I’ve just about convinced myself to apply for a position I recently saw open in NYC. I think I might really enjoy it if I were to get the position, so I think I’m going to apply. My only major concern is that I’ve head horror stories about finding an apartment in NY. Is it really that bad? What are the quirks that I’d need to be aware of - like what’s a fee vs no-fee listing? Other things that you just don’t know until you’ve had to deal with it?
(I know costs would be significantly higher than I’m used to, but I would have to consider that when negotiating if I got an offer - but that possibility is a long way off at this point.)
Well what kind of budget are you looking at? Are you male or female? Do you have a preference of location (iow, where would the job be)? Are you looking to buy or rent?
From what I know (only from the posting), Greenwich Village - I don’t have a specific address because it sounds like, from the posting, that thee could be a couple of locations covered.
Because I don’t yet know what the salary range is, I’m not even sure what my budget would be. (I know this all sounds iffy, but I can say that it’s an established org and I’m doing my research). No preference on location, necessarily, but I certainly wouldn’t want to take my car - it would be sold as fast as I could. Female, but as of yet, I don’t even know enough about the different areas of the city - see, there’s a gap you guys can help fill in for me I knows the boroughs exist, but that’s about it.
I highly doubt you can’t even posit a reasonable salary range; there aren’t many jobs that could pay either minimum wage or six figures, depending on the details… :dubious:
I lived in NYC for 10 months, at company expense and Manhattan, is hard to find a flat in. You can easily find decent places in Brooklyn, Queens or the Bronx. And the trains are so fast, you can get their quickly. The public transit in NYC is excellent so you can live futher out.
Now if you insist on living in Manhattan, (that is Manhattan south of the North boundry of Central Park), you’ll run into a lot of problems.
You’ll also find a lot of the more reasonable rents come with things like “key money,” (You pay a yearly fee to get a key, usually like $2,000 to $5,000) and of course this money is paid in cash, 'cause the whole thing isn’t in the up and up.
It’s not impossible to find a decent flat in Manhattan at a decent rate but it will take a lot of effort and you will need a lot of time. You could be looking years before you come across a lead.
But the places I checked out in Queens and Brooklyn were no more than living in Chicago, where I live now and the subway got me to Times Square in 20 minutes.
But a lot of people say, “What’s the point of living in NYC if it isn’t Manhattan”?
Luckily it’s a renter’s market now in Manhattan; when I first arrived in in 2006, it was tough to find any rental listings that didn’t require a broker’s fee (a one-time fee of 10-15% of the yearly rent). When I looked at the end of 2009, most listings were no-fee, and some even offered a month or two of free rent.
Two good web sites for finding legitimate listings are www.streeteasy.com and www.nybits.com. What makes these sites better is that the listings come with real addresses, so you’re less likely to experience bait-and-switch than using Craigslist. At any rate, they’ll help you get an idea of what you’re likely to pay in each neighborhood.
For me the hardest part of the apartment hunt is the realization that my budget, which would probably be a mortgage on a McMansion in the midwest, doesn’t get you much. I was shown a lot of old, falling-apart apartments. But don’t resign yourself to decrepit conditions just because “it’s Manhattan.” With a little legwork you can find something that’s fit for a human.
Is that where the job is, or where you’d like to live? Because that’s one of, if not the, most expensive/desired areas to live in within the entire city. I lived in the center of Greenwich Village for a year, and loved it, until I found a cheaper (and much larger) place on the Upper West Side.
Are you open to having a roommate (or several?) That will severely cut down on expenses.
There are plenty of possible complications, but there are lots of places to live here, and if you’re willing to work at it and be smart, you can definitely find a place you are happy with. I recommend scouting out neighborhoods ahead of time and trying to build a relationship with a broker. You often have very little time to make a decision - a week, maybe two - and as a result you may feel pressure to pull the trigger on a place you feel iffy about, for fear nothing better will turn up. So if you have a move-in date of June 1, a broker will want to start showing you places in the last week of May. I recommend you start looking at places in late April instead. That way you get a sense of what is available in a given neighborhood before you have to buy.
Brokers get fees for showing apartments - usually it’s about 10 to 15 percent of the annual rent. (So if you get a place for $1,000 per month, the broker might get $1,200 to $1,800.) This can add a lot to your expenses, since most landlords will want one months’ rent in advance and the same amount as a security deposit. The good news is there are lots of no-fee places because of the current economy: many landlords are paying the fees themselves so you don’t have to.
As for other quirks? Make sure you know what utilities are included. (Usually heat and hot water are free.) And there’s the issue of internet access.
Prioritize. Do you need to be in a super nice neighborhood? (Often, the more desirable the neighborhood, the less space you get and the more you pay.) Would you be willing to consider living in another borough to save money? What features do you want the most? Do you care if the fixtures are new and shiny? Is it important that you have a short commute, or will you be willing to save some money by living further from a subway stop or on a less active street and having a longer commute? How much space do you need to feel comfortable? For example, would you be happy in a studio apartment, where everything (except the bathroom) is in one room? Or would you be willing to pay more for a one-bedroom? Are you willing to walk up several flights of stairs, or do you want/need a building with an elevator? Are you willing to pay more for a building with a doorman, which might make you feel safer? Then there’s the roommate issue.
