Random Notes: From Finding a Brooklyn Apartment to Buying Red Hook Real Estate

1. Justinyc offers hints for that touch-and-go Brooklyn apartment hunt. The Brooklyn Record version of the post contains a list of helpful links to rental listings. On justinyc, he notes that while "you do not need to speak Polish or Yiddish to find a place in Brooklyn...it might help your chances if you do" and provides some translation links. One of his readers offers the following apartment-finding tip: "Get a realtor's license. Seriously. It only takes 40 hours, 2 tests (that a trained monkey could pass) and about $200. Get a broker to 'hire' you (believe me, they'll hire anyone) and voila - access to millions of apt. listings. Then quit and let your license expire." Glad to know a "trained monkey" can pass the realtor's license test, although we had assumed it wasn't like passing the Bar Exam given some of the billboards we've seen from the BQE about getting your license in, like, 48 hours. (The photo above is from blorman on flickr.) In the meantime, "I would like to rent this apartment" translates into Polish, according to poltran, as "Chciałby wynajmować mieszkanie." As for pronunciation, who knows?

2. The Real Estate relates an anecdote about an Orthodox gentleman who has been walking on Van Brunt Street in (red hot) Red Hook, asking residents, "Do you know if any property is for sale? If you hear of anything, will you give me a call?" He then hands out his card. Quothe The Real Estate: "It's a shitstorm, people. Better start looking in Bushwick."

3. The Board of Standards and Appeals has again called a timeout rather than deciding the fate of the contentious 11-story building being developed by Isaac Katan on 15th Street in the South Slope. It's one of several buildings impacted by last November's downzoning and the legal question is whether enough of its foundation was in place before the rezoning in order to grandfather the building under the old zoning. Opponents have ample video and photos that they say show workbeing done after the fact. The new decision date is July 25.