The average Manhattan apartment rental commission is about $2,000 per transaction.  Hard as it is to believe, that’s a fairly efficient price.  The barrier to entry to become a licensed real estate agent is 75 hours, $400, and two very easy multiple choice exams.   These low barriers do spawn a lot of awful agents, but exceptional brokers add lots of value and save everyone time. Don’t be fooled into thinking the high commissions are grounded in broker trickery, monopoly pricing, or unsophisticated consumers.  If that was the case, apartment brokers would have disappeared along with stock brokers and travel agents long ago.

How do I get a piece of the action?

The brilliant part about being a Manhattan rental broker is, you don’t need to have any real estate experience or even any knowledge of Manhattan to begin adding value immediately.  There is a big difference between adding value and closing deals (earning commission checks), but let’s ignore that for a moment and explore why anyone can convert their spare time into monetizable assets.

What value do brokers add?

Every day there are thousands of available apartments and thousands of potential renters who want to see them.  Among that vast field of mediocrity is the elusive subset all brokers seek: the great apartments and the qualified, motivated renters.  You can filter away bad renters over the phone.  Sadly, judging an apartment based on the landlord’s descriptions won’t work.  There really is no substitute to personally visiting the apartment and assessing its worth yourself.  Less than half the available apartments are even remotely rentable.  The bad ones linger until the landlord gets a clue and finishes the renovations or drops the price.

Thanks to the sytem of open listings in New York City, any licensed agent can freely visit apartments and build a sizable inventory of great apartments.  The official lingo is called “previewing.”  As long as you preview several times a week, you will continually improve your offerings and the draw that follows from your Craigslist and RentHop postings.  If you find yourself with free time at the office despite your ad campaign, then you haven’t built up a large enough stash of assets.  Go look at more apartments!  When you are only advertising the cream of the crop, you’ll be shocked how quickly you’ll fill your entire calendar with renter appointments (and how much more bang for buck you get per advertisement).

How about closing the deal?

Sadly, far too many agents focus on the deal-closing skill instead of finding decent apartments.  Then we all wonder why brokers get such a horrible reputation!  Here is a better plan.  Focus less on batting average and instead get more at-bats.  Some renters will waste your time.  Some will be extremely obnoxious.  Many simply won’t be interested and you’ll need to move on.  However, if every apartment you show is a diamond in the rough, and you take basic steps in screening your clients, then you will close far more deals than than a typical broker, without the sleazy aftertaste.   It’s much easier to show good apartments and pray they sell themselves than to trick a client into renting an awful apartment. Focus first on finding good apartments before reading books on selling ice to Eskimos.

That’s all there is to it, on a very high-level.  Sadly, apartment brokering is not easy work.  You’ll need lots of organization and determination.  Dealing with clients can be frustrating and managing your listings will seem exhausting at times.  Even previewing is a bit of an art, which we’ll discuss in the future.  At the end of the day, though, it’s not rocket science.  We can boil it down to a rinse and repeat job where the ones who works harder will consistently win.  Forget about the sales tactics and go add value instead.  The rest will come  naturally anyway.

I’ve lived in Hell’s Kitchen for about four years, and with the recent NY Times article about the 99-cent pizza shops in my area, I couldn’t help but write a piece about what Hell’s Kitchen has to offer. Prior to Hell’s Kitchen, I had lived in the Financial District. While FiDi had its charms, it was a little too quiet for me personally (and aside from the walk to Chinatown, it didn’t have enough food establishments). Hell’s Kitchen is a little bit different. While you get all the resources of Time Square, you’re not really at the center of the tourist trap.

Hell’s Kitchen

Close to the Time Square, but still quiet.

Hell’s Kitchen ranges from roughly 34th Street to 57th Street, between 8th Avenue and the Hudson River. It can be considered a part of the larger Midtown West / Midtown area. While it used to be a center of underworld activities (especially the Irish American Mob), it has now been completely gentrified into a neighborhood with great food, activities, and amazing access to transportation.

