My Rental Broker: 'I'm Just Concerned With Getting You a Place You Love'
I just signed a lease for a one-bedroom apartment in Chelsea and my relief at having finally found an acceptable living space on Tuesday after I had all but given up has been somewhat tempered by the sheer absurdity of the whole rental experience.
I assembled my financial information on Wednesday morning and my application was approved that afternoon. The broker that I had spent all of one hour with was giving me serious guilt about dropping his fee from 15 to 12 percent, but I told him that I could not take the apartment otherwise and had worked with another broker, with access to the same apartment, who had volunteered to the same reduction.
"I'm just concerned with getting you a place you love," he said, entirely disingenuously. "My boss won't let me, but I can take it out of my commission. I guess I just won't make a lot of money on this apartment."
I could not sign a lease on Thursday, so the agent for my new building's management company agreed to come in this Friday--she usually takes the day off--if I could be there at "10:30 sharp" with three certified checks. (My broker told me about 10 times how busy the building agent was, as if coming into the office on a workday to take my money was such a grave imposition.)
In an effort to make his job a little less redundant, my broker called me three times this morning to confirm our appointment and then to tell me at 10:25, after I had arrived at the lobby, that he too would be late. The doorman would not let me see the apartment or call the leasing agent's mobile phone, so I waited in the lobby for 40 minutes.
I was about to leave despite the broker's protestations, when the management company's agent finally arrived. As I was signing the lease, a couple wandered in and asked about an apartment. The agent informed them the building does not charge a broker's fee.
Agh!!
151 Central Park West
"The paragon of CPW residences. Enchanting, Fragonard-like Park tableaux... " More details |
|
Brokers are bottom feeders. Best way to find an apt. is to go to the building where you want to live and ask the super or find who the management agent is and deal with them directly.
The broker is just getting paid for what you asked him to do! Find you a place. Didn't he do that? You could have went from building to building trying to find the management companies information and called around hopping they had something available. What you're paying for is the broker's knowledge of the market and the fact they they have spent the time building relationships with the buildings and know what is out there. If you don't think you're time is worth the hours you were saved then go waste your own time but why should you expect the broker to find you a place and not get compensated? Get real! He was probably able to find you something quickly because he listened to what you asked for. Should he have taken you to a few more places and wasted your time with things he knew you wouldn't be interested in just so he could spend more time with you and "earn" his commission. While your at trying to save money why don't you go open an online trading account. Then when you lose a ton of money because you don't know the principals of the markets you can try and defend yourself in court. After all, you will sue right? They should have provided you trading advise for free right?
You pay for professional services that's how the world runs. If you walk into a real estate office asking for someone's time and knowledge don't complain when you get charged. No management offices charge a broker's fee, that's why it's a broker fee because the broker charges you it for their time and knowledge of the market!!