I’m sure there are exceptions, but I’ve only ever heard of a broker’s fee being equivalent to one month’s rent (or about 8% of the annual).
Hard to give helpful advice to the OP without more details (especially budget). Don’t pay a broker’s fee if you can avoid it, obviously. Do pay attention to what your commute will be like: are you close to useful subway lines? How far is the nearest stop from your front door?
Two more items for my list: light and noise. Do you think you’ll need lots of windows and an unobstructed view to feel comfortable? I’ve known some people who didn’t have those things, and felt their places were a little cramped and depressing as a result. Others don’t care. And will it drive you insane if you are near active construction, or would you be able to tune out the noise and ignore stuff like sidewalk detours?
Finding an apartment is only as hard as you want to make it which unfortunately a lot of people do want to do. You have to have patience and realistic expectations but if you keep those things in mind you should be fine.
A lot of people also seem to have very adversarial feelings towards brokers and IMHO, they’re wrong (and this goes up by a factor of 100 if you ever want to buy an apartment). In your position, with a limited knowledge of the area, a broker can be your best resource. If you are dead set against paying a broker’s fee, you can usually find no-fee buldings where the landlord pays (the broker won’t care, he/she will be paid either way).
If I were you, I’d take a look at some real estate web sites to help you prioritize what you must have in an apartment. Some good sites are:
Note, I’m not suggesting you use any of the above nor am I saying you’ll find your dream apartment here just that these companies will have a fairly large database of listings for you to look through and to price. Also, all of the above are pretty Manhattan-centric but that doesn’t mean you should exclude other boroughs.
That’s where the job is. I’m not opposed to a roommate, but it’s been a long time since I’ve had one - I do have a fiend who’s in Brooklyn with one roommate and they have room for a second, so that’s a possibility - again, if the job woks out.
Thanks folks - these are things I wouldn’t know to ask about specifically, so it’s all very helpful in clarifying things for me!
A fee listing means there’s a renter’s broker. The renter pays the broker, usually 12% of the annual (roughly, one month’s rent).
A no fee listing means you pay no fee, it’s either for rent by owner or there’s a broker the owner pays.
Brokers can be a mixed bag, it sort of depends what kind of time you can devote to the project. Renting an apartment without a broker is pretty much a full contact sport and you can find great places but you’re going to kiss a lot of frogs. If you need an apartment on short notice you are pretty much going to need to use a broker. However, in my experience, fee apartments are cheaper, with nicer amenities, than no-fee apartments. This is because fee apartments are more likely to be professionally managed and have some clue about this thing called “maintenence.”
We ended up feeling that the $$ we paid to a broker was worth it, amortized over the “at least 3” years we planned to stay in the apartment – it was by far the nicest for the price we had seen with or without a broker.
Important: the subway map is not to scale. Do not use it as a visual reference for how far away things are, or how long the commute is from/to a particular place. You must test the commute from the apartment to know how long it is.
Important tip for actually moving to New York: You cannot take a moving truck on anything called “Parkway” There are low bridges, and you do NOT want to be that guy who fuxxors the morning commute by getting your truck jammed into a low bridge.
Huh? I lived in NYC my entire life prior to moving out of state (only 3 years ago). I lived downtown, in the Bronx, and Brooklyn. Most of my friends did the same. I have never, ever heard of something like this, ever. Even when searching listings and looking at properties, this “key money” thing never even came up. Did this happen to you directly? This sounds like one of those urban legend type things that people that are not native NYers hear about when talking to their friends about moving to the big, scary city of NY.
Anyway, **Lsura **- it’s probably a good idea to find out for sure whether or not you got the job first. One thing you will find about NYC brokers is that their time is VERY limited - or they will make you feel that way. Going in too early, without a clue of what your budget is, will make most brokers say “come back in a month when you have all your information.” It’s a very competitive market, though I have been hearing from friends that it is now a renter’s market. A lot of people are looking to rent their condo’s and co-op’s for a fraction of their value. But be careful - make sure you have your realtor do a public records search for any information about the properties regarding foreclosures and bank seizures. A quick search on the internet by your realtor will save you a ton of heartache.
Good luck, and enjoy your move! NYC is a great place to live once you get the lay of the land! I miss it every day, actually and try to make it back up as often as I can.
I have lived in and around NYC my entire life. I paid “key money” in 1979 and 1982 or 1983.
“key money” had it’s heydey in the 1970’s and early 1980’s when it was common to slip a super some money so that he would tell you first about a decent apartment that was about to become available. No broker, no running out to buy the Sunday Times on Saturday night to get a head start on the listings, etc. Slip the super a couple of hundred bucks and get the apartment before anyone else even knows it’s available.
When people move out of a rent controlled apartment now, it becomes decontrolled. It wasn’t like that years ago.
P.S. If anyone asks you for “key money” or a bribe to get an apartment now, refuse. It’s illegal. It means the person is not a broker but is trying to get a fee as if they were a broker.
This is true. But once you know your parameters, I do suggest looking as early as possible. One way to do this is to fudge your move-in date and say “I’m looking to move in on May 1 or June 1.”