Most people think the proximity to Time Square would make the area loud and touristy, but that’s not the case. In fact, the two or three avenue shift is enormous. Once you get past 8th avenue, the area transforms. No more loud billboards or crowded streets. As it turns out, the taller buildings in the area block sight of Time Square from the ground level (though if you lived in one of the high-rises, you can still get a decent glimpse). If you live on one of the side-street off of 9th, you can’t even tell that you’re near Time Square.

First the food

It’s not called Hell’s Kitchen for nothing. The NY Times talks about 99 cent fresh pizza, and 2 Bros Pizza, but 42nd Street & 9th Avenue is actually host to a number of extremely budget (but good) places. These include: 2 Bros Pizza (which actually has everything from fried chicken to broccoli), $0.99 Fresh Pizza (the original 99-cent pizza on the block), Villa Cafe (a newcomer with the best sitting area – inside during the winter), and finally, Papaya Dog (with a slew of budget hot dog/sandwich options).

$0.99 Fresh Pizza

2 Bros Pizza

Villa Cafe

Papaya Dog

Moving up 9th Ave, you end up with a slew of sit-down restaurants (all with great prices). A quick search on menupages gives a glimpse of what else the neighborhood has to offer. In fact, just on 9th Ave, I can name 10 Thai places, a few great burger places, and a 24-hour diner (in case you get a late-night craving). Of course, you also have the infamous Restaurant Row on 46th Street.

In between the sit-down restaurants and the 99-cent establishments, the area is also filled with a casual dining options – such as Chipotle and Lenny’s (in fact, on the same block). If you like deserts, there is a Tasty Delite (actually, of my friends, I might be the only one who likes this place), Pinkberry, and Red Mango.

Second, what can I do in the area?

So what’s there to do? Well, in most cases, you’re not partying where you’re sleeping. Chances are, you can always travel to where you really want to go (most people I know aren’t going out 7 nights a week – so there’s no reason to have the action right outside your doorstep). However, you’re still close to a number of select bars in the area.

Apart from that, however, Hell’s Kitchen is right up against the Hudson River. If you like biking, there is a bike trail right along the Westside Highway. Also, believe it or not, Port Authority also has a bowling lane inside. If you lived along the upper border of Hell’s Kitchen (in the 50′s), you’d be within a brisk walk form Columbus Circle / Central Park. Also, the two Time Square movie theaters are right down the street on 42nd (along with a Dave and Busters).

Third, easy transportation

What can I say? You’re at the hub of it all. With Port Authority right around the corner, you’re only a hop away from the 123 (Green), ACE (Blue), NRW (Yellow), 7, and of course – the Shuttle to Grand Central. If you take the bus, the M16 takes you straight to Penn Station. The only pesky area to get to is the Upper East Side (since you have to do a subway transfer), but most places in the city are only 20-30 minutes away from Hell’s Kitchen.

Finally, where do I live?

Luxury High-Rises in Hell's Kitchen

Anywhere – whether you want the quaint walk-up or the luxury high-rise. Both Brodsky and Stonehenge Management have buildings luxury high-rises in the area (on 9th). Most of the high-rises in Hell’s Kitchen offer fantastic views of Manhattan. Because there are only a few tall building dotting the area, high-up apartments on the west side will get an amazing view of the river. For a luxury high-rise, large studios might run you from ~$2,000 and up. One bedrooms might be in the upper $2 to $3 thousand ranges (this may differ depending on square-footage and concessions – such as 1 month free).

However, you don’t have to live in a Luxury High Rise. There are always vacancies with landlords who own affordable walk-ups. You can get studios from around $1,400 and one (or very small 2-bedrooms) from $2,200. Check out the selection of no-fee apartments on RentHop to get a better sense of pricing.

