Moving to Park Slope

midoriw

Hello,

My roommate and I are from Seattle, and are moving to Park Slope. We are looking for a good No Fee Broker to help us in our apt. search. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,

midoriw

jamzer

Berman Realty is the only one I know of. There are probably others.

http://www.bermanrealty.com/

Some people might not like them. They are a very big landlord, so a few complaints are bound to pop up. But I rented from them for 4 years and never had any issues with them.

nykittyny

There is no such thing as a "no fee" broker...what you want to do is call various brokers and ask if they have any "no fee" listings. Sometimes the agency actually owns the apartments, so cannot charge a fee on renting them, other times, a landlord is paying the agency the fee instead of the customer. Keep in mind, sometimes "no fee" apartments are such for a reason (not in good shape, bad location, etc...), therefore the landlord has to pay the fee to get it rented. This time of year, however, there should be much to choose from. Good luck.

donewaiting

As someone who just rented their first Park Slope apartment in September, let me say we had a tough time even getting a no fee broker to return my calls, emails, and I ended up getting so much runaround that using Craigslist was a TONNNNNNN easier.

landlord

Use craigslist. just be careful of scams. there are lots of them....especially when it comes to park slope.

my2cats

The best is when you search for park slope in craigslist and you get a listing that is actually in broadway junction!

opossumqueen

I agree with the others in that no fee is basically non-existent. Almost all apartments, no matter who is listing them, are on craigslist so that's the easiest place to look.

Since you're moving from far away, I suggest subletting for a month or two (if you don't have tons of stuff). Then you can go see places in person once you're here and get a better feel for different areas. I did it and it worked out really well. No turning on utilities, etc. long distance. We sublet from a grad student who went away for 6 weeks--used his furniture, etc and put our stuff in a storage unit.

Something like this:
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/sub/1484243010.html
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/sub/1484007496.html

itinnyc

Subject: First off welcome to PS

Berman Realty has done well by us.

So I wouldn't mind using them again or recommending them to other people.

E.

armchair_warrior

i always rented out via craigs list, very easy, but be careful of scammers.

there are no fee guys realtors, who tells me i don't have to pay a fee and they also tells the tenant, that they don't have to pay a fee, but they generally try to steal the last months rent or something. becareful of outfits like rapid realty and some other ones.

midoriw

Thank you sooo much for the responses!

matthurst

When I moved here in September (bad time to move to NYC for sure) from DC, it was much harder to scope out places in advance. Sometimes Craigslist postigns can go before you even make it to visit the apartment, which can be frustrating.
My advice is pick an apartment on craigslist listed as no fee, contact the realtor (who usually are the ones posting), and let them explicitly know you're only interested in no fee listings.
Ditto on Rapid Realty, who tried to pull one over on me. I also like the subblet idea posted by one of the other commenters.

mpmav1

PM me... I moved to Park Slope from Seattle 3 years ago and would love to help out.

mpmav1

Never, Ever, under any circumstances, Trust/Use/Communicate with anyone from Rapid Realty. They are all a scam, high pressure, or incredibly overpriced. Seriously.

althea

Mpmav1 wrote: Never, Ever, under any circumstances, Trust/Use/Communicate with anyone from Rapid Realty. They are all a scam, high pressure, or incredibly overpriced. Seriously.

I second this. Also, when using craigslist ask if the person you're calling is affiliated with Rapid first off when you call. Lots of their "realtors" won't tell you that they're with Rapid until they absolutely have to.

armchair_warrior

Althea wrote: [quote=Mpmav1]Never, Ever, under any circumstances, Trust/Use/Communicate with anyone from Rapid Realty. They are all a scam, high pressure, or incredibly overpriced. Seriously.

I second this. Also, when using craigslist ask if the person you're calling is affiliated with Rapid first off when you call. Lots of their "realtors" won't tell you that they're with Rapid until they absolutely have to.


some how these guys get great reviews online.

8thandprez

I also recommend Berman Realty. They are truly no-fee because they own the buildings they rent out. They generally have a ton of listings and keep their places in good repair. We rented from them for 3 years and had no complaints.

mpmav1

armchair_warrior wrote: some how these guys get great reviews online.

I'm sure it's as they have 8 million agents and they all post their own positive reviews.

j.ryan81

craigslist is the best bet!!

local native

Rapid Realty wil scam the hell out of you, lie to you and eat your children. When we sat down to sign the paperwork, all the prices had changed! Be careful!

midoriw

Ok so definetly not Rapid Realty. Has anyone dealt with the NY Casa Group?

belzjm

Ideal Real Estate are really great and I just noticed yesterday at their storefront on 7th and Berkeley Place that nearly ALL their listings are NO FEE now...

http://www.idealpropertiesgroup.com/

willburg will

Edward O'Sullivan made it happen!!!

Searching for an apartment in Brooklyn while based in Australia was becoming quite a stressful ordeal, dealing with agents, landowners and the randomness that is craigslist our expectations were being lowered while our budget was being blown.. We then came across an apartment listed by Edward O'Sull...ivan of Rapid Realty South Park Slope that exceeded our expectations and we contacted Edward via email then phone to try and make it happen from Overseas. Edward was incredibly helpful and did everything in his power to secure the apartment for us despite us having no US credit history with us being thousands of miles away. We quickly came to trust Edward as he was incredibly responsive to emails and phone calls,securing the apartment for us within 24 hours.... GIANT SIGH OF RELIEF..

I would recommend Edward and Val at Rapid Realty South Park Slope in a heartbeat.

Great work Edward & Val.

Thanks again

bluecat

Berman has stock but is said to be lousy when you need something fixed. My advice is go to craigslist. There are many buildings where the landlord lives on 2 or 3 floors and rents out the top or bottom. These are usually your best bet. You'd be their only tenant and they are IN THE BUILDING. If anything needs fixing, it's their house. They will fix it.

veets

Bluecat, I agree with what you said. I am sure there are exceptions to this idea but if the Landlord lives in the building then if something goes wrong it is likely they will address it quickly.

veets

)h and by the way... That this stale post got revived through an anonymous post about Edward Sullivan Realty screams SHILL to me but so what. In a neighborhood where finding a reasonable rental unit is such a challenge, it is a good thing to keep discussing the problem. Any shared information has the potential to help someone who is looking for a new home base.

shekb

I would use Padmapper http://www.padmapper.com/search/apartments/New-York/

It aggregates listings from CL, apartments.com, oodle and elsewhere, plots them on a google map, and allows you to filter by price, length of lease, # of bedrooms, fee/no fee, etc. Of course you have to sift through some bs, but it makes the apartment hunting experience so much more convenient. Good luck!

bluecat

Ha! thanks veets, didn't spot the shill.