November 3, 2009

Landlord Paying Broker?

Hi. I am trying to rent out my apartment. It's a great apartment, but I haven't had much luck with Craigslist.

I have asked two brokers to show it. They both said that the way it works now is that the landlord pays the broker the equivalent of 1 months rent instead of the prospective tenant. I guess things have gotten so bad that it has come to this.

Has anyone else had this? To me it opens a whole new can of worms. Who are these brokers really working for if they are being paid by the landlord?

November 2, 2009

Fee for Lawyer Acting as Broker

My husband and I are both attorneys, and I've heard through the grapevine that if we represent ourselves when buying an apartment (no buyer's broker) we are entitled to part of the broker's fee. If anyone has details on how this works, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!!

October 28, 2009

Broker Contract?

A friend who is about to list a very high-end townhouse for sale (5M+) asked me some questions this morning and I was unable to give her good answers. Perhaps some of you can...

What specifically should be required of a broker who is given an exclusive listing? For instance, stating that the broker will do "advertising" for the listing seems way too vague. On a multi-million dollar townhome, where should the broker be expected to advertise today (both print and online)? Are there any media outlets in Europe that are considered essential to attract foreign buyers? How much advertising is considered appropriate?

What about mailings? To whom and how big of a mailing list?

Commission. What percentage is customary on an exclusive listing for a townhouse?

What length of time?

Anything I haven't thought of? Many thanks...

October 23, 2009

Using a Buyers Agent?

Do you think using a buyers agent is a bad idea? Are sellers agents less willing to split commissions? Will it reduce the chances of getting a bid accepted? We're new to all this.

October 2, 2009

Broker Rented Us an Illegal Unit

We rented an apt through Corcoran's rental division. They charged us $5000 for their "services". After living in the apartment for less than a month we found out that it was an illegal unit with no Certificate of Occupancy. It wouldn't have been that bad if there was a working oven and working heat... but there wasn't. My question is this, does anyone know if Corcoran needs to uphold to any laws to protect renters from this kind of fraud? They do not want to give us our money back and could not find us a new apartment so we were forced to leave Brooklyn. We don't think they deserve a cent because they should of at least done their due diligence to find us a legal unit. What else are you paying them so much money for. Any help or advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

September 24, 2009

Choosing a Selling Broker

Hi --

I am going to put my one bedroom apt in brooklyn hieghts on the market. last time I did this I used craigs list and it went fine. But in this market I may benefit from a broker. Can anyone advise me as to what is it I am looking for when I choose one, both broker and firm. I really have no sense of this. Any advice would be of great value.

Thanks

September 22, 2009

Worst Broker Experience Ever

Wondering if I have any recourse for dealing with what happened in a recent home purchase. We were dealing with the owner of RE company who was helping us - the buyers I'll call him Agent A. One of his associates was the listing agent on this property - I'll call him Agent B.

We scheduled an appointment to see the property with Agent A, he showed up 30 minutes late. We scheduled a second viewing of the property with A and he was 25 minutes late. We told him at the end of the walk-thru that we wanted to make an offer and what we were offering. He told us he thought there was maybe another offer coming in but he would ask Agent B and call or text us back within the hour and he would also send over the offer form late that evening. He did neither. I called Agent A the following day asking when he was going to send over the offering paperwork so we could our offer in and he said he would send it by noon. He still did not send it. I called him again at 2:00 pm and left him a rather terse message. We finally got the offering paperwork by about 9:00 pm - almost 24 hours after we were expecting it. We filled it out, sent it back and he did not present our offer to the sellers for 3 days. Ironically, the same day as Agent B brought another offer to the sellers for more than what we offered but they ended up not having the financing. We asked Agent A to send over the signed counter and we would sign and send it back - that took 2 days and about 5 phone calls on our part to actually receive the paperwork. We spoke with the agent over the phone about the timing of the paperwork and he said that there was no one else interested in the property and that they would change the status on their website to pending sale. We had an appointment to sign the paperwork with the broker this morning and he called us last night to say that out of the blue, another offer came in for over the asking price and the owners would go with this offer unless we offered more money. Agent A said that this new interested party emailed Agent B on Thursday evening with the offer without speaking with Agent B before doing so. Who, in this market, offers over the asking price? Obviously, Agent A, dragged his feet and did not inform us of the other offer coming because he wanted more money for the property. Since he owns the company, he's going to get a kick back from the sale anyway.

Sorry for the long description but am I able to file a complaint anywhere about this so he doesn't do this to someone else? If so, where?

September 9, 2009

Rental Comps for a 203k?

We're doing a 203k in Crown Heights North, and are having trouble finding reasonable rental comps. It seems there's not a lot of reported listings for rented units, and the ones used by the appraiser put us underwater for the 203k.

The property is at Sterling and Franklin, each unit is a 1000 square foot 3 bedroom, and the ground floor has a large private garden.

The appraiser put us down for $1650 per unit. We'd like to be someplace north of $1800 per unit, but are having trouble finding comps to counter the appraisal.

Our broker has turned out to be not terribly useful in this case. Anyone have any suggestions?

August 31, 2009

Negotiating Rental Fees

I'm hoping to move forward with a one-bedroom rental in Prospect Heights; broker is asking 12%. how likely is it that we could get him down to one month or 10% - any success stories out there? Is 12-15% still the actual going rate now in Brooklyn, or is it generally negotiable? Thanks!

August 24, 2009

Reporting a Realty Company

I don't know if this is best place to do this, but my Girlfriend and I responded to this CL posting last Friday:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/abo/1333597140.html

We did not get a email response. Then Saturday night a rapid realty broker called both my GF and myself. We had only responded to this one posting all week. So he tried to tell my girlfriend what APT's he had and she politely let him go.

He called me about a hour later (this sat night at 8pm) and I started pressing him on how he got my number, he said I had called him and left him a message. I told him he was incorrect, I told him I had responded to one CL posting last week, he asked if he had the right number, changing the last digit on my number and saying he must have the wrong number. Then I brought up that he called my girlfriend a hour early and I told he was posting fake listing on CL under "listing by owner". He hung up on me, I tried to call him back twice and he would not answer.

How do you report that Rapid Realty is doing things like this? I have his number but I don't know how to proceed with reporting him.

Forum: Brokers