A Manhattan apartment broker is a middle man.  However, despite all the sleazy stereotypes, many grounded in truth, the best middlemen add tremendous value.  Sadly, mediocre brokers add little or no value, and a handful of bad brokers  reach “negative value add” territory (even if their services were completely free you’d be better off without them).

Why is there so much variance in quality?  It’s a bit puzzling to most people, because most New Yorkers think brokers are simply a very high-level API and front-end into a database of listings.  It’s true, brokers would be overpaid if they earned thousands of dollars per afternoon as a human MySQL Query Browser + key card.

Head Hunters

To help illustrate the value add, we’ll look at another market filled with inefficiency and middlemen: the job hunt.

As stressful as the quest for a dream apartment can be, finding the dream job is even more taxing.  New Yorker’s stay at their jobs longer than they do their apartments, making the cost of a bad decision particularly painful (the only more elusive pairing is the perfect spouse).   Employers are like renters, scanning hundreds of brief descriptions (resume screening), inquiring dozens for more details (phone interviews), and then granting a small handful a personal audience (on-site interviews).  When the right match finally arrives, there is the uncomfortable negotiation phase.

What would the perfect headhunter do to add value?  They would:

1. Be competent and proficient in the relevant job domains offered
2. Politely reject resumes from candidates who simply don’t have the proper background
3. Mock interview each job hunter first to ensure the resume isn’t full of lies / exaggerations; prep him for brainteasers, programming questions, case studies, and those awful “estimate # of ATMs / OTBs / copy machines / doormen / apartment brokers in NYC” questions
4. Perform due diligence on employers to make sure the job matches the description
5. Have solid relationships with many companies, being the first to know of new openings.
6. Be detailed and thorough enough to highlight each candidate’s uniquely redeeming qualities.
7. Be the exclusive representative for a broad network of exceptional current and future job hunters
8. Mediate a pareto efficient compensation package for each employee / employer pair

Back to Reality

Sadly, a headhunter this great doesn’t exist (if she does, give her my resume).  However, any apartment broker worth his salt does all of these things.  They build relationships with landlords, doormen, and supers.  They visit apartments and reject bad ones without even bothering to photograph or advertise them.  They carefully write descriptions that highlight unique features.  They have enough broad knowledge to know a fair clearing price in rent negotiations.  They qualify renters.  They save everyone time, and they do this knowing that most clients waste their time.

Why the Bad Reputation?

Despite everything a great broker does, apartment brokers and headhunters universally have awful reputations.  The bad apples are too lazy to do their jobs properly, so they cut corners.  They don’t preview the apartments, they post fake photos instead that they found online, stole from another broker, or have absolutely nothing to do with the real unit.  The descriptions are ultra generic, or worse still, the apartment doesn’t exist and it is a pure bait-and-switch (and it’ll be obvious because when you visit the apartment with that broker, it’ll be his first time seeing it as well).  Ironically, because these are the same brokers who magically have the lowest priced apartment on Craigslist, you are more likely to come across one of these rotten apples if you yourself are too lazy to look for a good broker!

At RentHop, our in-house source of NYC Apartments, our philosophy is to force the broker’s to prove they are good by judging the quality of their postings.   We have recently completely overhauled our backend algorithms to specifically flush out low quality brokers and listings.  For the purists, I’m well aware that the “Broker Turing Test” is very hard to solve, but we’ve found some amazingly great heuristics over the years… Stay tuned in the coming weeks!

Over the past month, we’ve had a lot of users come to us looking for only “no-fee” apartments. However, after speaking with them, we realized there was a misconception of the whole fee/no-fee concept. Today, I’m going to write about the different apartment/listing types you’ll encounter, what exactly no-fee means, and why fee apartments may actually be better if you’re looking for a bargain.

What exactly is a no-fee apartment?

First, remember that you can only end up paying a fee if you work with a broker. There are two ways you can find a no-fee apartment.

1) If you’re going through a broker, you may encounter a no-fee unit if the owner is offering to pay for the broker’s fee. This phenomenon is relatively new. Before the recession of 2008, most owners didn’t pay for the fee.

