{"id":1323,"date":"2013-11-16T09:20:26","date_gmt":"2013-11-16T14:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.renthop.com\/news\/?p=1323"},"modified":"2023-07-22T11:40:17","modified_gmt":"2023-07-22T15:40:17","slug":"tips-to-know-before-meeting-your-broker-in-2014-keep-the-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/tips-to-know-before-meeting-your-broker-in-2014-keep-the-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips to Know Before Meeting Your Broker in 2014: Keep the Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is the final entry in our series on Tips to Know Before Meeting Your Broker in 2014<\/a>.\u00a0 The series is based on our experiences shadowing several rental brokers in New York in late 2013.\u00a0 We learned a lot about the best – and worst – ways to work with brokers. \u00a0 <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bonus Tip: Keep the Faith!<\/strong><\/p>\n

True, many of the broker\/client meetings we observed ended in frustration, usually because clients failed to follow one or more of the other five tips. But when the right expert meets an informed and savvy client, success happens\u2026sometimes in as little as three hours. <\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cI used to sell concepts. Now I sell apartments.\u201d This is how David Webb, a former high school English teacher who now works as an agent for Sommerlyn Associates, described his job to me. When I met Webb at R&R Coffee in the Financial District, he was sporting a beard\u2014a necessity for a part he\u2019s currently playing in an off- off- Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof. <\/i>He spoke with a gentle Southern accent; indeed, \u201cgentle\u201d would be a good descriptor of Webb\u2019s entire approach. In the hours we spent shadowing him, what struck us most was that he did not seem to be actively \u201cselling\u201d apartments at all. And yet his clients, Elliott and Korinne, a couple looking to rent their first apartment together, were brimming with praise at the end of the appointment: \u201cWe\u2019re very satisfied with what we\u2019ve seen so far,\u201d said Elliott. Korinne agreed: \u201cThis was very productive. It was just what we wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Korinne and Elliott are recent college graduates, both working in SoHo. He was living in East Harlem and hoping to trim down on his commute time. She was living with roommates in Midtown East. She told me that during the search for that apartment, two years ago, she and her roommates didn\u2019t want to use a broker. But the apartment they found through Craigslist was attached to one, so in the end they paid a fee anyway, they just didn\u2019t get any service for it. This time, with both she and Elliott busy with work, she decided to do things differently. A friend referred them to Webb.<\/p>\n

Before we all met, Webb spoke with Elliott on the phone. He learned that the couple was searching for either a one-bedroom or a studio, with a budget of $2,500. Their preference was for Murray Hill or Kips Bay, but, as Elliott put it, \u201cWe\u2019d live anywhere if the apartment\u2019s right.\u201d He also told Webb that they strongly preferred looking at Owner Pays (OP) apartments (apartments where the landlord or management company, not the tenant, pays the broker\u2019s fee).<\/p>\n

After hearing their preferences, Webb asked if they\u2019d consider the Financial District. Why? OP apartments in Murray Hill and Kips Bay are a rarity. FiDi, with its amenity-rich high rises, is packed with them. Though they hadn\u2019t considered FiDi, they were open to it, and Webb arranged for us all to meet there on a brisk Saturday morning in late November.<\/p>\n

Over the course of three hours, Webb showed Korinne and Elliott nine apartments. He\u2019d planned a tour that would expose them to the range of options available in FiDi, a strategy that would also help him gauge their tastes quickly. Our first stop was an older building, a bit tired looking, its hallways wallpapered with a faded floral pattern. Inside the apartments, the kitchens and bathrooms lacked the \u201cwow\u201d factor\u2014think granite countertops and marble floors\u2014for which FiDi\u2019s high rises are known. The perk? Tons of square footage. For $2500, they could live in a true 1-bedroom with a spacious living room, a full kitchen, and a loft space. Korinne and Elliott seemed excited. They liked that the building had some character and that the apartments weren\u2019t too \u201ccookie cutter.\u201d<\/p>\n

