The best sites for finding apartments in New York without the help of a broker

New York is one of those cities where people have to pay a huge commission to a broker to help them find housing. In 2020, the commission was temporarily canceled, but now it has returned again. How to look for an apartment without intermediaries (and extra spending), the newspaper writes Curbed.

The commission that New Yorkers pay to the broker is usually equal to the cost of a monthly rental, but can reach 15% of the total annual rent. If you want to get around this scheme and rent housing directly from its owner, then this article is for you.

There are many websites and applications for finding apartments without commission, but tenants should understand that this will require additional work on their part. First, you need to make sure that all your W2 documents, tax returns and other papers are in order and are at hand; secondly, carefully study the potential landlord and his property; thirdly, never pay cash before meeting with the landlord and visiting the apartment in person. And most importantly, you must always remember your rights as a tenant in New York.

Here are some sites with lots of ads to start hunting for your dream apartment at an affordable price.

Craigslist

Craigslist is notorious for being littered with offers, some of which are weird. However, do not discount this site: here you can set up your search so that you can only view apartments that are rented out without intermediaries, and therefore without paying an extra commission.

But be prepared to spend days looking for that very apartment looking through hundreds of photos with detailed property descriptions and prices that seem fair to the market.

joinery

Joinery was founded by two New Yorkers because they were tired of “paying a broker thousands of dollars to do little more than open the door,” the website says. How it works: Leaving tenants, with the landlord's permission, can post information about their apartment on the site, as well as arrange to view the property directly through its messaging service with other potential tenants. The ads indicate income requirements, the amount of rent and security deposit, photos are posted, as well as information about all the amenities in the apartment.

Potential tenants can join for free and are verified through the site. However, if you find an apartment, there is a fee (although not as high as the broker's). The outgoing tenant sets a commission that cannot be higher than half a month's rent.

The listings project

This resource was originally a personal list of Stephanie Diamond with email addresses for artists. It was created to exchange information about cheap places to live and work. Today the project covers all five boroughs of New York (even expanded to over 70 countries and throughout the United States). New offers appear here every week, which include apartments for rent, sublease and promotions.

Everything is quite simple: everyone can subscribe to receive offers by e-mail, letters arrive on Wednesdays. You can then contact people through the Listings Project email to learn more about housing.

Naked apartments

A significant proportion of the ads offered through Naked Apartments are either not paid or inexpensive. (Low rent includes renting an apartment with a brokerage commission, which is no more than 9%).

The site makes it easy to find the accommodation you need using a filtered search. Naked Apartments includes open classifieds that can be advertised by more than one broker. The site groups these duplicate ads in one place, allowing you to compare brokers and choose which one you want to go to.

Nybits

Like other rental aggregators, NYBits offers the ability to find apartments in New York for rent. However, on the NYBits website, there are much more options for finding apartments without a commission. And what makes this site truly unique is its directory of buildings and real estate managers. Often the best way to bypass the broker is to go directly to the source, i.e. the landlord.

Through NYBits, tenants can search through a long list, and the site will show you which apartments they offer and who specifically can be contacted for accommodation.

Flip

Through this resource, tenants can “sell” the remaining months of their lease to other tenants. The service is free for tenants, property managers and owners, but tenants are charged a service charge of 5% in the first month of rental, the website says.

He also offers a credit check / biography service through TransUnion for $ 30.

Lease break

When this site went live in 2013, it was solely designed to help tenants find a tenant for their home. But now the free site also has short-term rentals (up to 12 months), promotions, sublease.

The site also has the ability to search only for ads without commission. According to the site, more than 60% of the apartments on the list are apartments without a commission.

StreetEasy, Zumper, RentHop, Igluu

Although on these popular sites Streeteasy, Zumper, Igluu и Renthop There are a lot of apartments with a brokerage commission, all of them offer the ability to search specifically for ads that do not involve payment of a commission. But keep in mind that some of these ads may be posted by brokers.