Rent for a single-family house--Park Slope, between 6 and 7 Aves

We have two apartments in park slope (on 6th ave) that we’ve been renting with a broker for three years now… I rented these without a broker first, having handled several sublets before… My experience was the broker was able to get me better tenants and higher rents… and kept away the bottom-feeding brokers who troll places like craigslist and waste your time. Just my two cents and maybe it all depends on your broker, but since you’ve got a higher end place, you might want to consider Brown Harris Stevens or one of the other nice outfits on 7th Ave. As landlord said, they do all the background/credit checks which is a nice thing (and costs you nothing). One factor, I think, is that the pool of good tenants (with good incomes) might not all have time to search themselves and/or prefer to use a professional.

slopegirl

in Real Estate - Rentals 11 years and 7 months ago

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daylily | 11 years and 8 months ago

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I’m a homeowner with a lovely 1300 square foot single-family house that I’m about to put up for rent. It’s two stories with a beautiful backyard, on a wonderful block between 6 and 7 Aves, south of 9th Street but North of 15th. 2 larger bedrooms, one small, plus a small home office, living room, dining room kitchen, 1.5 baths. There’s also a basement with laundry machines and lots of storage space. The kitchen is tiny and basic (no granite!), but has a brand-new fridge and dishwasher. The full bathroom is also not fancy, but is in good working order with new white tiling done this year. So, what would you charge? This is a tough call, because it’s a very unique property. We will not charge a fee or work with brokers. And would you list it on Craigslist?

Snezan | 11 years and 8 months ago

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i’m a broker and would recommend you list it on streeteasy. It costs $25 for owner to list an apartment for rent. High end rentals do not do well on craigslist, they get lost in the sea of cheap apartments with many bedrooms. You don’t have to sign an exclusive agreement with brokers but you can allow them to bring you a client who will pay their fee. Why open up your listing to brokers? Many brokers have exclusive arrangements with corporations that send clients directly to them. The company pays the broker fee for the client. This is very prevalent with high market rentals. Lastly, if you decide to rent it to someone you meet yourself, please find a third party service that will run a credit check, background check and verify their information.

Snezan | 11 years and 8 months ago

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Also your house sounds like it would list in the neighborhood of $4000\. You should provide the square footage it makes it easier to estimate the size of bedoroms. I’ve been in hundreds of homes and can usually figure out the layout for a house in a few minutes based on the lot and building size. Definitely pay for a floorplan if you’re not going to have the broker do it!

daylily | 11 years and 8 months ago

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Square footage is between 1300 and 1400\. Thank you for your advice. We tried brokers once in the past. They brought in people who weren’t at all interested in what we had to offer (private garden, original moldings and mantels, your OWN sweet little house with no one upstairs or downstairs) and were looking for “HIGH END” finishes and large closets, which we don’t have. We found much better candidates on our own, for whatever reason, people who have loved in the house and lived in it for years. We will definitely be running credit checks, etc.

bradeinhorn | 11 years and 8 months ago

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There’s also a marketplace right here. $10/mo – marketplace.brownstoner.com and select “add a listing”.

theoperadiva | 11 years and 8 months ago

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Park Slope Parents. Thousands of families on there who have at least some interest in seeking advice and points of interest for their families and children. Not a bad starting point, right?

landlord | 11 years and 8 months ago

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Just because you had one bad experience with a broker does not mean it will happen again. I always get brokers to show the apartments I rent in park slope. They do all the paper work and credit checks. Just because you meet a tenant in person does not quarantee that you won’t have problems with the tenant down the line. In short, I agree with Snezan. Also the park slope parents web site as mentioned by operadiva is a great idea that I have not thought of (but would not be good for me as most of my apartments are 1 bedrooms). That said, I believe that $4000 might be a bit on the low side. I know that there are a lot of growing family’s looking for a nice size apartment in the area. Not enough 1300+ sq ft apartments available in park slope. A broker would have to do a walk through to give you a precise estimate as to the amount you can charge.

landlord | 11 years and 8 months ago

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Oh…forgot…….I would not list it on craigslist. Its high end and has no place there.