But once they got a look at the next building, 45 Wall Street, a high rise with a grand marble and wood-paneled entryway, the first building slipped quickly out of contention. It was a question of amenities versus space: in an older building, $2500 could get them a spacious 1-bedroom; in a high rise, that same budget would get them a 500-square foot studio. (Which, it\u2019s worth mentioning, is quite large for a studio.) But it would also get them top-notch renovations and appliances, plus access to the building\u2019s gorgeous fitness center and roof deck. What\u2019s more, both of the large high rise buildings we looked at were offering strong incentives: the building on Wall Street\u2019s November incentives included both <\/i>one month free and a 1-month OP to reduce the broker\u2019s fee. The next building we viewed, 90 Washington Street, was advertising a choice of a 1-month OP or 1 month free.<\/p>\n

As the morning\u2019s apartment tour wound to a close, Korinne and Elliott told Webb that they loved two units, one in 45 Wall Street and one in 90 Washington Street, and would be in touch when they decided which one they preferred.<\/p>\n

On Monday morning, Elliott called to let Webb know they were ready to submit an application for a unit in 90 Washington. The unit\u2019s start date was technically December 1st<\/sup>, but Webb was able to negotiate with the management company to push it back by two weeks, effectively saving the couple over a thousand dollars. He also negotiated the monthly rent down $40. And because of the building\u2019s incentives, they ended up paying Webb a greatly reduced fee. Two years ago, Korinne chose to go it alone, but ended up paying a broker 15% for essentially no service; this time around, working with a broker, her entire apartment search, from first meeting to signed lease, lasted 48 hours, and she and Elliott paid just a 5% effective fee.<\/p>\n

When Webb told me the good news, we thought back to a conversation we\u2019d had on Saturday afternoon, after Korinne and Elliott left. We had asked him if he was worried that he\u2019d made the process too <\/i>painless. Was it possible, we wondered, that the couple might not realize the true value of the apartments he\u2019d found them, or of his service, because their experience had consisted of a breezy three-hour jaunt? What if the ease of viewing these apartments made the couple second-guess themselves, made them wonder if they were settling, if with more digging and effort they could find something better? Webb said he understood what we meant, but he had a good feeling about these clients, so he wasn\u2019t too concerned. \u201cOne of the best compliments I get is \u2018You make it so easy!\u2019\u201d he told me. \u201cBut I just make it look <\/i>easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We hope you’ve enjoyed these tips and found them useful.\u00a0 Make sure you review the whole list<\/a> before you work with your broker!\u00a0 And don’t forget to let us know if we missed anything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is the final entry in our series on Tips to Know Before Meeting Your Broker in 2014.\u00a0 The series is based on our experiences shadowing several rental brokers in New York in late 2013.\u00a0 We learned a lot about the best – and worst – ways to work with brokers. \u00a0 Bonus Tip: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nTips to Know Before Meeting Your Broker in 2014: Keep the Faith - Real Estate Topics, Tips, and Guides<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/tips-to-know-before-meeting-your-broker-in-2014-keep-the-faith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tips to Know Before Meeting Your Broker in 2014: Keep the Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This post is the final entry in our series on Tips to Know Before Meeting Your Broker in 2014.\u00a0 The series is based on our experiences shadowing several rental brokers in New York in late 2013.\u00a0 We learned a lot about the best – and worst – ways to work with brokers. \u00a0 Bonus Tip: […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/tips-to-know-before-meeting-your-broker-in-2014-keep-the-faith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Real Estate Topics, Tips, and Guides\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/renthopapartments\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-16T14:20:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-22T15:40:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"lawrence\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@renthop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@renthop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"lawrence\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/tips-to-know-before-meeting-your-broker-in-2014-keep-the-faith\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/tips-to-know-before-meeting-your-broker-in-2014-keep-the-faith\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"lawrence\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/bfb1e305460412627d529695d248df79\"},\"headline\":\"Tips to Know Before Meeting Your Broker in 2014: Keep the Faith\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-16T14:20:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-22T15:40:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/tips-to-know-before-meeting-your-broker-in-2014-keep-the-faith\/\"},\"wordCount\":1169,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Brokers and Landlords\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/tips-to-know-before-meeting-your-broker-in-2014-keep-the-faith\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/tips-to-know-before-meeting-your-broker-in-2014-keep-the-faith\/\",\"name\":\"Tips to Know Before Meeting Your Broker in 2014: Keep the Faith - 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