We found our upper east side apartment through http://eberhartbros.com/ They are a no fee management company with reasonable priced well maintained walk ups.

Oh no! the fees! if you're anything like me you want to avoid broker fees like the plague. I just don't have that much money up front. My most recent apartment I found in Williamsburg Brooklyn after a month of searching on the Craigslist No Fee section. Let me tell you.. it was so worth it. You just have to check constantly and move FAST! Once you see a perfect one, place calls, make moves, and be willing to drop everything and run to a showing. It's stressful but there are a ton of hidden beauties for low prices being rented by owners. They just don't realize what they've got. Bad for them, but good for you.

You should also try checking out the individual realtor sites, or even meeting with realtors and letting them know you're only interested in no fee. A lot of the brokers will have exclusives on apartment buildings that will never get posted online, etc. So it is worth it to meet with them - just be firm with no fee! They always try to tell you that there's "nothing" out there in your price range in the area you're looking, especially for no fee - but that's a total lie. If you're willing to put in A LOT of time and A LOT of effort, the perfect apartment is out there!

I also like these sites:

nakedapartments.com
streeteasy.com
renthop.com

When I first moved to New York, I was sublet hopping (via craig's list) for the first year or so. It's a good way to avoid the broker fees and figure out what areas of the city you like living in. Most of the sublets I was in were a few months, so I didn't feel unsettled, but I held off on buying major pieces of furniture until I had my "big girl" apartment.

Go through management companies! Oftentimes buildings will have numbers listed on the outside. Sometimes they are fee brokers, other times they are management companies. (Usually on larger buildings.) Management companies don't charge a fee and are usually pretty straight-forward to deal with.

I'f you're looking for next year you're not going to see much until 1 month before your move. That's pretty normal around here. Pick a neighborhood and monitor what the current listings you like are going for, so you have some bargaining numbers. Also, know what you want and what you are willing to sacrifice. What's standard everywhere outside NYC like laundry and dishwashers in the apartment are few and far between here. Personally my big things were space and quality of the apartment. I chose pre-war over new construction because I wanted architectural detail, huge rooms and beautiful hardwood floors.

I found mine through a small local broker, but out in my part of Brooklyn (Bay Ridge) which is considered "far" from Manhattan, fees are only 1 month's rent rather than the standard 15% of your year's rent.

It's ok to spend that fee if you're going to live in the place for more than 3 or 4 years, if you can find a broker you trust, they will actually save you a bit of time and legwork.

Never accept the first few apartments they are going to show you. They are usually leftovers that nobody wants.

As for Manhattan, well, I suggest you start reading curbed.com religiously, you'll see how tough the market is and what you're dealing with. I managed to get one apartment in Manhattan at Peter Cooper Village/Stuyvesant-town for no fee, but the catch was after I lived there for a few years they started raising my rent by 200-400 a year, I had to decide every year whether to re-sign my lease or move and which choice would be more expensive. I finally moved out after 6 years and the rent was $1100 MORE a month than when I moved in.

Also, it's not an easy process. You will need to make at least 40-50 times the rent to qualify--you may also need a few references, letter from employer, tax returns, etc to actually get an apartment so have all your paperwork and finances in order.

You absolutely don't have to pay the fee. A lot of buildings lease on their own and charge nothing. Go to www.nybits.com.

There you can find listings and also buildings contact information, so if you like a particular building (probably not your case) you can go to their site and check in from time to time to see if there are openings.

Also, in my experience you don't get much choice, if any, when looking too far in advance. In many cases landlords give lease renewal notices to their current tenants one or two months ahead, then tenants respond with their decision a month of 2 weeks ahead of their lease expiration.

In NYC, you can't really look for an apartment much more than a month in advance. You will probably need to look at a lot of apartments, and you have to be ready to take something on the spot - even if you then have to wait for them to approve you. It's gotten a little better with the real estate bubble bursting, but prices and competition are beginning to rebound. The best way to look 'off the grid' this far in advance is to start networking with your friends. Put out the word what you are looking for, ask people to ask their friends, and you might be able to find someone who knows they will be moving out when you need to move in.

