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A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

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Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#181

Post by jrockway »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #68

A broker’s fee for an apartment? I’ve never seen that. I own a house now, but when I used to rent, the process was to visit the websites of local well known management companies, pick a few apartments you like, and have the manager show each to you. Then you pick one and apply. Why are people injecting the expense of a broker into such a simple transaction? And the renters are the ones paying?

So if you're renting an apartment, you need someone to advertise that it's available, you need someone to pick up the phone and answer questions about it, and you need someone to unlock it and show it to prospective tenants. In many cities, the landlord pays this person and passes the cost on to you in monthly rent. In NYC, the tenant that rents the apartment pays these fees up front. It's kind of like the airlines, you sort by price ascending, pick the cheapest flight, and then are outraged when they charge you a non-middle-seat fee, a carry-on fee, an I-didn't-print-my-boarding-pass-at-home fee, etc. People search for apartments in the same way, so it makes sense that the market would remove anything other than the monthly carrying cost from the listed price.

In the end, I'm not sure it's that bad. I moved to NYC in early 2012. I found a rent-stabilized apartment with the help of a broker, and paid about $600 less per month than a market rate apartment. I paid $3000 to my broker, and conservatively saved about $79,200 over the lifetime of the apartment lease relative to equivalent market-rate apartments.

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#182

Post by no_wizard »

conductr wrote: post #162
no_wizard wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you despise that thinking, then we need to regulate the housing market to discourage seeing housing as an investment as we see it today. Everyone expects, more or less, for real estate to climb in value but nobody wants to square that with these other emotional ideas attached to housing. It either is an asset or it’s a commodity as far as the market goes. If you want generational housing and for housing to be gene…

It's fine to be an investment. It can climb in value. But it doesn't need to be such a need to force the liquidity. Your example of "under utilized asset" and downsizing must then translate down to some metric of square-footage per resident. How exactly to you propose to regulate the housing market with this in mind, in a reasonable manner. Because, to me I think of the 2 sides. Growing households and shrinking ones.…

market churn (which is in part informed by time) matter with affordability.

I don’t propose what you’re saying either. A land value tax is more than sufficient, by any research I’ve seen on this topic. It doesn’t in any sense mean what you’re saying here. Only that under utilized land (usually classified as unbuilt or vacant) is taxed more heavily. Thats one facet. The other is that it shifts the property tax off of building values and onto land values can make both buildings and land less expensive. This has a knock off affect of reducing the value of real estate holdings to varying degrees in terms of value in the short term but stabilizes in the medium and long term.

That would be better in my view but as it exists today, we instead have to rely on building more housing or putting more existing supply in the market, neither of which in broad strokes are happening in a way that keeps pace with demand unfortunately

Also: not everyone who can afford to buy a home can buy a home built from scratch. There are different classes of home buyers and the vast majority aren’t moving into custom homes like that. Its unreasonable to think that it’s common place in aggregate

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#183

Post by riversflow »

ohhnoodont wrote: post #110
conductr wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in Texas, a state with pretty high property tax. We've also seen a ton of appreciation in recent years. Booming economy, transplants from other states, then the COVID factor. We also have a near free market on rent; I've been a landlord and not aware of any limitations. There are a couple limits on property taxes (namely a cap of 10% increase per year on "homesteads", and an Agriculture exemption for rural proper…

There are ways to address this problem, but in any case this is still ultimately a very good problem for property owners to have. Their property value has increased dramatically. Being forced to move is inconvenient, but you do so with a large bag of cash.

I would rather have my home than a bag of cash. I’m not even old, but I did grow up here and it has immense sentimental value to me. My grandma lived in her house for over 65 years, and died in it. I doubt she would have moved for anything short of multigenerational wealth.

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#184

Post by wordpad25 »

paulgb wrote: post #8
grugagag wrote: post #2

How is that legal?

If it weren't legal, we'd instead just see deals like this go to friends/family of the owner, or the payment would be under-the-table instead of an upfront broker's fee.

You could make the same argument about any law.

Why don't we just make murder and rape also legal to better track it?

