Yes. If you're moving to New York City from out of state or from abroad and can't get there in person before you have to sign a lease, you can hire someone to walk the apartment for you, film it, and tell you honestly what they saw. That's the entire idea behind Gander: a trained local scout tours the unit on your behalf so you're not committing to a lease - or wiring a deposit - based on five listing photos and a floor plan.
NYC apartments move fast. Good units get rented within days, sometimes hours, and landlords and brokers rarely wait around for an out-of-town applicant to book a flight just to see a 400-square-foot studio. If you're an international student, a resident starting a hospital rotation, or a professional relocating for a new job, you're often stuck choosing between two bad options: sign sight-unseen and hope, or lose the apartment to someone who can show up in person.
A remote tour is the third option. Someone local goes, looks at the space with your interests in mind, and gives you the information you'd have gathered yourself if you could've been there.
You can, and plenty of people do. The difference is who's on the other end of the camera. A listing agent's job is to rent the apartment - not to point out the water stain on the ceiling or mention that the "close to the train" listing is an eight-minute walk uphill. Gander has no broker relationship and takes no commission on any apartment, so there's no incentive to make a unit look better than it is. We're not trying to rent it to you; we're trying to tell you the truth about it.
Most people who book a Gander tour fall into a few groups: international and graduate students who can't fly in before orientation, medical residents and fellows relocating on a tight Match Day timeline, and professionals moving to NYC for a new job who have a few weeks, not a few months, to find a place. If any of that sounds familiar, this was built for you.
A Gander tour is a flat $79 - far less than a plane ticket, and a lot less than the cost of signing a lease on a place that turns out to have a mold problem or a broken heater. Reports don't come with a subscription or a catch; you book a tour when you need one.
If you're moving to NYC remotely and can't see an apartment in person, yes - someone can tour it for you. Gander has been doing exactly this since 2021, and has been featured in New York Magazine and Curbed along the way. Book a tour and get eyes on the apartment before you sign anything.
