$1,000 Rentals and Phantoms

Thinking of all the college grads who just busted their asses looking for reasonably priced rentals in the city, the NY Times looked at one-bedroom rentals in the $1,000 range. The perhaps-catch: None were in Manhattan, but that may be due to the fact that many Manhattan deals "often change hands by word of mouth." Quite a few of the apartments sounded nice, but Gothamist enjoyed the ritual of the Times actually attempting to find these apartments:

The toughest part about finding the apartments was occasionally having to endure the ritual of the scoffing broker, who delighted in spending the first few minutes of an exploratory phone call insisting that there were no one-bedrooms out there in the $1,000 range. One broker said: "$1,100 in Williamsburg? Must be a dump," as he scrolled down his listings. Another broker in the Bronx said "$1,100 in the city? Must be a studio."

Well, even brokers need to laugh, too, we guess.

And Crain's has a story about commercial real estate's phantom space. Somehow, buildings like 666 Fifth Avenue and 230 Park Avenue, plus 800 Third Avenue and 1 Penn Plaza, have been able to increase their rental revenue by adding more space to the so-called "loss factor":

In Manhattan, the actual area that a tenant occupies is often less than the area upon which the rent is based. This difference between the two is known as the “loss factor.” The loss factor is often made up of common areas such as hallways, lobbies and restrooms. However, in recent years, the loss factor also included nonexistent space.

You can read the Commercial Tenant Representation group's phantom space study. And while apartment rentals aren't done on a per-square-foot basis, we pretty sure most square footage estimates are generous by at least 10%.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on June 5, 2006 8:24 AM

Comments [rss]

give me a raise

who the fuck are these "busting their asses" college grads looking for one bedroom apartments anyway?!

SATAN

Brokers who treat you like shit aren't worth your time. A good broker knows that even if you don't have alot of money to spend, someday you may. Or, you may have a friend who does...

We used a broker to find a small 1br apartment, and he spent a lot of time with us in an unsuccessful search, and I was starting to feel prety bad. I expressed this to him since he seemed nice, and he explained that a good broker realizes that even if a client doesn't result in a sale or rental, a good experience is passed on verbally to friends, family, etc.

In fact, we got his name from a friend who had a good experience (and ended up renting), and we told friends about our good (if unsuccessful) experience, and our friends ended up buying with him.

So, if you go with a broker, try to go to a broker via reference. 90% of the brokers out there are jerks looking only for a few big scores with no long-term interests, but the professional broker realizes that if he/she builds relationships with clients one at a time, their career will benefit.

Speaking of which, who are some good brokers out there?

zk

Wow a pic of the Tock the dog. You gotta love A Phantom Tollbooth.

ac

Brokers in manhattan treat you like absolute shit unless you've got a lot of money to spend. Best to go with a friend/word of mouth deal or direct from an owner on craigslist.

cdjames

While I don't care for brokers either, I certainly hope the real estate bubble doesn't pop so soon just to spite them... as our cities economy has no real other industries bolstering it right now.

SATAN

I have a question about the writing style at gothamist. When you say, "Gothamist enjoyed the ritual of ...", do you guys actually talk to each other, or when you refer to "Gothamist" or "we", do you really mean just you?

I've always wondered if you guys walk around in your daily lives saying, "We need to go to the bathroom", or "Gothamist is hungry for roast beef right now. We think we'll go to a deli."

s

I have a very large rent stabilized one bedroom for $1200, which I found through a broker, in a clean well maintained pre war building on a quiet tree lined street in manhattan. I found it on craigslist three years ago. Goes to show what a bunch of fucking whining complaining retards everyone else is.

MissPinkKate

I just got a place in Astoria- one bedroom basement apartment for $900 a month, utilities included, straight from a landlord. I feel very lucky.

not craig

when I was looking for a place using craigslist, I called on loads of apartments that ended up being nonexistent. And yet, the realtors kept relisting them every few days. I'm very happy to have found a place directly through my landlord so I didn't have to give these scumbags any commission.

me

f*cking smug brokers. can't wait til the market tanks and they have to extol the virtues of these 'dumps' in order to 'earn' their commissions!

parasites. they're nothing more than parasites.

Alex

That is so funny... but it is very true that this is a constant problem. But these apartments are still out there, even in manhattan, you just have to look hard. Like china town.

Rockets