August 20, 2000, Sunday

Making Roommates of Perfect Strangers

By DENNIS HEVESI

AT Roommate Finders, an apartment referral service, the on-hold telephone tune is the bouncy theme from ''The Odd Couple.''

''Sometimes we have people come in and say, 'I don't want any Felix Unger types,' '' said Michael Santomauro, the company's founder, speaking about the nit-picky neat-freak from the old television show. ''They'll say: 'I'm a slob and I want them to know that. I want them to prefer to live with someone like me.' ''

As one of perhaps two dozen companies that occupy a sliver of a niche in the New York real estate market -- bringing together apartment dwellers with folks who want to rent that extra bedroom or, often, just a corner of the living room -- Roommate Finders, along with its competitors, deals with ''people looking to live with the perfect stranger,'' Mr. Santomauro said.

The niche is the apartment referral industry, which ran afoul of state regulators two decades ago after scandals shed light on a variety of scams. And the sliver is roommate referrals -- an enterprise characterized by wide-ranging fees, complicated refund policies and, recently, an increase in consumer complaints.

When done properly, roommate referral means more than merely handing out often outdated apartment listings. It is as much a social, even psychological, practice as it is a business dealing with apartment sizes, locations and rents. It calls for mixing and matching an array of personal preferences, interests, habits and quirks. It is one of the few commercial activities in which focusing on ethnic, religious or gender profiles is permissible. And often it does bring together perfect strangers.

Consider Yuko Nakaguchi and Benjamin Dzang.

Ms. Nakaguchi is a diminutive, demure young woman from Shizuoka, Japan. Mr. Dzang is a lanky, jocular, globe-trotting son of a diplomat from Ghana.

''I worried about living with a stranger,'' said Ms. Nakaguchi, who moved into Mr. Dzang's two-bedroom apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, a year ago. ''But I met a good person to live with. No problems. He sometimes cooks Ghanaian food for me, and I cook Japanese food for him. So we are doing a good exchange.''

Ms. Nakaguchi, 27, and Mr. Dzang, 25, were brought together by Japanese Clientele Shares and Apartments, a roommate referral service that, while willing to do business with anyone able to pay a $500 fee, focuses on ''shareseekers'' (to use the industry parlance) from Asia, and from Japan in particular.

''Not to make a stereotype,'' said Sam Kawahara, manager of Japanese Clientele Shares and Apartments, ''but we get people who want to rent out to these Asian or Japanese people because in general they are very good with making the payment on time. And also, they keep the apartment clean by not wearing their shoes, so the brand-new parquet floor stays brand new.''

It was the Gay Roommate Information Network that brought Blair Lawhead and Barry Kawakami together in November -- but determinedly not for matchmaking purposes. ''Absolutely not,'' said Mr. Lawhead, 37, who when not playing the violin in Broadway orchestras runs a nonsurgical hair-replacement service -- ''Please don't say wigs,'' he said with a laugh -- out of his apartment in the Chelsea Gardens co-op on West 23rd Street. ''It's just the opposite for me, strictly a business thing.

''I needed to pay off the advertising and start-up costs for my company. And I did not want to scale down my life style after 'Ragtime' closed. Barry pays $700 a month, and that includes all utilities, a maid once a week, 24-hour doormen and stimulating, sparkling conversation with me.''

Not inconsequential to the equation is the fact that Mr. Kawakami, 22, is a flight attendant who was seeking someone he could get along with as a friend and would understand his odd schedule. ''Sometimes I go to work at 5:30 in the afternoon, sometimes 5:30 in the morning,'' Mr. Kawakami said. ''And I'm gone two to four days at a time, maybe 12, 15 days a month.''

Mr. Lawhead also travels. ''I go out of town on music jobs, so we each get a certain amount of privacy,'' he said.

The Gay Roommate Information Network is operated by DG Neary Realty. ''It's not a dating service, it's a roommate service,'' said Dan Gerstein, a principal of DG Neary.

Mr. Gerstein said he tells clients they should not accept a share with a someone for whom they feel a romantic chemistry. ''Instead, date,'' he said. ''Because when the fires of passion cool, you're going to have to have breakfast with that person, and that could be uncomfortable.''

Mr. Santomauro's Roommate Finders does not cater to a specific clientele. And while services rendered by different referral agencies certainly vary -- to the point where the Better Business Bureau of New York has recorded a significant increase in complaints this year -- the work done by Roommate Finders meets expectable, if unwritten, industry standards. It goes well beyond the mere distribution of apartment listings.