I know you said you're looking in Brooklyn/Manhattan, but I know, being from Queens, that a good strategy in most neighborhoods in this borough is to mosey along down the streets you want to live on and looking for an "apartment for rent" sign in the window. A lot of these landlords are older and don't even know how to use the Internet, so they post the signs and hope that a sweet, responsible young person or family will see them and want to check out the space. Of course, you're likely to be living in the same building as the landlord, and in a two- or three-family house, not a building with a management company.

While I understand why anyone who has been lucky enough to find the perfect no-fee apartment on craigslist would recommend doing so, I really don't think it's as common as you might be led to believe. I'm in my second NYC apartment and always tried the no-fee way first, only to find really, really crappy apartments and sketchy brokers who have no real interest in you since they're not getting your money. Yes, fee brokers make you feel like you're throwing money down the drain, but I think on the whole the quality of apartments they show is better and the experience is a little less stressful (if you can afford it).

Broker's fees in Manhattan are a funny thing. There are basically two kinds of no-fee apartments. The first is for rent by owner -- a number of management companies and smaller landlords would rather not deal with brokers at all, and they try to find tenants directly. If you can find a place like this, you can often get a good deal, but unfortunately the majority of building owners would rather use a broker to save time.

So that leads to the second category of no-fee apartments, where a broker is involved, but the landlord covers the broker's fee instead of the tenant paying. There are a few reasons why a landlord might do this. Maybe they think that the apartment won't rent at the price they want if the tenant has to pay an additional fee, or maybe they want the exposure from people like yourself who try to only look at no-fee places. But in my experience, one way or another, you will pay higher rent for a no-fee apartment than for an identical apartment with a broker's fee. If you're planning on staying in one place more than a year, paying a fee upfront starts to make more sense.

This is just my two cents, though. I kind of hate the whole system and wish that every place was for rent by the owner, but that's not going to happen anytime soon -- so until then, I'm willing to pay a broker's fee if it gets me into the apartment I want.

Also, be careful when looking on Craigslist in general - there are a LOT of bait-and-switch postings. If an apartment seems too good to be true, it probably is.

I found a broker on Craigslist who found me my apartment. She negotiated a $150 off the monthly rent, so her services seemed worth the fee. If you are unsure, take the fee, divide it by 12 months, and add that to the monthly rent. If it puts you way over budget, it's not worth it. If your rent is still reasonable and you have the cash upfront (and you LOVE the apartment) pay the fee. It will be worth it in the long run.

honestly i feel like whether or not you need a broker depends on the neighborhood. in some brooklyn neighborhoods most of the listings are run through local brokers. so if you want to live in those neighborhoods, you pay a fee. agree with most of the advice above though, everything is situational so just monitor listings until about a month before you move. some big buildings run by large management companies may know what's available two months out but generally listings come up a month ahead.

I've never paid a fee---but that means doing a lot of legwork and having a little luck. Plus, knowing how to read between the lines. If it sounds too good to be true, it IS too good to be true. You basically learn what is reasonable and how to spot an honest ad by just going through the experience, as painful and annoying as that may be!

Finding a place without a broker can be a challenge. For one thing, you're going to need somewhere to stay in the city while looking for the place, and the less time you have in Manhattan, the harder it will be to find a nice place without a broker.

Two sites that are used by management companies directly are:
NYBits.com
Nofeerentals.com

I found my place through Craigslist No fee listings. It took a while, I went to see a lot of apartments but it was worth it. I saved a months rent that would have othewise gone to a broker. Tips, have your information, references, and credit score ready and with you when you go look at apartments that way when you do see something you like you can apply right away. You'll show the landlord that you mean business and might get bumped ahead of other applicants who dont have thier info together.

Also if your credit is bad, get someone to act as your guarantor and have thier info ready too.

There is only one website that I know of that guarantees that all listings are 100% no fee, and that's http://www.RDNY.com.

It eliminates all the scams and bait/switch from craigslist. There are no disguised broker adds. It covers the entire city, all boroughs, except Staten Island. And for the price, it's well worth it. [Disclosure - I work for RDNY.com, but I still stand by every word.]

As loathesome as it was to pay a fee, I felt in the end that it was worth it. I saw more than two dozen apartment before I found my last one (in a co-op now) and I found it through Craigslist.

