wishful thinking?) please tell them about us. My email is HoldYourHorses@aol.com. In the meantime, we’ll do our homework from Denver.
We’ll pack our biggest suitcase with all the Rocky Mountains that we can manage to bring, and will try to get some of our plentiful snow into a side pocket. :0) Brooklyn Heights, NY and Aspen, CO- the best of both worlds!
I wouldn’t be completely against using a broker, if I were you.
Many are now working no fee and getting paid by landlords, and with the others, you can easily negotiate the fee down.
If I had to find an apartment quickly and didn’t want to waste time scouring Craigslist and trying to weed out honest deals, I’d consider using a real estate agent myself.
Hey, HYH, is that the snow you sent? Thanks! But you need to send us some mountains, too.
HYH the answer to both questions is yes. If you aren’t currently working but have excellent references, good prospect of finding a job, and can pay 6months to a year’s rent upfront most landlords will be happy to have you as a tenant. And your suspicion is spot on: you will be able to bargain a significantly lower rent if you can pay 6m to 12m in advance. Of course the important thing is to have all your documentations in order including credit report.
A really nice way to go about doing this is to come to Brooklyn for a brief visit and do a leisurely walk around the neighborhood speaking to people i.e. doormen and shopkeepers directly. Good day, PDT.
PS: Craigslist is unfortunately packed with scam artists so DO NOT respond to any ads that require you to mail in a check or deposit beforehand….well you probably knew this already we just don’t want you to get burned:)
Thank you all very much. We’re really looking forward to making this move, and we will certainly remember your advice and suggestions! Colorado is absolutely gorgeous, and we know there’s nowhere like it- but we are very ready to enjy the NYC life for a couple of years. From Rocky Mountains to concrete canyons! 🙂
I do have one more question for anyone with advice for us: I am retired from celebrity management and am not working now, so I don’t have standard financial documents to show a landloard. I can pay for six months or a year up front, and have great references from current landlord, who I’ve leased from since selling our resort home. Do you think we’ll have any problems finding someone who will lease us a nice apartment in Brooklyn Heights?….. In fact, is there maybe even a chance that by paying a large amount in advance, we can negotiate a lower rent, in spite of not having typical ‘proof of income’? Thank you so much for any info about how situations like ours are handled in your area.
Welcome to Brooklyn. Good choice on neighborhoods (3rd generation Heights kid so I might be a bit biased).
For a realtor:
Brian Lehner at Brown Harris Stevens on Montague Street.
We’ve used him to rent our units for over 20 years. He’s the only realtor we trust with our buildings. Solid guy.
As an out-of-towner you should be especially careful with brokers, who may see you as a gullible target who can be convinced that paying a huge brokerage fee for an overpriced shitbox is just how we do business in New York (to be clear, it is how we did business until about 6 months ago, but not any more). Here are a few tips:
– Rents are dropping, and fast. Don’t let a broker tell you NYC is immune, different, etc. and don’t let them try to tell you some price is terrific by comparing it to last year’s prices.
– You should not have to pay a commission in this environment. Be very up-front with a realtors that you have no intention of paying a commission, so they should only show you listings where they will be compensated by the landlord. If they laugh at you or try to make you feel like a stupid out-of-towner (making people feel insecure about their understanding of the market is a classic broker ploy), just walk out and go to the next broker.
– That being said, there is no reason you need to use a broker at all. Lots of landlords are bypassing brokers now because renters are so budget-conscious. Craigslist is a very good resource if you have decent judgment about people and can avoid the occasional ripoff situation (on the other hand, many brokers offer ripoffs, so no greater harm I guess).
And welcome to Brooklyn! It’s a fantastic place.
Awesome advice! Thank you so much! We will do exactly as you suggested.
Well we certainly welcome you to NY and Brooklyn specifically.
Hope you enjoy your stay here and Brooklyn Heights is an excellent choice.
Now not to sound alarmist but please be very careful with brokers for way too many of them aren’t very honest. Try to always be clear about the outrageous commissions they tend to ask from the very beginning. We will in fact recommend walking around the neighborhood and just asking doormen or friendly neighbors about rental possibilities. We’ve lived here for 10 years and have managed to never use brokers again after the first one swindled us big time (being a naive and broke student didn’t deter the broker one bit:)
Again welcome to Brooklyn.