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#185

Post by malshe »

throw__away7391 wrote: post #106
RHSeeger wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nyc is the worst I love NYC. I don't mind going into Boston or such for the day, but there's nothing like NYC on east coast. It's fantastic.

Yes. In the US, sure. Compared to cities outside the US it is horrible. Less walkable than most, food is ok if you know where to go but nothing special and also super expensive like everything else, aggressive drug addicts wandering the streets, high crime including random acts of violence for literally no reason at all, incessant aggressive honking at all hours of the night, even when you are paying $5k a month for…

I haven’t been to NYC recently but I read that the public transport has become filthier. Homelessness has become a major issue too.

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#186

Post by conductr »

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #146
no_wizard wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I personally think it's awful to see elderly people getting priced out of a house they've owned for decades Housing being seen as this generational I own it forever thing that Americans have doesn’t also square with the American narrative of housing as an investment. It’s one or the other. If you want housing to be seen as something that more or less “always goes up” but you can’t be taxed in the increased value th…

> Housing being seen as this generational I own it forever thing that Americans have doesn’t also square with the American narrative of housing as an investment. I agree with this part. Viewing it as investment is the wrong choice.

Not sure I do agree. During ownership, it should appreciate as assets do. Then things like taxes get reset for the next owner based on whatever they pay. In this way, things reset transparently and still often enough as the normal duration of mortgage is something like 8 years. Not everyone is a buy and hold generation of ownership, people move for jobs and a million other reasons, but people that do choose to live in a house for 50 years shouldn't get penalized for it.

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#187

Post by TheBlight »

PH95VuimJjqBqy wrote: post #175

When I see people complaining about never being able to purchase a house my response is always the same. move. $1,100 is considered "well below market rates" for a 1 bedroom apartment in NYC? That's _nuts_ to me. I'm paying $1,600 for a 3 bed, 2 bath 1800 sq ft house with a 2 car garage. Vaulted ceilings, my neighbor is a police officer and I'm on a corner lot across from a park. fire department is literally 3 blocks…

[flagged]

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#188

Post by cpuguy83 »

PH95VuimJjqBqy wrote: post #175

When I see people complaining about never being able to purchase a house my response is always the same. move. $1,100 is considered "well below market rates" for a 1 bedroom apartment in NYC? That's _nuts_ to me. I'm paying $1,600 for a 3 bed, 2 bath 1800 sq ft house with a 2 car garage. Vaulted ceilings, my neighbor is a police officer and I'm on a corner lot across from a park. fire department is literally 3 blocks…

Moving doesn't tend to change much. Yes housing prices go down but so do wages. Also you'll have the added expense of a car (and all the stress that brings along with it).

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#189

Post by the_gipsy »

PH95VuimJjqBqy wrote: post #175

When I see people complaining about never being able to purchase a house my response is always the same. move. $1,100 is considered "well below market rates" for a 1 bedroom apartment in NYC? That's _nuts_ to me. I'm paying $1,600 for a 3 bed, 2 bath 1800 sq ft house with a 2 car garage. Vaulted ceilings, my neighbor is a police officer and I'm on a corner lot across from a park. fire department is literally 3 blocks…

People move to dense areas because that's where job opportunities are. It's a vicious cycle.

For software devs tho, you are right. Just get a remote job.

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#190

Post by TylerE »

PH95VuimJjqBqy wrote: post #175

When I see people complaining about never being able to purchase a house my response is always the same. move. $1,100 is considered "well below market rates" for a 1 bedroom apartment in NYC? That's _nuts_ to me. I'm paying $1,600 for a 3 bed, 2 bath 1800 sq ft house with a 2 car garage. Vaulted ceilings, my neighbor is a police officer and I'm on a corner lot across from a park. fire department is literally 3 blocks…

Why would people pay hundred a month for complicated broadband internet? All you need is a modem and AOL.

That’s basically your argument. Living in a LCOL area is not comparable to living in NYC.

There is a reason millions want to live in NYC and almost no one actually wants to live in, say, Iowa.

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