No agent's fee

check craigslist, otherwise contact the building directly...highly doubt on the free rent.

I would be very happy with no agent's fee in a really nice building.

This is little unethical but this what you could do.
1) Find the apt you want. (ie. 220 Riverside #12C)
2) 99% of the time, it'll be listed under the broker, get the mailing address and send a letter of offer to the owner directly.
3) The owner may have forwarded the mail or check once a week or so, and respond to you without getting the broker involved.

ba29 I thank you for your advice. It is definitely something to consider. I wonder if there is a way to get a list of such apartments for doorman buildings. The "No fee" apartments tend not to have doorman.

I don't know how much you're willing to spend, but www.relatedrentals.com are no fee and most have doormen (and washer/dryer in the unit). These are on the spendy side, but definitely have no fee.

We just went through rental apartment search and signed a lease yesterday.

"The "No fee" apartments tend not to have doorman."

I don't know the village as well, but on the UWS (and I'm pretty sure all over Manhattan), this is not even remotely true. Neither is ba294 doubting the one-month free rent, which is almost universal right now. Some are offering 2 and 3 months (obviously those are exceptions)

www.brodskyorg.com is one example. Many doorman buildings, all no-fee unless you're stupid enough to involve a broker, and most offer a month free. There are tons and tons of other examples on various threads, just look through them. I am not going to do your homework for you.

Also try www.nybits.com

Use street easy, but check the "No Fee" box. No fee listings on street easy appear with green text so they are easy to identify.

I actually disagree with alpine - for whatever reason, streeteasy only captures a tiny fraction of no-fee availabilities.

Well there is a studio on UWS in a nice doorman building
16 month lease with 2 month free amortize to $1750/month
with no broker's fee
Are you interested?

elena
(broker)

reprinted -

AVOID BROKERS AND THEIR FEES - GO DIRECTLY TO THE SOURCE OF YOUR RENTAL NEEDS. BROKERS TEND TO TAKE YOU TO SEE THESE NO-FEE APARTMENTS FIRST AS THEY EARN 100% OF YOUR 15% BROKER'S FEE. HUSH...HUSH... THEY WILL NOT TELL YOU IT'S A NO-FEE RENTAL PROPERTY :( NOR WILL THEY REPRESENT THAT PRIOR TO SEEING THE APARTMENT. SO IF YOU NEED TO RENT, CHECK OUT THE RENTAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT WEBSITES AND CALL THEM FOR UPDATED LISTINGS. SAVE YOURSELF THAT 15% TO BUY YOURSELF NEW FURNITURE OR HAVE A MOVE-IN WELCOME PARTY FOR FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

Excellent “BIG-TIME” Manhattan Rental Property Management:

Rose (www rosenyc com)
Related Rentals (www relatedrentals com)
Equity Residental (www eqr com)
Rockrose Management (www rockrosenyc com) [mostly chelsea, village, financial district, downtown condos]
Sky Management (www skymanagement com)
Glenwood Managment (www glenwoodnyc com)
BLDG Management Co. 115 E 92nd St New York, NY 10128 (212) 722-4931
Brodsky Management, Inc (www brodskyorg com)
Maclowe Management (www macklowe com) [condos below 60th street]
Urban Associates – 400 W 59th St # 3, New York, NY (212) 245-1870

Above average property management (mostly prewar lowrise to a few postwar)
ATA Enterprise (www ataenterprises com)

Below Average no-fee properties [aka slumlord]:

Jakobson Properties (www nofeerentals com)

I would add www.milfordmgmt.com and my old company www.ogdencap.com

StreetEasy has 1000 no-fee listings, I would say thats a good start. nybits.com is also a great resource along with http://howtorentinnyc.com/review.php

Wow, What amazing contributions and great leads. Thank you.
I seem to find many no doorman buildings in the "no fee" category on streeteasy.
I would love to be able to find a no fee one bedroom apartment.
I would prefer a one bedroom to a studio and stay there a bit longer. A studio may also work if its a nice size.
Does anyone have an idea which buildings are offering a month's free rent only in a doorman building either on the UWS, West Village or Central Village?

Thank you in advance for your help.