2) If you’re going to an owner directly, you’re not going to pay the fee anyway (because you’re obviously not paying a broker fee if you’re not using a broker).

Then what is a fee apartment?

Well, if that just described no-fee apartments? What are fee apartments?

3) Just like in category 2), if you went to a non-exclusive apartment (called an open listing) through a broker, you’ll have to pay a fee.

4) Sometimes, you can only go through an exclusive broker who works with a certain landlord. Some of these landlords have chosen not to pay for the broker’s fee – shifting the burden onto the renters. If you want these apartments, there is no way around the fee. Why doesn’t the landlord offer to pay the fee? Because if the broker’s fee is a % of the first year’s lease, it may encourage only long-term tenants.

Why a fee apartment could be better

When most renters think of paying a fee, they cringe in disgust. Many won’t even consider a fee apartment. It turns out this causes the fee apartment market to be less efficient – where you can find decent bargains. Also, when most people think of a “fee”, they only think of 2) and 3) – not apartments in category 4). In short, keep an open mind when looking for an apartment. Don’t be turned off by a fee – after all, a $1,500 apartment with a 1-month fee ($1,500 * 12 months + $1,500 fee over the lease) costs the same as an apartment for $1,625. If you’re looking for an apartments, we have listings from all the categories, so check it out.

This is the second edition of Undercover Broker, where we share interesting insights into the mysterious life and career track of a Manhattan apartment broker.  The first edition discussed the myths and truths of broker bait and switch tactics, how it happens, and why declaring your loyalty to one good broker might be the best move.

Today’s topic is far more important to the new or aspiring brokers who follow us.  How do brokers find their customers?  Many extremely intelligent  and capable individuals seem to shy away from the real estate profession because of this hurdle.  They fear that no matter how good they are at negotiating complex deals, visualizing remodeling efforts, or analyzing cashflow numbers, every transaction still needs a client.  In fact, having a client who trusts you tends to compensate for deficiencies in almost all of the other necessary broker skills!

How Brokers Farm for Clients (Excluding New York City Rentals)

So what do we brokers do to find these customers?  The standard myth is that brokers spend their free time farming for leads, where “free time” means any day we aren’t actively working with a client.  Supposedly, farming encompasses various sources, some of which include (from most desirable to least):

• Referrals from satisfied past clients
• Referrals from friends, neighbors, and business relationships
• Holding open houses and meeting buyers / renters who want something else
• Leads from your heavily-trafficked website / blog / news column
• Partnering with a seasoned pro who hands you smaller “teaching cases”

By now, you must be pretty depressed if you are a new agent, because if you actually got your leads from any of these sources, you certainly don’t need much help!  Ok, the next tier of farming is largely unsolicited asking for business, and it will certainly feel like dirty work at first.  Many new real estate agents dislike it.  You will be turned down by almost everyone, sometimes rather impolitely.  It may even feel rude at times, imposing yourself on people asking for their business, and the way I’ve seen some brokers behave, it IS downright obnoxious.  Here are some examples:

• Cold call owners who are doing a lame job on their own and offer to advertise it professionally
• Similarly, go to an open house and tell them how much easier their lives would be if you held the open house
• Also similar, find a bad newspaper ad from an owner, convince them it was so bad only you saw it
• Send lots of post cards to your neighbors about why they should use your services

If you weren’t afraid of turning sleazy and slimey before, the thought of doing the above must make you worried you even bothered to take the 75 hour real estate classes.

What Makes New York Different?

BUT WAIT!  Time Out!   You are in luck.  Maybe in every other part of the country, farming would be a huge part of the job, but fortunately this is Manhattan and you are an aspiring rental broker (or you are here to spy on what brokers do).  Amazingly, in Manhattan it is absolutely possible for brand new brokers, with no connections and no rolodex of clients, to add lots of value and gain leads from Day 1, without a single unsolicited cold call.  That’s because unlike real estate everywhere else, Manhattan rentals have two unique concepts:  open listings and previewing.