''We take into account 35 compatibility factors, so we don't waste anyone's time,'' Mr. Santomauro said. ''We take into account age range, sexual orientation, if they are open to living with two other roommates, to parent and child situations -- moving in with a family -- to pets, pet peeves, religious or racial preferences, if any, marijuana use, reformed alcoholics, smoking.

''We ask: 'Are you looking for a roommate for purely practical-financial reasons, or for companionship, or both? Do you keep routine hours? Entertain a lot?' '' Other factors commonly included in roommate profiles are attitudes toward noise, overnight guests, cleanliness, work schedules and dietary considerations, like keeping kosher.

But besides exchanging personal data, Mr. Gerstein said, roommate services should -- but do not always -- provide full information on their listings: factors like apartment size, building amenities, transportation connections. ''We not only describe the space they are renting, but the entire apartment,'' he said. ''We give them the floor plan, so that they have an idea what common space there is and what sort of creature comforts.''

And, of course, the rent.

''We list apartments throughout the New York area,'' Mr. Gerstein said, ''so the prices range from as low as $300 to as high as $1,300 or $1,400.''

POINTING out that the referral services are not involved in setting rents, Mr. Gerstein cautioned that some people listing apartments ''try to make a profit on it.''

''The person could be asking too much for a share,'' he said, ''like $1,200 for a living room.''

Mr. Santomauro said his company has a rent cap of $1,500. ''If it's a two-bedroom for $3,000, that would be $1,500 for each person,'' he said. ''Most rents are going to be around $800, $900 for a walkup in Manhattan; that's for a two- or a three-bedroom. Usually, an elevator building is around $1,000. And a doorman-luxury is around $1,100, $1,200.''

There is a wide range of fees and refund policies among the two dozen or so roommate referral services that are listed in the Yellow Pages or that buy display ads in neighborhood newspapers or in The Village Voice.

For example, at Roommate Finders, a ''shareseeker'' pays $300 for unlimited use of the service for a year, even if the original or subsequent matches do not work out. If the client finds an apartment on his own within the first 30 days, 50 percent is refunded. (Most services accept listings from tenants at no charge, but some ask for a small fee. At Roommate Finders, for example, the listing fee is $25.)

The Gay Roommate Information Network charges a shareseeker only $50, in part because it wants to serve its constituency. ''But we're not totally altruistic,'' said Mr. Gerstein, whose parent company specializes in apartment sales and rentals in downtown Manhattan. ''It gives us publicity for the real estate company. Our hope is that people will come back to us when they are ready to buy or rent an apartment, and that's how we really make our money.''

Another company, Rainbow Roommates, used to specifically serve the gay community. But Douglas Levy, its president, said it recently merged with Roommates N.Y.C., ''a straight but gay-friendly company.'' Rainbow Roommates charges $250 for four months' worth of service. ''If someone is not satisfied, we will consult with them, try continuously to make a new match,'' Mr. Levy said, but the company does not give refunds.

At Japanese Clientele Shares and Apartments, the $500 fee has no limit on the time or number of listings available to a client. ''If people register with us but find a place on their own,'' Mr. Kawahara said, ''we credit the whole $500 permanently. So they could come back any time they want to use the service again.''

And, of course, the levels of service vary.

Most agencies provide listings on a daily or weekly basis -- either by telephone, fax or on a Web site -- regularly updating the list. ''We call all of our listings every week,'' Mr. Gerstein said, ''and no listings are left in the system for more than three weeks -- so the clients don't see 500 listings and discover that 300 of them are gone.''

''It's unlikely that any realistic share is going to be available for more than three weeks,'' he said.

Many services customize their listings to a client's needs: by neighborhood, by rent level or by any particular preference. But most do not directly bring the parties together.

Japanese Clientele does. ''We actually make the appointment with the primary renter,'' Mr. Kawahara said. ''The people who register with us have to call in every day to find out their appointments for that evening -- two, maybe three a night.

''It's very difficult for our clientele, which is mostly students or corporate people from Japan, because their English is limited. And they have no credit history in this country, no Social Security number, even though they have financial backup from their parents or their company back in Japan. That's where we come in.''

Sometimes there is disservice -- but perhaps nothing as notable in recent years as the furor that Basil Paterson confronted as New York's secretary of state in 1981, during his investigation of the apartment referral industry.

''Agencies would emblazon on their show window, on their literature: 'Licensed by the State of New York,''' Mr. Paterson said recently. ''It gave the image of legitimacy. But too many of them weren't authentic, and we got voluminous complaints.''

