Agents for good

Illustration: Ana Benaroya

Photograph: Christian Hartman

Slashed commission
“I met Stanley [Krauze], of Corcoran, through my sister, who moved to the city a few years ago. Back in September 2006, I was looking for a two-bedroom apartment. I had three brokers helping me because I was pressed for time, and I saw about 30 apartments in six weeks. Stanley was by far the most attentive; the other two showed me places that were a waste of time. When I found my place, Stanley reduced his commission to 12.5 percent (from 15 percent), which saved me about $1,000. He also helped two of my friends find new places, each within a week, which is a testament to Stanley’s thoroughness and good listings.”
—Enrique Payan

Photograph: Christian Hartman

Treasure-map equipped
“I saw a ton of places through a ton of brokers and, although I didn’t end up going with her, Annie [Santiago] from Kline Realty in Brooklyn was my favorite. She is the holder of the keys to the last treasures of Williamsburg. When you walk down Graham Avenue with her, she is greeted like a head of state by all the neighborhood people. We would walk into a place and she’d tell us who had lived there and what they did. When we entered a building, she made a point of introducing us to potential neighbors, to give us a chance to suss each other out. Now that’s a broker!”
—Johnny Rauberts

No scare tactics
“Pete [Luke] from Quality Living didn’t pressure us. He told us we’d be crazy not to check out other brokers, explaining that while he had access to every listed apartment in the city, some don’t show up in the database, at least not immediately. We went out of our way to use him—although we ultimately rented through another broker. The tenants hadn’t yet moved out of the apartment, so only the management company knew about it, and it hadn’t been listed yet. We lucked out. It’s a shame we ended up using that management company’s slick-talking d-bag of a broker, but we did respect that Pete didn’t try to fuck us.”
—Francis Xavier Nolan IV

Stocked up
“How infuriating it was, hearing about great apartments scored through ‘friends of friends’—until my friend led me to Catherine Zito of Property Scouts. She was able to produce that most mythical of beasts: a rent-stabilized apartment in Cobble Hill. My shaky (but improving!) credit history was not a factor, and I put in paperwork for the first apartment I saw. After a nail-biting five days during which I heard nothing, wept copiously and lashed out at innocent family members, Catherine came through. If brokers are animals, this one is a purring cat. With nice apartments.”
—Joshua Rothkopf (TONY Film writer)

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