So you want to move into a luxury building? You’ve worked hard and want to show off the fruits of your labor. Your at your laptop cruising the net looking at all the luxury building websites in Boston and are trying to triangulate how close your new home is to work, the “T”, and your favorite restaurant. Your pretty frustrated because your computer keeps telling you that your virtual memory is low due to all the website you have open.

It never dawned on me to write about this subject until a referral of mine (I’ll call her Jamie) asked me why I should accompany her to luxury buildings. Jamie figured she could easily do the legwork herself and save herself the fee charged by rental agents. Smiling, due mostly to her frankness about the fee (honesty is a valued commodity in my industry) I told her that brokers like myself can do four distinct things for her and all for free! Jamie was intrigued and ask me what those four items were.

1). A good broker knows all the leasing specialists a developer might employ for their buildings. We also know they are under extreme pressure to rent their units. Having this knowledge it’s easier for me to negotiate your rent down. Most people who look for themselves never think to negotiate in luxury buildings. Jamie smiled but wasn’t ecstatic.

2) I continued that 90% of all the luxury buildings in Boston are cannibalizing each other because they compete for the same limited customer. They’ll offer free months rent, cash signing bonuses and other sorts of promotions. Usually they don’t offer these upfront, since they are trying to get the most they can for each unit. Guess who knows what the promotions are when he (or she) walks through the door. That’s right, your broker! Saving her money, now I had her interest.

3) The top brokers in Boston can call on short-term notice and setup appointments with most of the buildings. When we call, the leasing office knows we have a great prospect for their building and they don’t want to make a bad impression. Jamie hadn’t scheduled any appoints yet but was happy to hear that.

4) Finally, 90% of all luxury buildings pay our Broker’s fee! That’s right, we negotiate your rent down, make you aware of any promotions the buildings is offering, and can get you into a building on short term notice and the luxury buildings will pay us for it. She was shocked to hear this, they’ll pay you to work on my behalf?

Having a hard time wrapping your head around this rationale, it’s pretty simple. A luxury building is going up on every corner of town. The competition to fill these units is fierce. If these luxury buildings can establish lasting relationships with the top rental real estate firms like Boardwalk Properties, Jacob Realty and NextGen Realty, then they will gladly pay for us to continually bring them clients.

The last thing I mentioned to Jamie was that we could hop in my car and view every building in one day. Making her life and choice more efficient. Having explained that to her she said, “What are we waiting for?” With very little noticed we went and looked at 5 buildings, she ended up saving $100 a month in rent, receiving one months free rent, and no brokers fee. Afterwards she told me her roommate from college wanted to move to Quincy but didn’t know what was out there for luxury buildings and asked me to call her.

The moral of the story? When it comes to luxury buildings we brokers can save you time and money!

Happy Hunting,

- James

Disclosure: I am a Broker for NextGen Realty, which has strategic partnerships with Boardwalk Properties, and Jacob Realty – resulting in Boston’s largest apartment database.

Filed under: Luxury apartments