His department, Mr. Paterson said, ''had people go out and pretend to be seeking apartment referrals,'' leading to a series of license suspensions and revocations. Among the chief complaints, Mr. Paterson said, ''was that people paid their money, would call about the referred apartment and it would have just been rented -- always just rented.'' The referral agency would then offer other listings.

In roommate services, said Ronna Brown, president of the Better Business Bureau of New York, that practice took, and still takes, its own twist on the old bait-and-switch scam. ''It's really just bait to get you in the door,'' she said.

Ms. Brown said roommate seekers should be wary of ads that sound like a specific apartment listing, especially if the apartment sounds too good to be true. ''One way that some companies scam consumers is to place an ad for what sounds like a specific apartment in the paper,'' she said. ''When you call to see the apartment, you're told you must pay the registration fee first.''

In the current torrid rental market, Ms. Brown said, the Better Business Bureau has recorded a marked increase in complaints about apartment referral and roommate services, ''82 so far in 2000, compared with 56 in all of '99.''

''Most of the complaints we receive say the company did nothing,'' she said, ''or that the listings were literally taken from last week's newspaper, or were months out of date.''

The bureau does not adjudicate complaints but will try to mediate a resolution. And it keeps records of the worst offenders. Consumers can check a referral agency's reputation with the Better Business Bureau at (212) 533-6200, or on the Web at www.newyork.bbb.org. They can also check to see if a company is licensed by calling the New York Department of State at (518) 474-4429.

NOT ONLY TRANSWORLD, BUT ALMOST ALL OTHER ROOMMATE SERVICES ARE GUILTY OF THIS...

WE CAN SHOW YOU A VIDEO OF WHAT FOX5NEWS REPORTS ON OTHER AGENCIES

Sharon Kwiatkowski contends that because of inadequate service by a particular agency, Transworld Roommate Referrals, she is still living with her parents in Milltown, N.J.

''Every single time I got a listing through the fax, there was something wrong with it,'' said Ms. Kwiatkowski, 23, who graduated from the Parsons School of Design in May 1999 and commutes to her job as a graphics designer in Manhattan. ''I filled out this contract and it specified what I was looking for. I wanted to live with a female. I said Midtown, 57th Street down to the Flatiron District, or south of Union Square.''

Her experience, Ms. Kwiatkowski said, ''is that I got all these listings and, in a number of these, they were not females. And, for the most part, they were way uptown, as high as 180th Street, way out of the area I was requesting.'' Ms. Kwiatkowski had paid a fee of $297.69. Reluctantly, she accepted a refund of $56.25.

JACK KOOPERMAN, an official in the legal department of Transworld, would not discuss details of Ms. Kwiatkowski's complaint about mismatches, saying, in general: ''This is done by computer. When we put in male, straight, 20 to 30 years old, nonsmoker, etc., the computer matches.'' For mismatches to occur, there would have to be a software failure, Mr. Kooperman said. ''And I don't believe it regularly breaks that way.''

The business is not a perfect science and complaints are inevitable, Mr. Kooperman said. ''Many times we get complaints that we give an individual listings and they call these listings and the person on the other end will inform them that the apartment is no longer available. Usually, when we follow up, it's a situation where they are trying to get rid of the person; they aren't comfortable telling the person why they are rejecting them and they're fearful that the individual has their phone number and will seek some kind of revenge.''

''This will turn into a complaint,'' Mr. Kooperman said.

Mr. Dzang, the son of the Ghanaian diplomat, has no complaints with the service he received, despite the apparent cultural differences with Ms. Nakaguchi. Mr. Dzang is a recent graduate of New York University with a degree in economics. Ms. Nakaguchi is studying business management at La Guardia Community College in Queens.

From 1995 to 1998, Mr. Dzang's father was Ghana's ambassador to Japan. ''I tagged along,'' Mr. Dzang said, ''so I speak a little Japanese. And I help her with her English when she doesn't understand her homework.'' They share household chores and sometimes go to clubs together, he said, but usually they meet at at home at about 10 p.m., cook the evening meal and chat.

During his stay in Japan, Mr. Dzang said, he learned that rents there are high and rooms are small. Ms. Nakaguchi pays $495 -- half the rent -- for her share of the two-bedroom apartment.

''It's a bit bigger than a closet -- maybe 10 by 18,'' Mr. Dzang said of Ms. Nakaguchi's room. ''She thinks it's a mansion.''

Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company