New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market • Hacker News Board

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#41

Post by maxawaytoolong » Mon, Aug 30, 2010, 1:44 PM UTC

thinkalone wrote: post #36

maxawaytoolong wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've actually had "ok" experiences finding apartments on Craigslist. However, here are practices that bug me: - brokers and rental companies ALWAYS post in the "by owner" section. I've had agents from Citiapartments actually pretend to be the "owner!" - brokers post in the "no fee" section but there are always fees. - no photos... because everything that's a decent deal is also a dump. - "Net Effective" rent prices i…

Brokers advertising as "by owner" should be reported, and if fee apartments are advertised in "no fee," those should also be reported. (Honestly, management companies are allowed to split off and have their own brokerage, so that they collect fees by renting the apartments they already own, and in that case they would advertise in "by owner," but it sounds like you were speaking of something different.) Not having pi…

It's not a few bad ads, it's like every third ad. I went through 15 experiences like what I described above and gave up and found my current place through a friend. I don't find it that "slimy." I just figure this is New York and that's how everything works... there's always some middleman trying to screw you. It's what the entire economy of the city is based upon.

As far as I can tell, almost every price listed by a management company for an apartment in a new development is "net effective," whether they list it as such or not.

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#42

Post by ck2 » Mon, Aug 30, 2010, 2:32 PM UTC

Great idea but do this for future-proofing while you still can:

http://nyc.rentenforcer.com/

then one day you can grow, ie:

chicago.rentenforcer.com

boston.rentenforcer.com

etc.

for now you can map www. to nyc. to keep inbound links

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#43

Post by weeksie » Mon, Aug 30, 2010, 4:58 PM UTC

rentenforcer wrote: post #14

weeksie wrote: post #3

I love the idea, finding an apartment in this town is a harrowing experience. It's even worse for newbies who don't know the market and often get stuck with overpriced apartments like the ones Jakobson Properties rent out. What do you plan on doing with the data you're collecting? //edit: On your amenities list, you might want to add a field for duplex apartments.

I'm not 100%, and I turn to HN for ideas. I will likely be providing a free search/compare service for apartment lookers, and eventually charge the landlords to manage their page or something. But any ideas you have I'd love to hear. Ultimately I'd like to make some sort of API to the data (ie: destroy the gatekeeper to this information that makes the market so hard for consumers), but that will likely be secondary t…

I'd suggest taking the trends from TREGNY (but not the actual values, as they are skewed high). Then taking scrapes from craigslist, leaving off the outliers, and then fitting those values to the trend curves and adjusting based on the input you get from your form. There's a bunch of data out there already, might as well use it in conjunction with what ever you're doing right now.

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#44

Post by thinkalone » Mon, Aug 30, 2010, 6:30 PM UTC

maxawaytoolong wrote: post #41

thinkalone wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brokers advertising as "by owner" should be reported, and if fee apartments are advertised in "no fee," those should also be reported. (Honestly, management companies are allowed to split off and have their own brokerage, so that they collect fees by renting the apartments they already own, and in that case they would advertise in "by owner," but it sounds like you were speaking of something different.) Not having pi…

It's not a few bad ads, it's like every third ad. I went through 15 experiences like what I described above and gave up and found my current place through a friend. I don't find it that "slimy." I just figure this is New York and that's how everything works... there's always some middleman trying to screw you. It's what the entire economy of the city is based upon. As far as I can tell, almost every price listed by a…

It's disappointing to hear that you had such a bad experience, and if you're searching at certain price points I can see how you'd hit a bunch of brick walls when trying to find an apartment - having inside knowledge, whether it's through a friend, working directly with a management companies, or having a broker who knows what you are looking for, is always the best way to find a place.

> As far as I can tell, almost every price listed by a management company for an apartment in a new development is "net effective," whether they list it as such or not.

You're right - new developments and management companies are the ones who thrive on advertising net effective prices. They are not officially "brokers," so they are not held to the same guidelines and restrictions that brokers are, and they operate in an uncomfortable gray area when it comes to advertising on CL.

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#45

Post by wan23 » Mon, Aug 30, 2010, 7:57 PM UTC

rentenforcer wrote: post #20

dguido wrote: post #17

If you want to help New Yorker's, you're going to have to make an option for "0" bedrooms, as that is quite common around here :-).

Hmm...I figured those people would select 1 BR and hit the Flex/Studio checkbox, but I guess that's not so clear? Maybe I should make it 0/Studio -> 5+ and then change the Flex/Studio checkbox to just Flex? Thoughts?

I had a hard time deciding whether to check the "Flex" box or not. I live in a 1 br/sort of 2br and I was trying to decide if it should be 1/Flex or 2/Flex. Should the number of rooms you choose include the sort-of/flex BR?