Looking for an apartment - any broker recommendations?

anonymous

Hello -

My boyfriend and I are looking for a 1BR (or even better, a 1BR + den or 2BR) for October in Prospect Heights or Park Slope. Our budget is about $1800 - we'd love to pay less, of course, but we could go a little higher if necessary. Does anyone have any good broker recommendations in the area? Or even better, if you know of an apartment that's becoming available, feel free to send me an email: [email protected].

Thanks!

metulj

Paul at Coldwell Banker (Garfield Kennedy and Whatever). Great guy. No pressure or hard sell on our place and he negotiated with the landlord a complete refinish of the hardwood floors prior to move in. The commission is standard buttcheeks akimbo, but, and I know this will sound lame, brokers can actually earn their fees. He did with our apartment search.

daniel

Last year I used Warren Lewis Realty, on 7th Ave and Garfield. Our broker, John (or was it Juan?), was helpful, and didn't jerk us around. It was expensive - 12% - but I think it was worth it. After we told him what we were looking for, he didn't jerk us around by showing us sub-par apartments, just the good stuff. We were actually the first people to see the apartment we ended up taking.

anonymous

Subject: Looking for an apartment

Thanks. I've actually spoken to Paul and he seems like a decent fellow, and we've been working with a good guy at Warren Lewis, too. Glad to hear you had good experiences, too.

bergen record

Avoid the broker Mateo who frequents Caigslist. He tried to scam me once by lying about the asking price of an apartment he was showing. "I know the owner, and if you sign a lease today, we can do eleven hundred instead of thirteen." The next day another broker showed me the same place for eleven hundred. Asshole.

daveb

Ditto Marjorie Thompson who's offices are on Washington Ave. She flat out lied to me when I asked her about the history of an apartment. "Oh, everything's fine. Never a problem. Very quiet. No crime."

Somehow the fact that that particualr apartment had been robbed 4 times in the past year forgot to find it's way into our conversation.

When I left the place, she was hounding me to let her show it. I just hung up on her. She wasn't getting any favors from me. I found out after some of the interested people tried contacting me directly to try and see it early that she wasn't telling them either (by this time the number was now 6 times). So, I told them what was up and found out later that when that particular person confronted her about it, she hung up on them.

anonymous

Subject: LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION on Dekalb

ask for lori.

they showed me a few places in prospect heights last year.

anonymous

Heynow - Ask for Lori at what office?

Thanks for mentioning who to avoid! I see that Mateo guy on Craig's List all the time, such annoying ads. If anyone else is looking to avoid a bad broker, avoid Robert at the Aguayo and Huebner office on 7th Avenue. He was horrible - really unprofessional (cursing the whole time, yelling at his co-worker because the key didn't work to an apartment he was going to show us) and he only showed us one place that was way too small for us.

I've been keeping a blog of my journey, if anyone's interested in looking or wants to leave their own comments - weneedahome.blogspot.com. I still have to post about my adventures with Robert and the rest of our ill-fated apartment hunt from last weekend.

arielbl

Bergen Record wrote: Avoid the broker Mateo who frequents Caigslist. He tried to scam me once by lying about the asking price of an apartment he was showing. "I know the owner, and if you sign a lease today, we can do eleven hundred instead of thirteen." The next day another broker showed me the same place for eleven hundred. Asshole.

Really? I got my first proho apartment through mateo (I moved within the same building a few months later to my current 1 bdrm). I didn't feel pressured at all signing the lease, and when I did sign the lease I found out he'd gotten the rent knocked down a bit. Then again, I knew the second I walked into that studio with a walk-in closet that i wanted it, so there was no need for pressure. Still, I enjoyed working with him and have reccomended him to others.

anonymous

I had a nice experience with Eskimo at Washington, but eventually found my place through another realitor.

cathleen

I looked at an apartment with Mateo as well. I've gotta tell you....he is the MOST unprofessional looking broker EVER. My roomate had already seen and and brought me back to see it. When Mateo walked up I was like...whoa...that's the broker?!?

dailyheights

My experience is that brokers pretty much make up prices if they think they can get away with it.

Several years ago, one broker showed me a small apartment in Park Slope between 8th and the Park and quoted me $1600/mo. A few hours later, a second broker walked me over to the SAME apartment and quoted me $1800/mo.

arielbl

Cathleen wrote: I looked at an apartment with Mateo as well. I've gotta tell you....he is the MOST unprofessional looking broker EVER. My roomate had already seen and and brought me back to see it. When Mateo walked up I was like...whoa...that's the broker?!?

I think that's part of why I liked him. I felt (slightly) better signing over the huge check to someone my own age who was putting himself through grad school.