Renting Apartments

It seems like people would go nuts for a brownstone for-rent-by-owner on Craigslist. Maybe it's just not a good time for moving? December, holidays, end of the year -- it's possible the market's just not hot. Try after the new year perhaps?

As a renter, I would definitely have preferred to rent from an owner as opposed to going through a broker. If more landlords were willing to do the tentant search themselves, there would be tenants with a lot more rent to spend because thousands of dollars wouldn't be spent on a broker who posted the property on craigslist (just ilke the landlord could have).

I would imagine, however, that if a homeowner doesn't have the time to deal with every tom, dick and harry that calls wanting to see the apartment, a broker would be a good barrier to narrowing down candidates.

We moved to New York in May and I was adamant that I did not want to pay a broker's fee. We searched exclusively on craigslist on the "by owner" page, and ultimately found a fabulous brownstone apartment. I was thrilled. There are definitely people out there who, like me, do NOT want to go through a broker because it's so expensive. I recommend regularly posting your apartment on craigslist so it stays visible and making sure that your ad is a good one.

Also, maybe you're not getting interest because you're charging too much in rent? Obviously, I don't know what you're charging. But Bed Stuy might still seem daunting for a lot of people, especially if you're charging Fort Greene rates.

I would not use a broker. They do not have the same vested interest in finding qualified tenants, who will be sharing your HOME. Plus people HATE brokers. They get paid thousands for doing virtually nothing. I think the earlier hostile posts were from bitter brokers. Use craigslist and hold open houses. Things will pick up in January. It’s the holidays so no one is looking.. If you need some quick cash, Craigslist also has an area for short term rentals.

We put an ad in The Daily News for our Crown Heights rental and got good results. We also prefer doing our own screening. We have a quiet young couple living upstairs that pays rent on time every month. I occasionally feed her cat on weekends when they're away. I'm happy to make repairs or improvements at their request to benefit the quality of their life and the quality of my home. Chalk up another one for us morons.

Don't use a broker. Brokers do basically no work and take a huge fee. When I was looking for an apartment, I had to decide how much I would be able to afford in monthly rent with a broker and without a broker. I just divided the broker's fee by 12 (months in a year lease) and subtracted that from the total I could afford. So if I had gone with a broker (which I didn't) I would have been able to afford a few hundred $ less a month in rent...

About advertising on craigslist: as other peopel have said, this is the slow season for rentals, maybe rent them out short-term (plenty of people need a place to stay in NYC for the holidays), then try again in January/February. Don't settle for sub-par tenants just because there seems to be little interest right now... (ps: The really busy season is august/september/october, when students are looking for housing for the new school year. The competition is FIERCE for apartments during those months.)

Also: make sure you include your contact info or e-mail address in your craigslist post (craigslist has that handy anonymizing tool for your e-mail). Sounds dumb, but lots of first-time craigslist posters forget to do that and wonder why they don't get any responses...

Craigslist is THE best way to advertise an apartment in Brooklyn, believe me. The Village Voice classifieds and even the NY Times classifieds have been decimated by craigslist.

Good luck!