Open Listings

Brokers exist to help market properties, but the industry believes in pay-for-performance, aka commission paid when the transaction closes.  However, to ensure our efforts marketing a property can’t be stolen away, we brokers insist exclusive rights to lease / sell (and allows co-broking, an important and intriguing topic for another day).  At least, that’s how it works everywhere else in the country.

In Manhattan rentals, the market is instead dominated by the more peculiar Open Listing agreement.  That means the landlord is free to ask you to market their apartment and find renters, but they also intend to ask every other broker in the city to do the same.  The first broker to bring a renter and sign a lease gets the commission.   And to make matters a bit more interesting, the landlord also reserves the right to set up their own leasing office and find renters directly!  Oh what fun!

While that sounds like a horrible deal to the brokers, there is a bright side to all the open listings… it means there is a lot of non-exclusive inventory out there, begging for anyone with a real estate license to bring them a renter!  All you need to do contact a bunch of landlords, introduce yourself,  check out their available NYC Apartment Rentals, and build your own personal inventory.  In Manhattan broker speak, we call that previewing.

(to be continued…)

How do most landlords end up pricing their units? While we don’t come from the property management side, we’ve noticed a couple of trends in how apartments are priced. Generally, landlords seem to fall into four  types (though realistically, there is always some overlap).

1) Meticulous Market Analyzer

These are generally large luxury high-rises managers who own multiple buildings. They watch what other landlords are doing and try to follow up on the newest trends and incentives (months free, gift cards, pay-by-credit card, etc.). They may have their own on-site leasing agents, but also use other brokers to advertise. They’re willing to try new marketing strategies or complex rent deals. Of course, not all high-rise managers fall into this category, but we’ve found that most no-fee luxury high-rises are competitively priced (you might not get the BEST deal, but you probably aren’t being ripped off completely). Some of these companies are publicly traded, so they’re more open to free months (marketing budget) rather than lower rent (top-line revenues).

2) Leave it to the Brokers

Many landlords get help from exclusive brokers who market (and sometimes price) their properties. These are generally small to medium-sized landlords (though some large buildings also fall into this category). The broker might do some sort of competitive analysis to find a good pricing for the apartment based on the # rooms, size, amenities, etc. Most importantly, they’ll heavily market the property (sometimes, people DO take the first apartment offered).

3) We’ll keep prices the way they are (with some minor adjustments)

A lot of landlords just keep the price the same (or raise it slightly) when a tenant leaves. Why change something that’s worked? They tend to lower the rents in increments of $25 – $100 when the unit sits on the market for a while. As long as the unit is being seen and marketed, there is a small chance someone rents the unit out. While luxury high-rises are decently homogeneous, a lot of walk-ups and brownstones aren’t. A garden might be work $400/month to one person, and worth $0 to another. There might be someone in the world who’s looking for a bathroom inside a kitchen (and would be willing to pay a premium for it). Sometimes, this pricing mechanism causes strange quirks – such as similar units in a building being priced differently because one was on the market longer.

4) My (mortgage + maintenance) * X variable

Finally, there are some single-unit landlords who don’t price competitively, but relative to their costs. They plan to rent out their units to cover their mortgage or maintenance. Many times, these units just sit on the market for a long time until the landlord finally caves and lowers the price. Other times, if the mortgage is already paid off, there might be someone willing to rent it out at maintenance (as long as the tenant is solid and takes care of the apartment). Prices in this category could be very odd-ball (and the units are generally extremely hard to find + by referral only).

As one of the founders of RentHop, I’ve made it a point to infiltrate the Manhattan apartment broker ranks, inspired by Nickel and Dimed (Barbara Ehrenreich). I spend a few days each month as an undercover broker, tackling the full pipeline of previewing, advertising, showing, and closing deals!

