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Re: No Broker Fee Apartment Search
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Home away from home
 
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In this market, if the apt. is nice and reasonably priced, then no negotiation will be had over broker fees.
Posted on: 2014/1/14 3:26
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Re: Broker's fee
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Not too shy to talk
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Thanks for the suggestion brewster and thanks everyone for your feedback!
Posted on: 2014/1/14 3:22
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Re: No Broker Fee Apartment Search
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Home away from home
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Agreed
I never have. But most people are too shy to negotiate. Quote:
Posted on: 2014/1/13 4:05
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Re: No Broker Fee Apartment Search
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Home away from home
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Put "No fee" in with your Craigslist search terms to reduce the fee listings. They really should have it as a checkoff option. They still suck even though they finally added maps. Listing scraping app Padmapper can actually search by zip, but it's check off for "no fee" doesn't work.
Posted on: 2014/1/13 3:33
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Re: No Broker Fee Apartment Search
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Home away from home
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If broker fees are overpriced, then people shouldn't pay them.
Posted on: 2014/1/13 3:06
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Re: No Broker Fee Apartment Search
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Home away from home
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Am I alone in feeling that broker fees are absolutely ridiculous? You mean I'm going to pay you a months rent to open a few doors and go "whatcha think?"
You mean I'm paying you a months rent to be a human Craigslist? Broker fees should be $100 at the MOST. What a sham. Good luck with your search.
Posted on: 2014/1/13 3:01
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Re: No Broker Fee Apartment Search
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Home away from home
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Your best bet may just to do it the old way: walk around, or drive around, the neighborhood and look for "For Rent" signs. I see a lot as I commute everyday.
Posted on: 2014/1/13 2:14
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No Broker Fee Apartment Search
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Not too shy to talk
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I'm trying to search for apartments in the DTJC area without having to pay a broker fee. Any suggestions on how to do this? I've tried going directly to the condo websites but most of those are out of our budget. I've tried Craigslist but a lot of them require broker fees.
Posted on: 2014/1/13 0:30
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Re: Broker's fee
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Home away from home
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My experience has been different. That is, I have come across more and better options when searching the "New Jersey" section of Craigslist New York. Here is the link: Craigslist NY - NJ section. I think this section may include more "for rent by owner" because some (many?) of these owners are "investors" that live in NYC. Of course, I could be totally wrong about that. But, without a doubt, whenever I look in Craigslist, I find more and better options this way. YMMV.
Posted on: 2013/11/11 15:37
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Re: Broker's fee
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Yes. I found my current apartment on CraigsList direct from the landlord and did not pay a broker fee. The owner of the apartment was a first-time landlord and seemed to know nothing about the whole broker system. I think I got really lucky. If I could sum up the Jersey City rental market in a sentence, it would be that there are tons of high-end luxury apartments in the neighborhoods I like (and even a few I don't like), tons of low-end slum apartments in neighborhoods I'd rather not live in, and very little in between. If you do your homework, hustle and are lucky, you can get some of that in between. My comments on the whole experience of finding a place without a broker is that, you have to be willing to hustle nonstop, constantly comb the New Jersey CraigsList and other websites that are geared toward the locals, and have ladyluck on your side. Cross your fingers, say your prayers, look at CraigsList every few hours on every day (specifically scoping out the non-brokered listings), be willing to accept the fact that you might not get everything you want in an apartment, look in other unlikely places and you might just get a place without having to pay a broker fee. I did it, so can you. As a side note, many of the luxury waterfront buildings don't charge a broker fee either but they were out of my price range.
Posted on: 2013/11/11 6:19
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Quite a regular
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Duh.
People pay it so people charge it. Fine, whatever. I don't really care. My ACTUAL question - if you have any experience or tips with finding a place that doesn't charge a broker fee or involve a broker at all, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks.
Posted on: 2013/11/11 2:14
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Re: Broker's fee
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Home away from home
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Seriously? is that your big question? It's easy to answer. Landlords use agents because it costs them nothing. If renters were unwilling to pay, it wouldn't work, but clearly it does for many. If I recall however, in "renter's markets" where there's lots of inventory, landlords often absorb all or part of the fee. But that's not the case now.
Posted on: 2013/11/10 17:08
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Re: Broker's fee
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Quite a regular
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I didn't pay a fee for the place I have now and I've been here for three years. I would stay where I'm at, and avoid the whole thing entirely but circumstances have changed.
What I've heard everyone on here say repeatedly is that this is a practice landlords prefer since it vets them a better candidate and they have to do less work to find someone. So that's great but why should the landlord not take on the cost of that work? A renter's fee is RENT and landlords build EQUITY. It doesn't really matter why it happens, actually. I was hoping someone would have insight into how to get around it.
Posted on: 2013/11/10 16:57
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Quite a regular
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Circumstances changed.
Posted on: 2013/11/10 16:44
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Just can't stay away
Joined:
2009/12/30 14:44 Last Login : 2023/9/18 21:02 From Jersey City
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We list our apts online and with a broker. Whichever source gets a good applicant first wins. We never pay the broker or give an exclusive. I will say though the broker wins 80% of the time and his tenants stay the longest. We always make the prospective tenant come back to meet us before signing the lease.
Posted on: 2013/11/8 15:12
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Re: Broker's fee
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Home away from home
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Is not paying the fee even an option?
My landlord uses a broker to handle filling his apartments so he doesn't have to worry about it. I had to pay a broker fee and I'm fairly sure he did too! He could have advertised it on CL himself and avoided all that. I think the broker is there for convenience.
