The Doffed Broker’s Fee Of Low Expectations (Is That All There Is?)

The broker reveals the big secret to never having to pay a broker’s fee — keep expectations ridiculously low:

How then, without a license or an abundance of contacts, was I able to find each of my six apartments without ever paying a fee? I like to think I was guided by raw real estate instincts, but truthfully it has a lot more to do with being flexible. I have never paid a broker, but I’ve also never had my heart set on a perfect little gem of a space in hopes it would complete my lifestyle. Again renting comes back to dating: keep your standards low if you’re looking for a deal.

And who among us hasn’t gone for a cheap date every now and then?

Sometimes It Seems That Everyone’s A Broker (No, Seriously)

Real estate agencies and rental brokers should think about ways to take advantage of the existing black market in rentals:

Seven days a week, a mustachioed, 47-year-old Dominican named Pedro Reyes sells fruits and vegetables in front of Bonhita’s Barber Shop, on a block of West 137th Street that slopes gently toward Riverside Park. Starting at 8 a.m., Mr. Reyes positions milk crates and cardboard boxes full of waxen limes, bright tomatoes and bulbous calabaza, or squash, on the sidewalk. When a favorite song plays on the radio sitting nearby, he breaks into salsa moves with an invisible partner.

Mr. Reyes, who is widely known as Piri, calls his business the Valle Encantado Fruteria — the Enchanted Valley Fruit Shop. But food is not all that he peddles. For $60, he will drive you to the airport in his battered white van. For negotiable rates, he does deliveries and moving. And for a $25 commission, he will find you a bare-bones room to rent in Harlem or neighboring Hamilton Heights.

That last sideline may be Mr. Reyes’s biggest. Over the last decade, he says, he has placed hundreds of $100-a-week boarders in the apartments of mostly older single women from Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic. In a town full of heart-stopping rents and behemoth real estate firms, Mr. Reyes is a little broker for the little guy.

“People used to say, ‘Hey, if you know someone who has a room, let me know,'” he said the other day, recalling the early days of his sidewalk real estate venture as he sliced into a watermelon in front of his produce stand. In the beginning, his only clients were other Spanish speakers seeking rooms. But as gentrification crept farther north and Manhattan’s apartment vacancy rate sank to less than 1 percent, Mr. Reyes’s services, known only by word of mouth, have been sought by all sorts of people.

“Everyone comes to me,” he said. “Boxers. Dancers. Students. People who have some education, because they definitely have to have a job to pay for the room every week. But it’s less expensive than getting a whole apartment.”

Why Mr. Charlie Doesn’t Rent To Black People

Real estate veteran Brian Carter discusses the new segregation:

I never thought of New York as a segregated city — it didn’t dawn on me until I became a real estate agent. My own experience as a rental agent in Manhattan isn’t a terrible place to begin. In four years of renting apartments all over Manhattan, I have rented exactly one apartment to an African-American. It doesn’t appear to be an industry oversight as the rental business is far too competitive to be discriminatory. In other words, if you have the money and need a place, most agents will be glad to charge you for their services, regardless of race or ethnicity. Of the three rental agents with whom I spoke, this was one issue that they all agreed on. If you can pay the rent and the fee, we’re happy to do business.

My next-door neighbor “Todd” left real estate a few months ago and had a similar experience. When asked how many African Americans he rented to in his time in the business he answered, “none.” He had rented to one Latino. When I asked him for some explanation, he said, “I worked primarily in Manhattan. Most people who can afford an apartment below 96th Street tend to be rich and white. I don’t think the reasons are very complicated. Race and class are often related. I noticed it, and it bothered me.”

One agent, when asked about experiences renting to minorities, said he was personally insulted by the question. More than a few people declined to participate at all, and had no interest in talking about the subject. “Charlie,” retired agent, said he didn’t see the problem either. When asked how many minorities he rented to over the years, he answered, “As many as walked into my office and needed a place.” But that was sort of what I was getting at; almost all of the people, whether renters or buyers, who have walked into my office over the years were white.

