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New York City Rentals: No Fee Apartments!!!

These days a lot of people want to see NO FEE rental apartments in New York City. Who can blame them? There are a lot of apartments for rent in Manhattan we can show without the traditional 15% broker fee. The landlords of those apartments pay us the broker fee, so at METROPOLIS we charge our client nothing (some brokers take a fee from both the landlord and the client, so Buyer Beware). We are very happy to show our clients the NO FEE rental inventory. But there are times when it is actually cheaper in the long run to rent an apartment that requires a broker fee.

Why All Apartments Are Not "NO FEE"

Rather than reduce rental prices in response to a softer market, some of the New York City rental apartment landlords offer other incentives such as paying the broker's commission (and therefore the broker should offer the apartment on a NO FEE basis) or granting a rent concession (one or two months free rent). Rent one of these apartments NO FEE and the annual cost of rental could be equivalent to the rental of a reduced price apartment that requires a broker fee, but only for the first year. Remember, you pay the broker fee only once. But if you rent a higher priced NO FEE apartment, when it comes time to renew your lease in the second year the new rent will be based on the higher rent. It will actually cost you more in the second year (and subsequent years) with the NO FEE apartment.

What About "NO FEE" Lists?

Even an "updated" list of apartments will be a few days behind your main competition--the professional rental brokers. Most list services claim they update their listings "daily". That claim is a little misleading. This does not mean that each and every listing is updated daily (although it very much sounds as if that is the case) but that some portion of their data base is updated.

Remember, it's not just about listings. There are issues of access to apartments (supers rarely return phone messages), application procedures, negotiation of terms, broker/landlord relationships, landlords who do not work directly with the public, etc. that need to be considered. There is no way you will find the best deals on some list subscribed to by thousands of other apartment hunters.

There has been a lot of controversy over the years about these services. Numerous complaints from consumers about rip-offs have prompted investigations and crackdowns on the industry by the Department of State. Although these services are now required to be licensed (in the past they were not!) abuses are still reported. Some of these "services" are very cheap. But nothing is more expensive than a service that does not achieve the objective--finding you a home.