In this edition of Undercover Broker, we discuss the bait-and-switch frustrations in-depth. You contact a broker regarding a particular apartment advertisement but then you never manage to see it.  Why is it that ordinary, ethical, and law-abiding humans wind up resorting to these tactics? The answer is, it’s your fault!  That’s correct, the legions of Manhattan renters who have come before you act just like you, and the most rational response is for brokers to behave as they do.  Please let me explain.

Picture for a moment a savvy and organized apartment hunter who sifts through hundreds of ads, makes dozens of calls, and squeezes in an entire day full of appointments with 12 different brokers, 30 minutes each. This is the absolute worst customer for a broker, and sadly, our savvy renter is likely to have a terrible day full of delays, conflicts, and bait-and-switch attempts.

Contrast this with a clueless renter who calls just one broker and agrees to block off an entire afternoon for showings. Not every broker is good, but I’d easily bet the less prepared renter will have the more productive day.

Some insight into a broker’s life will shed some light here. Most customers responding to an ad will not transact a deal. Brokers only get paid when a deal closes. Therefore, most customers are a waste of time! How does a broker minimize time wasted? Let me present the top four biggest time wasters:

1.)  No show customers.

2.)  Customers with poor financial qualifications.

3.)  Customer that are not serious about renting.

4.)  Customers working with many brokers.

And now, pretend you are a broker and a renter calls asking to see the apartment you advertised. Is there time-efficient, low cost way to avoid all of the four big time wasters above? Indeed there is! And this decade old secret is called, “Sure, come and meet me at my office.”

It’s brilliant.  The broker doesn’t waste any time until you walk in the door (avoid no-shows). Often they may ask that you bring your financial documents or at least fill a long form asking about your money situation (avoid unqualified people). Finally, if the renter has agreed to come to your office, chances are they have blocked off at least a few hours for you… and if they didn’t, you can be sure they’ll miss their other appointments (solves problem 3 and 4).

There are still more bonuses. The forms you fill out protect the broker’s commission should you ever get the slightest idea your broker doesn’t deserve to be paid. While you are carefully reading the fine print, the broker has time to search his database for all of the other good apartments fitting your criteria. He suggests a half dozen other places that are great potential fits, and one of his junior assistants will be happy to take you around to all of them (he’s too busy to be the one following you around with the keys for 2 hours).

Two hours later, you a suitable apartment and saved a ton of time and hassle. But, because you are human, you feel some last minute buyer’s remorse. You cry foul, accuse the broker of bait-and-switch, leave bad reviews on Yelp, curse all brokers, etc. It’s a shame because the broker was acting in both of your best interests; you just didn’t realize it.

So now that you’ve seen the full story, you know the number one way to avoid getting bait-and-switched…

To Avoid Bait-and-Switch: Do not meet the broker at his offfice.

But if that’s the only take-away you get out of this piece, then brace yourself for a sad and painful apartment hunt. You will end up just like our savvy renter who schedules appointments with a dozen different brokers and wonders why they all treat him so poorly.

My advice — Suck it up and allow yourself to be baited and switched

Do yourself a favor. Pick just one or two decent agents, and give them at least a few hours to show you all of their best apartments. Make an appointment, agree to meet them at their office, and agree that you won’t use another broker for any of the buildings he shows you.

At least then, the broker will appreciate that you are a serious customer and can truly tailor your search based on your initial reactions. Again, if a broker knows you are a solid customer who won’t flake out, you will get superb service.  Treat brokers as showing robots and they will return the favor!

That said, I’m all for an option where I pay less for some showing robots, but to make that feasible and worthwhile, a whole lot of other things need to happen. I shall cover it in a future edition of Undercover Broker.

That’s all for now.  If you are currently looking for New York City apartments, feel free to check out our website or email us directly.

What Now?

You’ve scoured the city for the perfect apartment, and now you’ve found that gem. Now what? Is the listing price the last word?

