Are listed rental monthlies close to actuals?

Why not give it a try and negotiate?: http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/34012-things-that-could-go-wrong

By the way, are you buying or renting?

i believe effective it may be higher but not due to SE's fault.. same thing with brokerage/miller reports..

since they don't account for broker fee 1 month or 15% annum, or the (many)"subletters" renting their own pad out many times illegally to make cash on the side by bumping up their own rents, and renting out another unit, repeating the process.

Most of the apts I rent are at or $50 below asking. If they are on the market less than a week or so, very little chance it went for below it was listed. Often times things go for more....

realdeal:

1. for me it depends how aggressively I price
2. if I am testing new market highs and dont get my price I will lower it

When I first got to New York, I foolishly mistook asking prices for rentals on SE as being indicative of what landlord was actually getting for the units (so embarrassing). In the first building where I rented, asking prices on SE were 15-20% above what tenants I knew (myself included) were actually paying, and the rent that I (and the few others I knew in the building) was foolishly paying was still 20% above market. Don't be taken in by asking prices on SE like I was; no substitute for doing legwork and getting sense of actual rents in neighborhood where you want to live. I am sure the building that I rented in is not alone in keeping asking prices absurdly high to create an artificial sense of the value of units in the building. This is not SE's fault; price at which any unit actually rents is not publicly available. MAV's point about how long unit was on the market is well-taken - if unit was on market for short time (e.g. one week), chances of its renting at least at asking price are high.