 Did you ever notice that the first five letters in broker spell 'Broke'? Well it does and with good reason.
The New York City broker and his fee are the last slap in the chaotic process that is finding a home to rent in Manhattan. In a city that is so micro-managed and on top of things, it's surprising that we non-homeowners should be thrust into such a confusing system of misleading and unregulated information. From the oh so secretive square footage to the over-blown monthly rents to the decoy 'to-good-to-be-true' listings that brokers use to lure you into calling them. As if the reasons keeping us from owning a home of our own aren't hard enough in the first place, now we have to navigate through this disorder and mayhem at the mercy of an unfair and unreliable rental structure. I'm still having nightmares.
After an amazingly cheap four-year sublet in the west village I was forced to dive into the sea of NYC apartment hunting without so much as a life vest. Fortunately I had several months to find a new home without much pressure from the friend I was renting from. Most of you do not have this luxury.
Whichever 'pleasant' broker answered my phone call would quickly rush off of the phone after I informed them that I had plenty of time to look and be choosy and that I wouldn't be hurried into anything. My calls were rarely returned. No one wanted to waste their time with someone who would not be rushed, desperate and subsequently forced to rent some inadequate box of an apartment for an outrageous rent just to obtain a roof over their head.
In addition, the brokers constantly bad-mouthed my chances of finding the things I was looking for. Never once did any of them give an encouraging word. It was clear they were trying to lower my expectations so that they could hurry me to take an apartment I was unhappy with so they could make their undeserved fee and move on to their next victim.
The other worthy annoyances that were laid upon me, apartment after apartment were enough to make you a little batty. The first thing was the square footage. "I need at least 600 square feet." I would state up front. The next thing you know I'm standing in a 300 square foot apartment and the broker is trying to tell me it's 600. A waste of both of our time and an insult to my intelligence. This happened over and over and over. Secondly would be the specifics of the apartment I was looking for. Street facing, hard wood floors, nothing higher than a third floor walk-up in the west village. Next thing I know I'm in a cab with a broker getting dropped off in Chelsea going up to the fifth floor walk-up to look at 420 square foot carpeted apartment that was facing a brick wall in the back. Incredible. No one listened. No one cared. It was clearly about their fee and not about my home.
Toward the end of my third month of mind numbing apartment hunting my friend Dave met me for a much-needed beer after one of my 10 hour wasted days with a broker and sat me down for a chat.
"Dude, I'm telling you, don't pay a fee!!! Go to Rent-Direct." Now I know how that sounds to you reading this but he literally said those exact same words. Dave had gotten his last three apartments through them and I had liked every single one of them, "You're just throwing your hard earned money away on this broker who is doing nothing but jerking your chain and turning the lock on the frigging door."
So I did. I called up and spoke to very helpful girl who was clearly feeling my pain. I unloaded on her all of the frustration I had experienced in the three months of apartment hunting and she took it like a pro, assuring me of the difference I would experience.
After joining, which took all of five minutes, I read through the website and found what sounded like the perfect apartment. I contacted the landlord who faxed me an application (I thought it best to have a complete package ready should I like it). They called the tenants who were still living there and told them I wanted to see the apartment. They contacted me and invited me over within an hour. The place was perfect so I ran my package over to the landlord who immediately processed it and called me back to sign the lease. The apartment was mine within four days of seeing it on the website. I couldn't believe it.
I know this reads like the first 90% is about the trials and nightmares of brokered apartment hunting and the last little 10% is about the quick and painless Rent-Direct effort that actually got me my great pad. But in the three months since I began looking for a new pad to the moment I had my keys in hand this was exactly my experience. Eleven weeks of useless stress and frustration that made me want to tear my hair out ending in a quick and simple four days that actually gave me my awesome home. All that wasted time and energy. Plus on top of it all I saved $4,200.00 in broker's fees. $4,200.00 that would have simply disappeared from my bank account, never to be seen again.
I'm not the sort of person to write a testimonial but this was such a bruising experience that was ended so quickly and perfectly by Rent-direct that just had to give props where props were due.
It's a no-brainer: Brokers bad, Rent-Direct good.
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