Lee Lin

Undercover Broker: Farming for Customers and Commissions

This is the second edition of Undercover Broker, where we share interesting insights into the mysterious life and career track of a Manhattan apartment broker.  The first edition discussed the myths and truths of broker bait and switch tactics,...

Undercover Broker: Bait and Switch In Depth

As one of the founders of RentHop, I've made it a point to infiltrate the Manhattan apartment broker ranks, inspired by Nickel and Dimed (Barbara Ehrenreich). I spend a few days each month as an undercover broker, tackling the...

Equity Residential: American’s Choice for Apartment Living

RentHop extends a very special welcome to Equity Residential! They are an absolute top-of-the-line luxury property manager and owner of 13 buildings in the New York City Metro area! Equity Residential's New York City Portfolio Some of the more famous holdings...

Advice for YC Interviews

Most regular blog visitors won't have any idea what I mean when I mention YC Interview, Y Combinator, or any of the relevant advisors and partners. That's fine. Before we entered the real estate world, we were software engineers,...

RentHop in the News

It's been a busy summer and we're thrilled by our frequent mentions in the news these days! Have you found RentHop in the news this season? RentHop's Latest Press Most recently, our company was featured in the Reuters Entrepreneur's Edge section,...

Busy Summer 2009, What Lies Ahead for New York Rentals?

July to August 2009 has been the busy summer 2009, full of exciting deals for the Manhattan rental market! The amount of transaction volume has been miraculously high. Landlords everywhere are swamped with renters finally biting at some of...

Search New York Map for Apartment Rentals

I'm happy to announce our newly released map-based apartment search!  Location-based searching for apartments has been a personal favorite feature of mine from the very beginning of RentHop's days. We have always believed that Craigslist listings simply lack enough...

Rent Guidelines Board Approves Rent Increases

The New York City Rent Guidelines Board establishes rent adjustments for the rent-stabilized apartments across New York City.  The board updates and adjusts the terms for renewal leases, which directly impacts the cost of rent for tenants in the...

Manage Apartment Listings and Favorites

We're committed to making RentHop the simplest place for everyday landlords to advertise and post apartment listings. We are pleased to deploy our latest feature, the user profile page! This area includes some administrative features, such as modifying email...

NYC Apartment Rentals Makeover

It's been nearly a year since we first began collecting information on NYC Apartment Rentals and giving it all away for free! We felt it was finally time to do a bit of renovating and remodeling. What we see...

About Me

Lee is a data geek from MIT who spent years at quantitative hedge funds cranking out models to explain and predict financial markets. Real estate has always been a big part of Lee's life. He grew up helping out at his parents' Jersey Shore motels, became a landlord his first year out of college, analyzed mortgages on a fixed-income trading desk, and acquired a New York real estate license. At RentHop, he combines his nerd talents and real estate knowledge to constantly tweak the secret HopScore. He currently lives near Bryant Park and his favorite restaurant was Cafe Zaiya (now known as Tomiz).

Latest News

Manhattan Listings Under $2,600 in November 2024

Renters know that Manhattan is expensive. The median price for an apartment in the borough decreased to $4,500 this...