Posted on: 2013/11/8 5:30
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Re: Broker's fee
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Home away from home
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Quote:
+1 on the leasing offices. There's a huge and growing selection.
Posted on: 2013/11/8 2:51
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Re: Broker's fee
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Home away from home
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http://newyork.craigslist.org/search/ ... sing_type=&zoomToPosting= The reality right now is that the vacancy rate in the metro area is low, i.e. demand and competition for rentals is high. My guess is that if you want a no-fee apartment in a decent location, it's going to be a real struggle. A better way to think of it is: The agency is doing more work than you realize; has access to apartments that aren't available without a fee; and the longer you stay in the apartment, the less per month that fee cost you. After two years, that $1350 fee only set you back an extra $50/month.
Posted on: 2013/11/8 2:33
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Home away from home
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Maybe if you had a broker you wouldn't be apartment hunting for months. Just a thought.
Quote:
Posted on: 2013/11/8 2:16
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Home away from home
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Which leads directly to all the nightmare tenant stories one hears. I don't mind the hassle of showing my apartments, because THAT'S when I know who I'm dealing with. How they react to the place, their body language: are they defensive, are they aggressive, are they in lala land? I can't imagine signing a lease with someone who was vetted by a broker. I just heard a broker can't even show the landlord the actual credit report, just the FICO. I have great tenants I would have never taken based on their FICO, but the face to face and the narrative in their report convinced my gut. I've even rented to lawyers! (common wisdom is that's asking for trouble) I can understand why big operations use brokers, but small landlords who let a broker show their places have only themselves to blame for bad tenants.
Posted on: 2013/11/8 1:10
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Re: Broker's fee
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Quite a regular
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Depends on your budget. If you're in the >$2k price point, you can go straight to buildings with leasing offices that won't charge you a fee. Otherwise, it's the same techniques you've always had.
To answer your original two year old question, it seems like more of an issue with landlords and not the brokers. Landlords can use services like Craigslist or Trulia and avoid getting a broker involved - they choose not to because they don't want to deal with all the inquiries and they want the broker to set up the lease and screen applicants.
Posted on: 2013/11/7 23:42
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Quite a regular
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So my budget has increased and I want to stay in JC but I still don't want to pay a broker fee.
Anybody have any ideas?
Posted on: 2013/11/7 23:33
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Re: Broker's fee
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Quite a regular
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I agree with you foshizigity00. There's an apartment on Erie for 2500/mnth. The broker wants 1 month fee. For what?! I walk by the place every day and going to inquire directly. Highway robbery.
Posted on: 2011/11/16 20:16
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Re: Broker's fee
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Home away from home
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Tuna's very rare here....
Posted on: 2011/11/15 14:44
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Re: Broker's fee
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Home away from home
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Quote:
If people are willing to pay it, then people are willing to charge it.
Posted on: 2011/11/15 14:16
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Quite a regular
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well, since i'm looking to live on my own and have a tippy top budget of 1300, these are my options so far.
hence, i still haven't moved (and it's not looking good for me anytime in the near future). you know what, all of your arguments might be valid, the idea of making a broker work for you, using the broker to do all of the work and negotiation which is indeed time consuming, tedious, etc. UP UNTIL NOW i've never had trouble finding a place without the help of a broker (and i've moved twice in five years). the fact is, almost every single place i've found on craigslist (one bedroom UNDER $2,000... somehow this is difficult right now) is advertised through a broker and requiring a broker's fee lately. i'm sorry, but that's bs. if a tenant comes through craigslist, which the landlord can AS EASILY advertise on their own as a broker, then why should they pay a fee? if the broker does not do the work for the tenant, but rather for the landlord, then the landlord should most definitely pay the broker, NOT the tenant. IMO and one other thing, broker's fee. a month's rent. and that's acceptable. they charge it, people are paying it. Tuna sandwich? 14 dollars. We think that's fair...
Posted on: 2011/11/15 4:55
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Home away from home
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What I don't understand is why anyone would pay $1350/month for a 450 sq/ft apartment 1/2 mile from transportation! Even if there was no fee, that's a busted deal.
Posted on: 2011/11/15 2:26
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Home away from home
Joined:
2007/7/4 16:37 Last Login : 2021/11/4 21:55 From Hamilton Park
Group:
Registered Users
Posts:
586
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Yes, I would like to know where this 80% figure comes from too. Maybe in the buildings along the Hudson, but I doubt in the historical district. I am a landlord and I found my last tenant via Craiglist/open house in 2009, after trying first through an agency. I got considerably more hit via this process and my tenant and I got into an satisfactory deal. I know friends who have done the same. I intend to repeat the process this spring if the unit comes back to the market, even if we are in (what looks like) a landlord market now.
Posted on: 2011/11/15 2:05
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Just can't stay away
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KDB, from where did you pull those numbers? How do you know that, "80% of rentals are represented by an agency/broker". I don't know a single renter in JC who has paid a brokers fee. I have lived here 6.5 years in 3 different apartment and have never paid a fee.
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Posted on: 2011/11/15 0:37
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Not too shy to talk
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Instead of being frustrated, choose a broker before you begin your search and make them EARN your money.
80% of rentals are represented by an agency/broker, hence whether you use your own broker or not, you will pay the full FEE, but you'll do ALL the work. If you use a broker, they will do the work and the fee will be split 50/50 bet. the two parties. When you're searching by yourself, be aware, if an advert has no address, it's the agent looking for clients. This is the worse way to find a broker. Get referrals and interview a few people. And make them work for you.
Posted on: 2011/11/14 17:44
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