Need Renting Advice
I’m in the process of selling my beautiful apt. in prime Park Slope in order to lower my monthly expenses. As I’m closing in on my closing date I ran out of time for a place to buy and just switched my gears to looking for a rental. The problem is I’ve been an apt….
I’m in the process of selling my beautiful apt. in prime Park Slope in order to lower my monthly expenses. As I’m closing in on my closing date I ran out of time for a place to buy and just switched my gears to looking for a rental. The problem is I’ve been an apt. owner for 24 years and only rented one apt. briefly prior to then. I’m feeling overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time with what seems to be out there. I’d love to figure out how to tell good deals from scams on CL, for example. And while the general consensus is that it’s a renter’s market out there, I’m finding it difficult to convince some brokers to even show apts. I’m looking in Park Slope/Windsor Terrace/Greenwood Heights/Prospect Heights/Kensington (close to Prospect Park). Thank you for any advise, leads or even broker recommendations.
Screw CL. Stick to the Times. Skip the listings that don’t locate themselves. The rental market is still in it’s early stages of crashing so it might still be worth it to pay a broker’s fee if you’re that pressed for time (Hell, you’re that much richer if you didn’t get caught up in the REFI Ponzi) . Check cafes in the area too. Good luck. You’ll be glad you didn’t buy (historic boom/bust – take profits!). Wait till NY Case-Shiller stabilizes, YOY.
***Bid half off peak comps***
In Windsor Terrace at least, it is a lot of word of mouth. Have you tried the neighborhood listservs? I often see owners of 2 families renting an apartment through those?
I’ve never had a problem in the past distinguishing owners posts from obvious brokers-posing-as-owners posts. Even ones which do a good job, you can tell within 20 secs of calling them. Perhaps you can post some and we’ll point out the clues!
I own 2 places that I rent & would encourage you to slog through CL. Brokers’ fees, etc. are horrendous & it should be worth the work you have to do to avoid them. Also, if you meet the owner of the place you’ll rent you get a better idea of how good a landlord he or she is.
There are good listings on craigslist, but you have to wade through the crap and check a few times a day to keep up with it.
It really helps if you filter your search.
This link (using Brownstoner’s nifty url shortener):
http://bk.ly/dQ
Will call up a list of 1 bedroom and larger no fee listings in park slope.
The best way to further thin out that list is to put in price min/maxes. If you are looking for something in the 1700-2200 range, don’t waste time looking at 1450 apartments, because you probably won’t like them.
You can then bookmark the search results page and every time you go back to the bookmark it will do a new search with those parameters.
I usually click on the top ad, whether I’m interested or not, just so my browser turns the link purple and the next time I check I can easily see what was the last ad I saw.
The signal-to-noise ratio is awful, but there are plenty of legit ads. I think some brokers intentionally spam craigslist to make it confusing and less useful for people.
After you read a few hundred, it’s pretty easy to spot legitimate ads.
As for brokers… I haven’t bothered with one yet, although if I get to the end of August and am not satisfied with what I’m finding I might.
In 2007 when I last apartment hunted, I thought I was treated well by brokers from Brown Harris Stevens and Boerum Hill Realty. I was ignored, neglected or treated badly by brokers from a few other realtors. The broker from ArdorNY was particularly useless, rude, and annoying.
Watch out for realtors who try to charge you a fee for rentals that you could easily get on own for no fee (i.e., the realtor searches craigslist, finds an add for a no fee apartment, then takes you there and expects a few thousand dollars).
Good luck.
Sorry that I have no specific advice except to note that my block of oldtimers, when not using word of mouth, mostly continues to use the brokers they have used for years: Warren Lewis, Heights Berkeley Realty and Brooklyn Properties. There are a few owners who use Craigslist, but most do not. This is the case, even realizing that the economy and market have changed, and that renters are hard-pressed to pay realtor’s fees in addition to first, last and security. In recognition of the latter, rents have been reduced, or some other wiggle room provided to well-qualified tenants. Can’t say that this is what you’ll find across the board, just saying that this is what’s happening on my block in PS. Good luck with your apartment hunt.
How long for? My 1-bed in PS is vacant as of Aug5 and, due to my dithering about converting (forum post about joint ownership), I cannot rent it long term, but it may work for you.
cmurthi [youknowwhat] seeinggreen.net
I would also look at the major realtors websites…and check out the new construction rental bldgs where you may get break on realtor fee/rents on initial lease.
I am in the same situation as you. We are supposed to close on our house in PS at the end of August(still waiting for a close date) so I have started looking for a rental apt (1-2 BR) in the Park Slope/WT area. After seeing 3 apts last weekened, we have now switched gears to trying to find a condo turned rental as I was shocked at the prices building owners were asking for not well kept apartments.
I have given up on Craigslist as I find so many listings to be suspect. I can never seem to find the real listings by owners, so if you do- good luck. I have been checking the major brokerages websites daily and then just reaching out to them via email. This week I found many of the agents to get right back to me as they are now starting to fill apartments for Sept 1, whereas when I was emailing last week inquiring about a Sept 1 move in date, I was pretty much ignored!
So I would go on the sites of Corcoran,Warren Lewis, Ideal Properties,Prudential Elliman and see what you can find
Good Luck, you will find something to your liking am sure