A (Small) Reduction

There's been some helpful leads coming in, and we're tracking each of them down.

One was for a 1 bedroom apartment on Rugby Road, in Ditmas Park. We know the neighborhood, and in fact, I had seen the apartment a few weeks earlier.

Standing inside the unfinished apartment at the time, George, the super - holding a styrofoam cup of gin and soda - said the apartment was renting for $1,575 a month. To move in, they'd require first month's rent, plus last month's rent.

Oh yeah, and $1,000 for the super himself. When I asked why, George said it was for his "finder's fee."

When a reader suggested that very same apartment the other day, I figured I'd call that super again. The apartment was still available, and it's nearly finished. "I just have to hook up the faucet in the bathroom," he said.

I told him the rent was a little out of our price range.

He paused for a moment, then said he could lower it.

Immediately, I imagined him saying it would drop to $1,400 and how quickly I'd grab it and how I'd sort of feel sorry for everyone else who saw the apartment but passed it up because of the price and how I'd take away from this whole thing a priceless lesson about the value of communicating (i.e. haggling) and how, quite possibly, I may have stumbled upon a solution to fix every other facet of my live.

He said, "I'm authorized to go down to $1,560."

I sigh a little, and said we still needed to look elsewhere.

Our First Lead! (And Second)

Comes from Rachel:

Have you checked the buildings on argyle & westminster between dorchester & cortelyou? Their management company is DSJ Realty, LLC
718-###-####- those apartments are fairly reasonably priced and nice sized - though there is a broker fee involved

The link from the Ditmas Park blog already paying off.

update: skylark28, motivated by some pride for her building, offers this tip:

My apartment building is on Westminster between Cortelyou and Dorchester. It is the best building ever and the Super, Mike is the BEST BEST BEST! Come on over and ask him about any available apartments.