Looking for rentals in NYC

The search for a great rental apartment is what brings all NY'ers together. It's the one unifying theme in all of our lives. We've all dealt with shady brokers, fake listings and craigslist. Some of us have paid as much as 15% of a years rent in a brokers fee, thats two months! Others have dropped $200 or so for those nearly worthless no-fee apartment listings.

There are better options. StreetEasy and FlyRig. I haven't actually used either yet, but here are my first impressions.

StreetEasy is the most comprehensive listing I have come across for New York City apartments. It has both rentals and sale properties. I haven't actually used it yet to find a place, but it looks fantastic. It doesn't have the crap postings you get with Craigslist. The search function is very good with all of the basics (neighborhood, amenities, maps). But it has a 'commute time' option built in from HopStop. Phenomenal, especially for people who are fed up with paying absurd real estate prices and are forced to consider Brooklyn or Queens. The only downside that I've seen is that there are limited pictures for many postings, and they force you to other websites to learn more. The force to other pages, may be why so many properties are listed, but its still a little bit of a hassle.

FlyRig is still new and so its best feature is not fully operational yet. I love this website, because a couple of months before I found it, I had been talking about building something just like it. It doesn't yet have a great database of listings, but my favorite feature here is that the brokers get feedback, like eBay sellers. So, while I'm not 100% familiar with the protections against false reviews, I want to believe in FlyRig--if for no other reason than that the brokers I've dealt with have been mostly scumbags and this site would give me the ability to impact their future business. This website lists some NoFee places, but not many yet. Most postings have a ton of pictures right in the website.

So, friends, give these two sites a try and let me know if you find anything good. I'm hoping we all can save a bit of money on rent and broker's fees in the near future.