My Apartment Search Part 3

So, I found an apartment in the East Village. I'm extremely excited about it. It's a great place. It has an open kitchen. Will get some new appliances. Is only 3 blocks from the subway. I really like the neighborhood. I'm ready to become an East Villager.

I'm a yuppie and, apparently, that is a bad thing again. As a yuppie, I do feel mildly bad about the gentrification of the East Village and how my arrival is a part of it. I'm also aware of how the 'locals' hate me. Regardless, I'm embracing the neighborhood in all it's tattooed glory. I've only been living here a short while, but I've already found a bunch of great places. There is a great burrito place on St. Mark's Place called Chipotle that only serves naturally raised meat. And on Houston, just a few short blocks away is a great little grocery store called Whole Foods.

Seriously though, I do hope that the East Village can keep some of its 'charm'. I hope the neighbors continue to keep their tattoos and piercings, despite my suit-wearing yuppie ways wandering in. The area has great (and relatively inexpensive) restaurants and bars and shops. One of my next steps here is finding all the good ones. I'm even going to try to hit up local hardware and miscellaneous stores (as soon as I find them) for my random apartment needs. It's been too easy to default to Bed Bath & Beyond and Home Depot, and with them being across town I'm cutting them out.

I expect that living in the EV while it struggles to maintain its character while the residents turnover (and are priced out) will be an interesting experience. What I think is funny about it is that people talk about the East Village and Punk as though one never existed without the other. The East Village has only most recently been associated with Punk Rock, before that, it was something else entirely (but I have no idea what). The evolution of neighborhoods in New York is a fascinating topic, and one that I know nothing about. It amazes me that neighborhood lines have been so clearly defined for so long and that the vibe can change so drastically from one avenue to the next. All over New York people fight to get landmark status for every foot so that it never changes. I'm all for respecting the past, but at some point, you need to move forward. What if the tenements of the early 1900s were landmarked as reminders of an important time in New York's history? Would anyone actually be in favor of that? Does anyone who has lived in the EV for the last 30 years really want to go back to the crime of the 80s? Am I, a suit-wearing yuppie, that much worse than a gun-toting mugger? (Note: That's a dramatization. I admit ignorance about what type of crime was going on here in the 80s)

I'm not sure where I come out on the whole issue of gentrification/preservation. In my gut, I feel like I don't belong here, but I love living here. I'm against every neighborhood looking the same (glass walled condos, Chipotle, Whole Foods, etc.) I want to embrace the hyper-local culture and become a part of it (I need to get some black pants and converse). At the same time, how can I really feel like a part of it? I commute to midtown to work for a giant, faceless corporation and come home to a neighborhood where every inch of every person is different from the one next to it. For me, it's important to have that feeling of out-of-place-ness while walking home in a suit. But, I realize that I am most certainly either a part of the engine of change for this neighborhood or proof that it has lost its soul.

What do you think? Am I overreacting? Where do we draw the line between history and progress?

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My Apartment Search Part 2

Apartment searching in New York is a pain in the ass. There are a lot of things that landlords and brokers do to make the process difficult for anyone working full-time. I think every landlord should have a lot of photos of their apartments as well as a detailed floorplan. That could save everyone a lot of time (and further reduce the need for brokers).

I can think of a few reasons why they want to make it harder to find good apartments:

• When it's difficult to find an apartment on your own brokers can charge more (up to 15% of the annual rent in some absurd universes)
  
• Brokers are lazy and can earn a living by basically doing nothing but carrying a clipboard
  
• They want to make it more difficult to compare apartments and frustrate you into either paying more or taking suboptimal housing stock off the market
  

As you know, I am on my own apartment search. I'm happy to report that it's nearly over. My application was accepted on a 1br in the East Village. (Aside: I ended up trading some space for location, but was well below budget, which was unexpected. And, no fee! But, that's a different post)

The reason I'm telling you about this is because I tried really hard to identify any and all tools that would help in finding an apartment without paying a brokers fee. I really believe that brokers should be a dying breed and that maybe we only need maybe the top 10% of them (which is why I thought RentClub could be a good idea). During my search, I spent a lot of time browsing Flyrig, Streeteasy and NYBits looking for no fee apartments. I even entertained a few negotiated fee places. (I came really close on a Garden 1br for $2800 in Chelsea, with a 1 month fee). I looked at Stuytown where it turns out that the apartments are amazing but the price is too high and the location not good (they wanted ~$3200 for a 1br on 20th and Ave B). But, after all of this work, how did I find my place? Craigslist. Amazing. I'm not sure if anyone will ever be able to beat it. The big advantage that it has is that it's easy to use for individual landlords. And, the value it provides to apartment seekers is the wealth of listings. I think I'll be checking craigslist for years to come.

What about you? How did you find your last place?

My Apartment Search: Part 1

I've spent a good deal of time looking at apartments (both listings and actual apartments) in NYC (see my list of resources here). I'm having a hard time deciding on what my price range is for my next place. And I'm not exactly sure what's most important to me.