We wrote a short piece last April (How to Negotiate a Lower Apartment Rent) about rent negotiations. In general, haggling down the listing price will depend on the landlord or leasing officer. Provided that you are a qualified tenant (40x rent, good credit score, and no history of delinquencies), you usually have some amount of flexibility in negotiations. But how much can you go?

We’ve found that landlords have about a month of flexibility (they’re willing to give up to one month additional free off the rent – though you might not get anything). Of course, this depends a lot on the landlord. Smaller landlords are generally more flexible than large corporations or luxury high-rises. A building’s vacancy rate and the apartment’s time-on-market is also important. The management office is much more likely to negotiate on an apartment that’s been sitting on the market for a few weeks than one that just hit the market. Finally, if the price of the apartment just dropped, there might be less flexibility in getting a lower price. RentHop tracks the price changes and posting date for apartments, so use that as a guide.

Seasonality and timing is also important in getting a lower price. We’ve talked about off-peak apartment hunting a few months back. In general, managers are more flexible during winter time than during the peak summer months. Some of that flexibility is already reflected in “deals” being offered during off-peak times. However, if you’re willing to move in sooner, you definitely have some leeway.

At the end of the day, while getting the perfect price is important, we wouldn’t get stuck on that. If the unit was simply a great bargain, you’re probably not the only one who is interested. Even now, quality rentals move fast (2-3 weeks), so depending on when you see it, it might not be around for too long. As a rule of thumb, ask for $100 off or an additional month free and see how far you get.

RentHop extends a very special welcome to Equity Residential!   They are an absolute top-of-the-line luxury property manager and owner of 13 buildings in the New York City Metro area!

Some of the more famous holdings include:
(All prices current as of 1/28/2010)

Parc Cameron at 41 West 86th St in Upper West Side, currently offers studios for $1845, making it one of the neighborhood’s best doorman/elevator deals.

Trump Place, also in Upper West Side at 140 Riverside Boulevard, is a luxury highrise  with apartments ranging from $2,280 studios to $5,780 two bedrooms.

70 Greene, one of Equity’s latest additions to the NYC area collection, is destined to become an icon in the Jersey City skyline.   With incredible amenities, 592 square feet one-bedroom apartments for only $1,905, this is truly one of the best bang-for-buck luxury buildings.

Hudson Crossing  at 400 West 37th stands apart from the other doorman highrises in Midtown West with superior location.  Residents are exposed to the many dining and cultural opportunities found in Hell’s Kitchen beyond 9th Avenue yet remain walking distance from Madison Square Garden, Macy’s, and Times Square.

RentHop, as always, is committed to finding the best New York City apartments deals and publishing the information on our much beloved apartment search engine.

Hey Everyone,

Happy New Years! We’ve recently implemented a few new features for the site – along with a small makeover of certain pages. First, we’ve included WalkScore for each listing. WalkScore (provided by www.walkscore.com) is a nifty little widget that shows what’s in your area (from shops, groceries, to movie theaters and gyms). Now, you can figure out how “walkable” your neighborhood is.

We’ve also enhanced the accuracy of our neighborhood mappings (in fact, one of the founders spent quite a bit of time learning about Elderts Lane perfectly). Hopefully, improperly assigned addresses will be a thing of the past.

In terms of the NYC rental market, will rents be going up in the future? While the 2008 recession hit sales (and rents) hard, 2009 might have signaled the beginning of the recovery. If anything, S&P has risen over 26% this year. While vacancies are still higher than normal, we’re finally seeing some owners cutting back on incentives. In the past, many owners offered BOTH paying a broker’s fee or one month free (in which case, you might be indifferent or better off if you showed up with a broker). However, now-a-days, there seems to be a trend towards one month free OR owner pays the broker’s fee. We’ll write a more robust post later, but there definitely seems to be the beginnings of some upwards pressure. If you’re just starting your search though, you shouldn’t worry too much. We’re still in a renter’s market.