Help with Negotiating Renting Apartment in NYC

[Masashi Borges-Silva]

I need your help/inputs!

I am shopping for an apartment in Harlem area around 150th and Bradhurst, and I need your opinion in where I can negotiate in terms of monthly rent and commission fee charged by an agent.

Below are the facts:

-The 1 bed room apartment is listed on Trulia.com for 80 days

-Original asking price was $1850 and recently reduced down to $1750.

-We are offering $1650 for the rent.

-Based on the rent, the commission fee is $2475, which is 12.5% of Annual rent (The agent already told me that it is reduced from 15%) . He also said that previous fee reduction offer was rejected.

What would you recommend in terms of approaching an offer that is beneficial to all three parties?

I would like to know offer example such as offer to pay full 15% of commission, but lower rent or offer asking rent price with lower commission (such as 10%).

Just a quick math, if I paid 12.5% in fee and $1650, then the equivalent rent would be $1856.25 = ($1650 x 12 + $2475)/12

Another example would be, 15% in fee and $1550 is $1705 = ($1550 x 12 + $1860)/12

10% in fee and $1750 in rent is $1925 = $1750 x 12 + $2100)/12 (this would be higher than the current offer...)

So I guess the math says, lowering the rent will help over all cost for me...?

Any input will be appreciated!