{"id":3881,"date":"2008-11-03T06:20:39","date_gmt":"2008-11-03T11:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.renthop.com\/news\/?p=59"},"modified":"2023-07-24T14:48:29","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T18:48:29","slug":"ask-rent-hop-should-i-rip-off-my-broker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/ask-rent-hop-should-i-rip-off-my-broker\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask RentHop: Should I Rip Off My Broker?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Having asked dozens if not hundreds of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/apartments-for-rent\/new-york-ny\">New Yorkers<\/a> about their apartment hunting experience, one interesting topic is whether you can rip off your own apartment broker.\u00a0 There are various tactics and ploys that have been contemplated, attempted, and executed which we discuss below, but the one common theme in all of them is that you utilize a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/nyc\/manhattan-apartments\/\">Manhattan <\/a>apartment broker&#8217;s services and then avoid paying the 10-15% broker fee.<\/p>\n<p>Let us clearly state that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.renthop.com\">RentHop <\/a>does NOT endorse or recommend such behavior.\u00a0 Cheating your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/guides\/nyc\/agents-and-brokers-nyc\">broker<\/a> is unethical and often results in a breach of contract, which will put you on the losing end of a small claims lawsuit.\u00a0 Broker dodging is also immoral and actually perpetuates the inefficiencies of the real estate market. RentHop recommends and enables apartment hunters to find <a href=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/apartments-for-rent\/new-york-ny\/no-fee\">no-fee listings<\/a> in the New York City area. However, we also firmly believe that if you choose to use a broker and find your future home as a result, then your broker deserves to be paid.\u00a0 One of the reasons broker fees are so high is precisely because they waste their time with apartment hunters who have no intention of paying fees, leaving honest hunters picking up the tab.<\/p>\n<p>That said, we will discuss a few of the more creative tactics we&#8217;ve heard, and hope to convince you not to try any of them.<\/p>\n<h2>Broker Dodging Tactics<\/h2>\n<p>One out-of-town apartment hunter took a new job in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/apartments-for-rent\/midtown-new-york-ny\">Midtown<\/a>, and his company offered a three-day house hunting trip.\u00a0 Our hero spent the previous week researching lots of neighborhoods near work and booked a full day of apartment viewings with brokers and owners.\u00a0 Sadly, one owner turned out to be a bait-and-switch broker, and even worse, that broker happened to show the best apartment of the day. Feeling that the broker didn&#8217;t deserve a fee, this creative apartment hunter excused himself. He met with his other appointments of the day, only to circle back to the apartment and slip the doorman $60 in exchange for the landlord&#8217;s phone number (and a promise to stay quiet about the broker).<\/p>\n<p>That particular story has a happy ending for the renter, but for each of those we have just as many stories about brokers who perform due diligence with their clients.\u00a0 All it took was a quick phone call from the broker to the building manager to confirm that the apartment hunter attempted a broker dodge. Most apartment leases contain a clause specifically requiring the tenant to pay broker fees if a broker has a legitimate claim to said fees.<\/p>\n<p>In one extreme case, our apartment hunter agreed he used a broker, but disputed the broker had any claims to a fee because his friend had already shown him the building prior to his broker&#8217;s introduction. The broker fought back in small claims court, which quickly led to an arbitration settlement. The settlement was 100% in favor of the broker!\u00a0 Unfortunately, most broker agreements are\u00a0 precise in their language and cover just about all the bases for boundary cases. The bottom line is, either use a broker or don&#8217;t; the half and half approach can be dangerous.<\/p>\n<h3>Going Around Their Back<\/h3>\n<p>One creative class of broker rip-offs deserves some attention.\u00a0 Some hunters use an accomplice to rip off the broker, namely, your future roommate! In this scheme, two roommates agree to live together, but only one goes apartment hunting with the broker.\u00a0 Afterwards, the one that did not hunt with the broker approaches the management company and signs the lease. That way, the two roommates use the broker&#8217;s expertise and listings, yet the only name the broker knows never appears on the lease and allows for an almost foolproof fee dodge.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the most brilliant part about the tactic is exactly its biggest downfall&#8230;. one roommate&#8217;s name never appears on the lease!\u00a0 That means the one person signing the lease for the presumably <a href=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/apartments-for-rent\/new-york-ny\/two-bedroom\">two-bedroom apartment<\/a> is now solely responsible for the rent. Therefore, they are also the only one who can officially handle tenant matters regarding the apartment. That&#8217;s a dangerous situation for both tenants. Should the two have a falling out or need to change their housing arrangements in a jam, many problems can crop up. Think of all the risk being taken, just to save on a broker fee!<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>RentHop hopes to provide the moral, ethical, and lawsuit-free alternative to broker fee dodging to find your no-fee NYC apartment. Before you question if you would rip off your broker, learn about what you&#8217;re lookin for in your apartment search, and review some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/how-to-negotiate-rent-concessions\/\">negotiating<\/a> tips. Please feel free to try <a href=\"http:\/\/www.RentHop.com\/\">our service<\/a>, rather than go around ripping off hard-working brokers.<\/p>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s Note: This article was originally published in November 2008, and has been updated to enhance the user reading experience.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having asked dozens if not hundreds of New Yorkers about their apartment hunting experience, one interesting topic is whether you can rip off your own apartment broker.\u00a0 There are various tactics and ploys that have been contemplated, attempted, and executed which we discuss below, but the one common theme in all of them is that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"yes","_lmt_disable":"no","footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[64],"class_list":{"0":"post-3881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-apartment-hunting","7":"tag-apartment-hunting"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.4 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ask RentHop: Should I Rip Off My Broker? 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