If you call suggested here doorman Village Rentals, you would find out that they are not giving anything free, and 1Br price starts in the area of $3900

If you call suggested here doorman rentals on the UWS, you would find out that 1Br (approx 725sq.ft)starts at $3395 you would get one month free, and price would amortize to $3133 (no broker fee)

There is doorman building 1Br (approx 650sq.ft) 16mo.lease with 2 mo free amortize down to $2542 (that is no broker fee as well) Are you interested?

Oh! And I have 600sq.ft 1 bedroom for $2500 with doorman with no broker fee starting mid Jan. short term though -9month.

ba294
3 days ago
ignore this person
report abuse This is little unethical but this what you could do.
1) Find the apt you want. (ie. 220 Riverside #12C)
2) 99% of the time, it'll be listed under the broker, get the mailing address and send a letter of offer to the owner directly.
3) The owner may have forwarded the mail or check once a week or so, and respond to you without getting the broker involved.

I don't think this is unethical. If you consider that the broker works for the owner, but still the buyer has to pay, the broker fee in this instance should be the owner's issue to deal with, not the renter's.

My company deals with By Owner no fees as we own 20 buildings throughout NYC, all no fee. We also deal with exclusive no-fee listings, and have 4 on the UWS right now. We also have a database of all the open listings in the city but rarely deal with those. I would warn anyone to be careful of Craigslist. Most ads are fake (fake pics, fake prices, "no fees" that are really fee apts). DSA established a 100% honesty policy because we are aware of all the problems you renters go through. And on doorman buildings, most brokerages will charge fees on top of the one month commission they are paid from the buildings. They will charge you enough to get to their 15%. DSA doesn't believe in that practice. Our clients will tell you we are the most affordable to use. Of all our deals in 2008, 95% were no fee at all and 80% of those were in the buildings we own and/or manage. That's why people use us! www.dsarealty.com It's just a better experience.

Thank you for your leads. I will definitely research the information you provided.

[Find the apt you want. 99% of the time, it'll be listed under the broker, get the mailing address and send a letter of offer to the owner directly.]

--- I just got a call from my owner, saying that he was approached by my client directly. He said she wanted to go around my company and wanted to pay lower rent. He agreed to lower the rent, but he doesn’t want her. The owner said: "If she lied to you, she would lie to me too".

Now, I don't have a problem with negotiating price or my commission, if a client wants to negotiate. But being plain dishonest simply backfires.
The owner said that after he refused to go around my back, the lady told him she would talk to me tomorrow (I doubt that), but even if she does, there is no way I will be able to convince him to take her.

Always try to negotiate first. In this case you at least have legit excuse to approach owner directly and can save your face in case you need to.

elena
(broker)

I would also check the NYT. Owners are paying brokers' fee. So if you go directly to the broker w/o another broker representing you, you will not pay anything. Good luck.

I'm buying and was not going to use an agent, but decided since I wouldn't pay for their services to use one to purchase. Has been arranging a lot of showings, etc., and now that we're getting serious about 2 properties, glad that we used one.

But if I was selling, I would try without an agent first.

I actually agree with Barskaya. I have a very strong preference to avoid brokers when renting, but not strong enough to do something I consider unethical. For instance, when brokers list no-fee buildings without an address, I have no qualms figuring out which building it is, and approaching the building directly. But when it's a broker's listing, one that I would've never seen or known about without the broker, I would not try to go around them.

E70 - be careful. Most of the time, you can get a better deal overall by avoiding the broker, regardless of who technically pays the fee. Many buildings are offering OP these days, meaning they'll either pay the broker's fee or give you a free month, but not both. Guess which one most renters would rather take.

You can get both.

rainer, yes, you may be able to, depending on the situation, but you're missing the point. If there's an extra middleman, everyone pays. Would they rather give you both, or rent to the guy that walked in without a broker, with, say 1.5 months free? If they do the latter, they win, the guy wins, and you lose because you showed up with a broker that you thought you weren't paying for.

[Many buildings are offering OP these days, meaning they'll either pay the broker's fee or give you a free month, but not both.]

- Actually many building do both at the same time. An honest agent would disclose in an add everything including extra application fee that building charges ($60-100). My company usually pick up those fees. Plus if building charges extra $350 fee for a pet, we pick up that too.

elena
(broker)