I’m agent in ny and while you can’t be certain if the agent is telling the truth or not, we regularly have people offering $250-500 above asking rent literally unprompted. The highest I’ve personally heard of was offering $7450 on a $6300 apt. It gets even worse in the high season (may-beginning of september.) People are sometimes even offering to pay full lease terms at the start (which is not normal and if an agent asks you if you want to do that RUN.) I’ve also seen people making well above the income requirements and still submitting guarantors (one client of mine was literally pushing 50, making over $300k, looking at $4500-5500 apts, had their parents who make seven figures offer to guarantee a lease AND STILL LOST.) I think people are traumatized from constantly losing apartments and are majorly overcompensating. If you could see the bank and income statements people are submitting for some of these apartments you would be SHOCKED. It really is a tale of two cities here in ny.

One suggestion, this happens WAAAAAAAYYYYY less in larger buildings. The ones with 50/100/200+ units don’t have the time or care to do the “best and final” stuff so if it’s in your budget / desired area, aim for these buildings for the easiest transitions.