How to rent in NYC without paying a broker fee?

Wanted to tap into the collective wisdom of this forum. My lease expires on Jul 1 at my current apartment and I am trying, hoping to find a no broker fee apartment for my next place to live (looking for 1-BR in UWS). I did not have much time to look extensively at the websites of the property management companies and so far I had a look at the "by owner"/ "no fee" sections of websites like... [more]

Wanted to tap into the collective wisdom of this forum. My lease expires on Jul 1 at my current apartment and I am trying, hoping to find a no broker fee apartment for my next place to live (looking for 1-BR in UWS). I did not have much time to look extensively at the websites of the property management companies and so far I had a look at the "by owner"/ "no fee" sections of websites like craigslist, streeteasy, etc. In most of the cases (more so for craigslist and less so for streeteasy) I still ended up (a) either talking to brokers, (b) finding out that there is a fee on the listing or (c) discovering that the listing is not valid any more, apartment has been rented, classic bait-and-swithc scenario, etc. That being said, I wonder whether it is only me being unlucky with my search or am I missing something? Is there any smart and efficient way to find an apartment without a fee in the City? Thank you! Rob [less]