Here is my current list of considerations:

1. I want to be near the places that I go out: Walking home from a bar is far better than trying to hail a cab and then stay awake for the ride. Not to mention the cost of riding 70 blocks and the inevitability of me trying to ride the subway home one night and waking up sans valuables at a subway stop in Brooklyn. Which neighborhoods are those? I think LES, East Village/Alphabet City, West/Greenwich Village and Soho/NoLita. Almost certainly south of 34th St, ideally south of 14th.
   

2. I want to be near a subway that gets me to work: I currently work in Midtown West, within commute-walking distance of just about every subway line (1,N,R,W,B,D,F,V,C,E; basically all local trains except the 6, which I can use to connect pretty easily on the E). So, this one shouldn't be much of an issue. It includes basically all of Manhattan, Long Island City, Brooklyn
   

3. I want to be near a good grocery store: As you may know, I cook a lot. So, I like to have good selection of grocery stores. I was previously living near Union Square, which is probably the best grocery store situation in the City with Trader Joe's and Whole Foods within a few blocks. I think this limits me to the Union Square/East Village area or the UWS, or potentially LES. Though, I guess I could survive anywhere there's a whole foods.
   

4. I want a good sized apartment: I'm not looking for a 900 square foot apartment. I think I could survive on 650+, but more space is obviously better. Obviously, this limits most apartments, though I found a place in Soho, which generally has the smallest apts, that would have been a good enough size for a reasonable price.
   

5. I want a nice kitchen: So many listings are newly renovated with brand new kitchen appliances, including a gas stove and lots of counter space. I guess those are luxuries I'd be willing to part with.
   

So, that's what I'm looking for. Now, I think I've listed them in order of importance. But, the weighting is the hardest part. I would probably trade some space to be in a cooler location. I don't want to live in a shoebox though. I feel like I spend too much time in my apartment, so I'd like it to be pretty big. I'm not going to pretend that I could incentivize myself to go out more if it was too small.

Rents in Manhattan are absurdly high. Though word on the street is that the rental market is coming down. That said, living further away from things will cost me cab rides late at night, which are suboptimal (see above). Up until now, I had been considering anything and everything, but I think I'm not yet ready to make the move to Brooklyn (unless all of you want to come with me at the same time). The Upper West Side could work because the prices are better and even though weekend nights would involve lots of travel, weekend days wouldn't because I'd be near Central Park, where people would come to visit. Also, a few people already live up there and potentially more would move uptown as the years go by.

I still have no conclusion to where to really focus, so I'll be all over Manhattan from UWS to LES, but ignoring Midtown, UES, and Chelsea west of 7th Ave. What suggestions can you give to me? Where should I live?

[Quick postscript: I am still convinced that brokers are scumbags and due to most people's busy lives manage to not only push up prices, but charge absurd 15% commissions. But, that's a topic for another time]

Are there any good brokers in NYC?

I'm not so sure.

NY Rent Club challenges my beliefs at a fundamental level. It's a website that intends to help you find a place in NYC exclusively through the help of a broker. It has no listings. You go to this website only if you are willing to use a broker. It costs renters nothing, and makes money from brokers when they place someone in an apartment.

As a renter, you go to the site, put in your apartment preferences (location, size, price, amenities) and are shown a list of relevant and rated brokers. Seems like a good model.

I like that they require 3 references before a broker can even sign up. Then, once a broker gets on the site, renters can rate them based on their experience. They also guarantee renters a 20% discount, but if you know me, you know that I think 15% is bullshit to begin with. I still think 12% is high.

If you're willing to use a broker, this might help prevent a piece of shit broker from wasting your time.

Thanks to : Thrillist

Looking for rentals in NYC

The search for a great rental apartment is what brings all NY'ers together. It's the one unifying theme in all of our lives. We've all dealt with shady brokers, fake listings and craigslist. Some of us have paid as much as 15% of a years rent in a brokers fee, thats two months! Others have dropped $200 or so for those nearly worthless no-fee apartment listings.

There are better options. StreetEasy and FlyRig. I haven't actually used either yet, but here are my first impressions.

StreetEasy is the most comprehensive listing I have come across for New York City apartments. It has both rentals and sale properties. I haven't actually used it yet to find a place, but it looks fantastic. It doesn't have the crap postings you get with Craigslist. The search function is very good with all of the basics (neighborhood, amenities, maps). But it has a 'commute time' option built in from HopStop. Phenomenal, especially for people who are fed up with paying absurd real estate prices and are forced to consider Brooklyn or Queens. The only downside that I've seen is that there are limited pictures for many postings, and they force you to other websites to learn more. The force to other pages, may be why so many properties are listed, but its still a little bit of a hassle.

FlyRig is still new and so its best feature is not fully operational yet. I love this website, because a couple of months before I found it, I had been talking about building something just like it. It doesn't yet have a great database of listings, but my favorite feature here is that the brokers get feedback, like eBay sellers. So, while I'm not 100% familiar with the protections against false reviews, I want to believe in FlyRig--if for no other reason than that the brokers I've dealt with have been mostly scumbags and this site would give me the ability to impact their future business. This website lists some NoFee places, but not many yet. Most postings have a ton of pictures right in the website.

So, friends, give these two sites a try and let me know if you find anything good. I'm hoping we all can save a bit of money on rent and broker's fees in the near future.