How a dossier is built
Each dossier is built for one apartment, on request, from the records below. Nothing is a grade or a score of a person; every finding says where it came from and when.
1. Identify the exact apartment
We read the address and apartment from the link or the text you share. We never scrape or copy listing sites; if a link has no address, we ask you for it. The city’s GeoSearch service matches it to one building identification number (BIN). If two buildings match, you choose.
2. City records
HPD violations, complaints, registrations and litigation; DOB permits, device and façade filings; bedbug filings; 311 requests; marshal evictions; ACRIS deeds, mortgages, liens and unit sales. Counts are of records, with dates and denominators.
3. The apartment itself
Archived listing records for this apartment and its line, our rent estimate carried forward with measured area rents, turnover history, and rent stabilization signals from DOF tax bills and tax-benefit programs.
4. Web research
When you build a dossier, our research desk searches the web for this unit’s past listings, the current listing’s fees and concessions, the broker, and news, lawsuits and reviews about the owner and manager. Every item links to the page it came from.
5. The money
A fair-rent range from the anchors above, shown with each input, and the true monthly cost with free months, fees and typical utilities. Edit any number and it recalculates.
6. The plan
Opening offer, target and walk-away; what to ask for; red flags such as illegal fees; a message to send; tour checks and documents to request. Written for the renter, never the landlord.
Rules we hold ourselves to
- No grades of landlords or buildings, and no neighborhood or resident demographics, ever.
- A case filed is not wrongdoing proven. Reviews are labeled as reviews with counts.
- Old prices are dated and carried forward with a stated method, never shown as current.
- We do not take money from landlords or brokers to rank or recommend apartments.