25 apartments, 2-and-a-half days, seven brokers and AT LEAST five different Manhattan districts later, the hunt is over. As of September 1st, Nads and I will be residing at the appropriately named London Terrace. And very nice it is too. We settled on the Chelsea district more by luck than judgment. I have already had several questions raised over my real motivations for moving there. I can assure you it was merely based on apartment quality.
So the broker experience while eye-opening wasn’t the horror show of slick con-artists that I expected. Here were our big take-aways:
- 60% of Manhattan brokers don’t know where they’re going: Whether it’s wandering in circles round the West Village, ending up on an express train to Harlem when we were aiming for the Upper West Side or missing at least 2 appointments because the Spanish girl showing us was clueless…our brokers senses of direction were appalling (in that last case she even tried to show us pictures on her digital camera as a ‘tour’ of the property she didn’t have keys for).
- Brokers tend to hear what they want to hear: Here is a sample conversation:
- Us: “We want to live Upper West, West Village or Chelsea”
- Broker: “He (pointing at me) doesn’t want to live in those places”
- Us: “Why?”
- Broker: “Because he can’t get to work”
- Us: “Yes we can, so that’s where we’d like to look”
- Broker: (no longer listening) “So we’re going to show you a place in midtown…”
- Everything looks the same: It’s true, with the exception of maybe four apartments, everything was identical (like this). Polished wooden floors, small kitchens slightly off main room, noisy air conditioners, plain vanilla buildings. Word to the wise – see something you like that isn’t like this, then sign for it.
- A little attention goes a long way: The broker we went with was a very nice Irish girl who showed us what we asked for and LISTENED. Nowhere too noisy…stuck to the areas we wanted…and stayed within our price range. It’s amazing the amount who didn’t.
- Don’t believe the hype: A quick search on Craigslist and the hyperbole is there for all to see. “WOW!”… “Unbelievable price!”…”Off the hook!” etc. I’m all in favor of creative sales techniques, but please…
I’ve figured out that since 2006 I’ve lived in six different properties in four different cities. I think New York needs to be the last stop for a while.