Exclusive, MLS Or Co-Listed, Brokers Around The City Think “Ca-Ching”

As the haves and have-mores scratch, claw, bite and push their way into the top tenth of the top one percent, many breathe a sigh of relief as those at the very top of the labor pool basically single-handedly forestall a monumental housing crash in this country:

There are few things that can gladden the hearts of New York real estate brokers as much as the thought of billions of dollars in bonuses paid on Wall Street, moving from hedge funds and buyout fees to brick and stone, or in some cases, glass and steel, as this uncertain year of wavering condominium and co-op price draws to a close.

After all, the transaction records on file with the city government show that investment bankers, hedge fund managers and other masters of the universe (along with their well-remunerated support people) are a mainstay of the New York real estate market, especially at the upper end.

And so nearly 200 real estate brokers, looking to increase their skills and improve their fortunes, filled a small auditorium in the basement of the Scandinavia House on Park Avenue 10 days ago to hear a panel of their colleagues reveal the secrets of “Gearing Up for the Bonus Season.”

“Almost all of us make more money when they make more money,” said Jeffrey Appell, a senior vice president at the Preferred Empire Mortgage Company, who moderated the panel, to laughter and applause.

They’re Not Looking Forward To A Bunch Of Gawkers At The Open House

The penthouse of the Pierre Hotel is for sale for $70 million, just the latest in an endless string of broken records:

By October of [1930], the Pierre’s top two floors, including the exposed wooden platform on which the debs braved the elements, would be transformed into a glamorous breakfast room and night club, “decorated to resemble the interior of a zeppelin cabin,” according to The New York Sun. Not long after that, the hotel would begin to operate the space as a ballroom.

A place of Champagne bubbles and swing bands, the Pierre Roof, as it became known, was the exclusive province of high society in Depression-era New York. Though its interior was off-limits to most of the city, however, its ornate exterior became a signature feature of the Fifth Avenue skyline. Set atop a slender tower of cream-colored brick, the Pierre’s upper floors had the rarefied aspect of a French chateau in the sky, complete with a gleaming copper mansard roof 500 feet above 61st Street.

The New Yorker hailed the new hotel as a “millionaires’ Elysium,” and the description still applies. The space once occupied by that rooftop restaurant is now a private penthouse triplex on the market for a cool $70 million, which brokers say is the highest price ever listed for a New York residence.

The primary selling point is the 3,500-square-foot grand salon, the former ballroom of the Pierre Roof. Occupying most of the 42nd floor, the room is bordered by 20-foot-high Palladian windows and topped by a curved 23-foot ceiling. On each of the room’s two west-facing corners, soaring French doors open onto terraces offering breathtaking views of Central Park and beyond. The master bedroom suite has two additional corner terraces.

The financial guru Martin Zweig, author of “Winning on Wall Street,” bought the apartment in 1999 for $21.5 million, then a record. He is now trying to sell it because he and his wife, Barbara, live in Miami and spend only a month or two a year in New York. If the triplex sells for anything close to its asking price this time, it will again smash the record for the biggest single residential deal in city history, topping the Harkness mansion on East 75th Street, which was sold in October for $53 million.

. . .

“When they walk into the ballroom, their mouths just fall wide open,” said Elizabeth Lee Sample, the Brown Harris Stevens broker who, with her colleague Brenda Powers, holds the exclusive listing for the triplex.

The wallet of the eventual buyer will also have to fall wide open. The Pierre cooperative requires that apartments be bought entirely in cash. By comparison with the asking price, the annual maintenance fee of $464,600 seems almost modest, particularly since the services of a uniformed housekeeper and houseman are included.

Two would-be buyers have made $70 million offers since the 16-room, 5-fireplace triplex went on the market in October 2004, Ms. Sample said. “But it doesn’t mean anything,” she added, “until we get them through the board.”

Damn co-op boards.