Condo Rental -- Broker Fee

go to the building directly... the brokers will drag you all over and you do not need to pay the fee. Find another space.

max fee for a two broker is 12% these days, single broker 8.33%

15% is common. Some brokers will also charge 1 months rent.

ditto manhattanfox. And try NYbits.com they have a good no-fee rental search so you won't get stuck going to a building with a broker when the management company will rent to you without a fee. And keep in mind - lots of "sacred cows" are negotiable these days.

Most of these responses didn't really answer PPP's question. He's asking about renting in a condo- he can't go directly to the building/mgmt company. PPP when renting in a condo from an individual owner it's usually the case in which the owner signed an exclusive agreement w/ a broker making that broker the sole point person for the apt. for a specified amt of time. Traditionally the brokers were charging 15% to the tenant. Obviously, the market has shifted in favor of renters & there are a lot of condos in which the owner is paying part of the brokers fee. I think for this particular listing the owner is offering a month of free rent as opposed to paying part of the fee. I really don't think anyone should pay a 15% fee in this market (especially since you are going directly to the listing broker) unless the apt is really underpriced (& I'm a broker & I'm saying this)! If you have your heart set on renting in a condo then i would pressure this agent to get the owner to pay part of the fee.
sanzaroot@gmail.com

Make sure to work with the owner's broker directly (i.e. avoid shared fee situation). Then offer 1 month fee, which in our experience most brokers (also the large firms) will take in this market. Just need to be firm. We were successful several times when offering 1 month fee and asking for 1 month free (so effectively no fee).

all this for condo's/townhouses (as for rental buildings - there you should be able to get no fee and 1-3 months free, but they are less likely to lwoer rents, so for a longer term lease you may be better off renting a condo, and they are nicer to imho)

Just negotiate, of course she said 15% she is trying to earn a living and IT IS HER EXCLUSIVE! good for her.
real estate agent, blanca

Thank you Soph! I have been reading the board for a while. I was just surprised the message I got from the broker since the apartment wasn't able to rent it out for a long time. I would like to rent a condo apartment without a fee. But, this kind of discourage me.

Is any way to rent the condo apartment without going through fee broker? I think I am doing all the research.

ppp condos are private property, and unlike general rental buildings, individual units become available through brokers, or real estate agent only, why? because they found it and they asked the owner if they could listed it with them exclusively, which is why they try to charge 15% I do have a suggestion for you, often times on Craigslist.org, I do find lots of private property by individual owners for no fee, they would rather rent it directly to the person seeking housing. Try that also, look at the NYtimes, sometimes they post there too, look at newspapers, just don't really look on SE, you are not going to find it here. Also, if there is a particular building that you LIKE an prefer, go to the doorman, introduce yourself, give them your number and ask them to call you if anything becomes available, doormen know usually everything that is happening and unless they work for agents, they might be able to help you out. Finally, if the apartment has been on the market for a while, this doesn't mean that the agent suddenly should want to not charge a fee, a lot of apartments are staying on the market for a long time. For the most part, there will be a fee if it is a private rental, sometimes you even have to do a board package, which is tedious, that's why landlords also use agents to represent them.

good luck, real estate agent here

If you pay the fee, negotiate two months free with the landlord, its a wash. In this market YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PAY A FEE!!!! PERIOD. Two free months will make it effectively no fee. If its been vacant for months, as many listings on Streeteasy have, the landlord will take it and the broker will get her money.

search c-list under "for rent by owner only". If you are going directly to the listing broker just make your offer contingent on owner paying the fee. Any broker worth his salt will be able to convince the owner to pay the commission, especially in a building with 30 rentals available!

I just did this on a co-broke, I rep. the tenant the owner paid the listing broker and I accepted a small fee from my client. deal done...next. Originally the list broker told us 15%....

Tell me what you want and I will find it for no-fee, why? Because if I have to accept $500 dollars as my commission I will, especially if all I have done is shown 1 or 2 apartments.
www.theburkhardtgroup.com

Almost afraid to ask...but here's my first blog just keeping it light with some hopefully helpful and funny insights into the day to day. http://nycrentrant.blogspot.com/

Its funny that all the brokers are saying the fee is due for renting in a condo, as its just not the case. The bottom line is that the owner of the condo is renting because they need the money. For this reason, you can INSIST that the owner pay the brokers fee. Dont get me wrong, I am in no way suggesting the broker not get paid, they should just not by you. Nobody is paying brokers fees these days (from the renter perspective), if you like the place tell the broker to collect the fee from the owner or you will walk.

not "all the brokers" :-)

We just rented a condo in UWS- offered the owner's broker (one of the large firms)- 7.5% on the logic that she does not need to split the 15% commission (we did not have a broker) and asked for 1 month free rent from the owner to cover the broker's cost- the offer was accepted. In effect we did not pay any fees.

I have experience renting in a condo.
When it came time to move in December, I was told by a broker that the owner was only offering one year leases because of the expectation to raise rents next year. He said the owner was covering the fee. The stated rent was $4100 but he pretty quickly told me that $4000 was doable. I offered $3750 for the first year and said that I would need the option for the second year at $4000 but I wouldn't agree to just a one year lease. I also said I wanted the first month free. So everything was agreed except the 1 month free because the broker said he was basically working out a net on his fee and so if not paying the fee and getting 1 month, that would be 2 months off for the owner. Anyway, I turned it down, although mainly for other reasons (he delayed a couple days, I found something else) and 2 months later the listing was still available. So the real lesson is that the owners (not the broker) need to be flexible and consider that there are true high costs to renting out / finding a new renter that are now borne by them, not by the renter.

I second UESbandit - request that the owner pay the fee or negotiate around it (as drdr suggested)

uwsmom, consider the fee the owner's responsibility. Also consider that in this environment, you should be negotiating down anyway. So get the free months and not pay a fee.

yes - do both. even better!!! No more "or's". Only "And's"!