I would advise you become very familiar with the listings on Craigslist as I find that there are plenty of unsavory brokers out there and any apartment that has been available for more than a few weeks is likely to have something very wrong with it (loud street noise, view of brick wall, etc...). Over time I became familiar with repeat offender brokers and tainted apartments that kept being posted over and over and over and over. Also, if the posting is not for a specific apartment or is vague, that is a warning sign that not all is up to snuff. Anything that seems like its too good to be true really is too good to be true.

Also, keep in mind that expectations for an apartment in NYC needs to be shifted from what you would find elsewhere. I went from living with granite/stainless/and my own laundry in a loft in Chicago to a tiny outdated fifth floor walk-up in Manhattan with less than half the space for 40% more money.

One learns to accept NYC on NYCs terms, not ones own.

word of mouth---let friends, former roommates, folks you work with (even those who aren't close friends) know that you're looking for an apt. There's always of chance of someone who knows someone who has a connection to an apartment.

I like using a Realtor. Craigslist is too sketchy, and I have a large list of needs (we are picky about neighborhood and need a backyard, which is tough to find).

If you have a large budget and/or don't have special needs (like a yard, large pets, highly specific neighborhood needs, etc.) you should be fine hunting on Craigslist or with agents who have their fees paid by the landlord.

Look for one without bed bugs!

My husband and I moved about 4 months ago into a no fee apartment in the financial district. I would advise finding a neighborhood you like and literally walking the streets looking for apartments. This worked out great for us. We ended up looking at about 9 different buildings this way. And now that we live there, I see tons of building we missed.

Most of these buildings (all of which were luxury) were offering at least 1 and up to 3 months free. Maybe you are not looking for a luxury building, but with no fee and a few months free it may fit into your budget.

I also tried some of these websites listed above. I found a lot of realtors advertised as no fee for some of the buildings I looked at. These realtors are no fee because they are taking one of the free months the building is offering. Don't get suckered into this! Good luck!

Craigslist and other apartment finders are a good bet. I have heard of success through social networking sites and their markets. Apartments in ny are notoriously hard to come by, evidenced by its low vacancy rate (3.6%) and high average asking rent ($2,842). Keep plugging away at it and eventually you will find something to your liking, but be patient and do your research thoroughly to ensure satisfaction with your apartment.

The data referenced above can be obtained from the "New York, NY-Apartments" report at www.reisreports.com

www.padmapper.com

Such an incredibly valuable resource. It uses a more advanced search engine to sift through craigslist and other listing websites, and displays them visually on Google Maps!

Hello, I just stumbled across this thread and though it's quite old, perhaps it is about your moving time?

There' seems to be a slight misconception that all brokers are fee brokers. In North Brooklyn, where I am an agent, it is quite common for the landlord to pay the broker. While in theory, this would translate to higher monthly rents, in practice it doesn't always work that way because sometimes agents and brokers will apply a fee to the already adjusted price, so you are paying a double fee!

Most of what is on Craigslist will eventually be traced to a broker. Building owners generally have neither the time nor inclination to advertise/show/process applications for their own spaces, so they ask us to do it on their behalf.

Definitely do not start dragging agents out to look too early, but you can always begin making contacts through Craigslist, letting agents know what you want, insist no fee, and anyone who is reasonably human will keep his or her eye out for you.

We're not all shady, I promise!

Hello all,

Just wanted to make you aware of our new site, www.rentjolt.com, which provides a new way to rent in NYC.

RentJolt is an apartment marketplace, which incentivizes current tenants to post information about their apartments months in advance of moving, and allows prospective tenants to browse listings up to eight months in advance, easing the pressure of last-minute scrambles. Current tenants can earn between $500-$1000 if their apartment rents through our site, and the fee for incoming tenants is 5.75%, considerably lower than the 12% average.

Our goal is to create an information sharing platform where current and future tenants can interact months in advance without pressure.

We would love for you to check out our site, and welcome any questions and feedback!

- The RentJolt team

Check out Apartable's NYC apartments. You can easily search by no-fee and availability date, and it'll match you with the best apartments for your tastes.

I always recommend this website to people searching for an apartment in Manhattan. It really helped me find mine quickly and easily. Hope it does the same for you! http://www.findmybuilding.com