Thursday

Options For Renters - The Nouveau Native's No Fee New York

Last week we discussed options available to people attempting to find rental housing in New York City. We covered traditional brokers, list services such as RentDirect.com, and online bulletin boards like Craig’s List. Today we are going to discuss The Nouveau Native’s No Fee New York guide book series and how it can be best used to assist renters in finding and renting a no fee apartment.

First, let’s do a quick comparison. Using listings services or online bulletin boards can be a great way to find avoid paying brokerage fees.

But there are downsides. With listing services:
1. You have to rely on the accuracy of whoever types the details into the computer.
2. You have to trust that the listing service or owner of the property has updated the information quickly; otherwise you will waste your time going to apartments that are already rented.
3. You have limited, if any, information about the management company or owner’s credit, financial, and background requirements. This often means that you waste time looking at and applying for apartments for which you don’t meet the application requirements.
4. Listing services generally list apartments that are empty and available today. For people interested in moving in a few weeks or even a few months, listing services can be rather limited since they infrequently list occupied units.
5. Listing companies aren’t free. They range in price from around $10.00 to almost $250.00 depending on the services, popularity, and reputation of the company.

With online bulletin boards:
1. In the old days, when almost all rental advertisement was conducted in newspapers, a broker had to prove that they were licensed by the state prior to placing an ad. In addition, ads were expensive, so brokers concentrated on advertising the units that they actually had to rent. Today, online sites offer free (or very inexpensive) ads to anyone who wants to post. This creates a system in which brokers and listing services list not only apartments that they actually have, but also post “bait and switch” ads and teaser ads in order to get renters to call. This means that there are a lot of ads on bulletin boards that have no relation to available apartments.
2. By the same token, since sites don’t require posters to prove that they are licensed, online bulletin boards are used by unscrupulous types in order to commit crimes such as sublet or rent scams.
3. Updating information is the responsibility of the poster. This often means that information is out dated.
4. In most instances, bulletin board listings are for only for empty units which are available for immediate occupancy. If you are interested in apartments available in a few weeks or months, a bulletin board can have limited results.
5. Generally bulletin board ads don’t list application requirements, which means that you can waste a lot of time looking at apartments for which you can’t qualify.

Looking for an apartment with the help of The Nouveau Native’s No Fee New York eliminates many of the problems listed above as well as removes the requirement to pay any brokers fees. But how can people effectively use the guide to find an apartment?

There are three major benefits to using The Nouveau Native’s No Fee New York to find an apartment.

First and foremost, the guide provides detailed information about the rental process in NYC. For those of you new to NYC or new to renting, the differences between here and anywhere else on the planet can be very confusing. Understanding the process is really an essential component to becoming a renter. In addition to the actually process of finding an apartment, the guide explains the rather complicated rental application procedures and the methods that landlords and management companies use to select an application. No matter how many apartments you apply for, if you don’t meet the landlord’s particular credit, financial, and personal stat requirements, you won’t be able to rent.

Second, The Nouveau Native’s No Fee New York profiles over a hundred Manhattan landlord’s and management companies. These management companies collectively represent over 10,000 available units. More than just listing addresses and contact details, we break down the actual application requirements, types of buildings and apartments (including maintenance and amenities) available, and the general price range in which their units fall. For most companies, collected industry opinions about the application flexibility, value for money, and apartment quality are also included.

By assessing your own financial realities and apartment criteria, you can quickly search through the management companies using our quick profile graph. This insures that you are only looking at properties managed by companies that will approve you, saving you a lot of time and energy.

And finally, apartment buildings are also listed by address in the Table of Contents. So, if you are walking down the street and like the look of a building, but have no idea how to apply or how manages the building, you can look the address up in The Nouveau Native’s No Fee New York and flip right to the management company’s profile page!

Tomorrow we will discuss methods of searching using The Nouveau Native’s No Fee New York guide books to insure that you are fully aware of ALL properties in your price range and not just the ones empty today.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

All the new buildings still have newspaper ads and sometimes list deals.

Anonymous said...

Is there a way to find an apartment a few months in advance of moving in? I want to take a job in midtown this fall, but don't want to say yes until I know that I can afford an apartment that I would be happy with.