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I need to find an apartment

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Re: I need to find an apartment

#151

Post by timr »

8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #144
timr wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is hunting for an apartment doomed to be this messy forever? It seems like an area that is ripe for disruption or a better option, but what would it take to actually solve this? I hesitate to say it, but there is already a solution to this, and it has been the one that New York has had for years: you hire an agent. A good agent will sort through all of that for you, and streamline the process to the point where you…

This doesn't work in all US markets unfortunately, as I discovered recently when considering that very option you suggest. In some slower towns a few agents are willing to do this on the side as a source of income, but then in places like SF the home buying market is so hot, that it's comparatively bad ROI for agents to spend any time on most rentals. I'm curious how NYC manages to pull that off.

A lot of NYC agents also do this to supplement income. Real estate is feast-or-famine, and especially during the slower sales markets you can find that agents are highly incentivized to do a good job. But yeah, you're going to take a back-seat to the purchase transaction in a hot market, unless you make it worth their while on a dollar-per-hour basis. That's the downside of using a "regular" real estate agent.

In NYC specifically, there are agencies that make most of their business from renter-side representation. You can find the good ones easily on the usual review sites.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#152

Post by sahila »

ghaff wrote: post #105
csa wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1:1200 is probably worse than most selective universities By two orders of magnitude. Ivies range from about 1:20 to 1:10 in non-covid times.

It's sort of a meaningless comparison though. A huge amount of self-selection goes on before an application to an elite university is even filled out.

And a ton more work to file a college application and a smaller group of applicants. Zillow apartment applications is just clicking an "I'm interested" button.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#153

Post by monkeybutton »

Etheryte wrote: post #15
haswell wrote: post #4

I'm in the middle of an apartment search. I was reflecting the other day on how much searching for an apartment has changed over the last 10 years. Conclusion: it hasn't changed much at all. It's still necessary to search on a myriad of sites. Most of the time, by the time you inquire, a place is gone. Or the ad was misleading and that "$2000 2BR" is actually "$2000 for the cheapest Studio we have, but we also have 2…

As someone who just jumped through all the hoops to find a new apartment, the pain is real. I think the main issue is that the incentives are misaligned from the perspective of the seeker. Where I'm currently at (the Netherlands), the market is dominated by agents. Using an agent makes sense from the perspective of the apartment owner — they will take care of managing the ads, initial screening, arranging viewings et…

>Given how many people contact a single viewing, you definitely don't want them hitting your personal inbox or phone.

This is something I noticed last time I was apartment hunting in Montréal. You'd see a sign or listing, call, and the number would be out of service. As if landlords were using virtual numbers/call forwarding services and just shutting it off once the unit was rented.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#154

Post by pph »

aqme28 wrote: post #34

I'm currently searching in Berlin and the market has become insane. Here's a response I got yesterday: "With more than 1200 prospective tenants, it was really difficult for the landlord to make a decision. Unfortunately, we have to inform you that the landlord has decided on other prospective tenants. Thank you for your understanding! "

As I am also looking for a flat in Berlin I can only say: At least you got a response. It's nearly impossible to find anything below 20€/m² cold rent and some people are trying to (illegally) sell on old, cheap contracts for 6000€ and more.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#155

Post by bobthepanda »

8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #144
timr wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is hunting for an apartment doomed to be this messy forever? It seems like an area that is ripe for disruption or a better option, but what would it take to actually solve this? I hesitate to say it, but there is already a solution to this, and it has been the one that New York has had for years: you hire an agent. A good agent will sort through all of that for you, and streamline the process to the point where you…

This doesn't work in all US markets unfortunately, as I discovered recently when considering that very option you suggest. In some slower towns a few agents are willing to do this on the side as a source of income, but then in places like SF the home buying market is so hot, that it's comparatively bad ROI for agents to spend any time on most rentals. I'm curious how NYC manages to pull that off.

NYC has a broker’s fee to pay for rentals. The typical rate is somewhere between a month’s rent and 15% of annual rent. It’s quite expensive.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#156

Post by 01100011 »

Renting is fundamentally broken.

You submit precious personal info over to a random stranger along with payment to check your credit. Last time I checked, this fee is $25-50 USD. You've now given them enough information to steal your identity. You also may need to do this multiple times if you're rejected. The person receiving this information rarely has identity protection measures in place and you receive no guarantees that they've destroyed this information.

A much better solution would be to develop an escrow service which acts as a middleman between renters and landlords. Aspiring renters could sign up with the escrow and submit their information once. Their one-time fee would cover a fixed number of queries by potential landlords. The queries could include such information as income validation, criminal history, job history, rental history, etc. But these queries could be approved by the renter in advance. This sort of query process allows the renter to control the types of information given out. The queries could be structured to allow pass/fail results only, so that landlords do not receive intimate details but only know whether or not a renter is acceptable based on their criteria.

Once you have a system like that, you can open it up to all sorts of validation queries. Think of it as a general personal information escrow service.

This idea has been bouncing around in my head for over a decade now but I'm more of a low-level systems engineer so I never got around to trying to implement it. Seems like a decent startup idea though.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#157

Post by b20000 »

sonicggg wrote: post #49
aqme28 wrote: post #34

I'm currently searching in Berlin and the market has become insane. Here's a response I got yesterday: "With more than 1200 prospective tenants, it was really difficult for the landlord to make a decision. Unfortunately, we have to inform you that the landlord has decided on other prospective tenants. Thank you for your understanding! "

The pandemic allowed remote work to flourish. Why are people still crowding the cities? And of all the places, specially Berlin. Not even that great of a city. A lot of my friends fled the city.

because there is nothing to do if you live in the middle of nowhere except maybe watching TV and screwing around with your computer? gets boring fast.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#158

Post by [deleted] »

01100011 wrote: post #156

Renting is fundamentally broken. You submit precious personal info over to a random stranger along with payment to check your credit. Last time I checked, this fee is $25-50 USD. You've now given them enough information to steal your identity. You also may need to do this multiple times if you're rejected. The person receiving this information rarely has identity protection measures in place and you receive no guaran…

[deleted]

Re: I need to find an apartment

#159

Post by goodpoint »

jfk13 wrote: post #66
closeparen wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any place I can’t walk on well-traveled sidewalks to a coffee shop, restaurant, grocery store, etc. is a place not fit for human habitation.

I wonder how humans survived for the first, oh, 99% or so of the time we've been on earth?

For sure, not by living in car-centric cities.

We survived in little pedestrian-only villages. That thing that now is considered luxury or even a tourist destination.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#160

Post by b20000 »

sonicggg wrote: post #49
aqme28 wrote: post #34

I'm currently searching in Berlin and the market has become insane. Here's a response I got yesterday: "With more than 1200 prospective tenants, it was really difficult for the landlord to make a decision. Unfortunately, we have to inform you that the landlord has decided on other prospective tenants. Thank you for your understanding! "

The pandemic allowed remote work to flourish. Why are people still crowding the cities? And of all the places, specially Berlin. Not even that great of a city. A lot of my friends fled the city.

why did your friends leave berlin?
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