 |
 |
TimeOut New York's Apartment Special
Excerpts from “Manhattan for Rent” by Sari Botton
April 15th, 2004 |
What really used to get cash-strapped Manhattan renters’ blood boiling were those fees that had to be handed over to the broker.
“The broker system for rentals has been hurt since the market softened,” says Rent-Direct.com’s Richard Oceguera. “Two years ago, you never would have heard a broker say, ‘I won’t charge you a fee.’ Now, renters have the upper hand.”
On Rent-Direct.com, for example, users pay $150 to view listings for 90 days for apartments prices $1000 a month and less, and $195 to view those above $1000. In addition to access to the database of listings, users also receive e-mail when bargains come up and when listings prices have been lowered.
|
 |
Randall Lambright, a 23-year-old investment banker, landed his new apartment as a result of one of those notices—and he was able to get a discount of a half month’s rent on top of what was already a pretty sweet deal. “I was sharing a loft on Wall Street with some roommates, and I hadn’t really planned to move until June, but I started looking,” Lambright recalls. “I got an email about this nice-size studio in an elevator building on 50th and Third, with a terrace and bathtub with whirlpool jets, for only $1300. I was intrigued.” Because the place was available before Lambright was set to move, the landlord offered him two weeks free, and he took it. “Now I can afford to have my own place,” Lambright says. “And I didn't have to pay a fee.”
Molly Gallegos, a recent college graduate with neither a job nor a rent history, was able to bypass the formerly mandatory roommates-and-roaches phase and get her own pad. She found a large two-room studio on Columbus Avenue and 107th Street for $1050. “My parents were guarantors,” explains Gallegos, 21. Look closely at her lease, though, and it says the official rent on the apartment is $1300. The prior tenants had reached that rate, but the current market apparently wouldn’t bear that price.
Similarly, recent Texas transplant Richard Gomez and his roommate, Justin Yarborough, pay only $1500 for a large West Village one-bedroom that lists its official rent as $2,500.
For the whole story pick up a copy of Time Out New York’s
“Apartment Special” on news stands now.
|
More Rent-Direct.com In The News. . .
|
 |
| |
 |
 |
|
|