I need alternate methods to find an apt, Craigslist can’t be the only thing in the world. Every other place I look at is well, annoying real estate places trying to hustle me out of my money. Can someone tell me any other “Craigslist” type of places I could check (Loot?). I also plan on pounding the pavement and hitting some cafes or small coffee shops in hope of them having a bulletin board. Any other suggestions NYC (or other) Dopers?
Thanks
NYPress and Village Voice classifieds. NYTimes for more upscale listings.
Newspaper listings usually suck. They are all brokered out, and everyone tries to use them so the fees and rents are really high.
Pounding the pavement really is the best way. Go to the neighborhoods you like and pick up the neighborhood weekly. Mine (The Manhattan Times) really is a good paper and often has apt listings.
Also, church newsletters can be a great way to find deals. Just walk up to a church and tell them you are thinking about joining, so you’d like to see a newsletter. With luck, you’ll get one. An acquaintance of mine and his roommates got a 3BR on the upper west side for pennies this way, since the old lady who owned the building didn’t rent it out at full market price.
Do you have friends in NYC? Do they know you are looking for an apartment? Word of mouth can be very effective.
Generations of musicians have solved this problem by finding girlfriends or boyfriends with nice apartments.
Yes I’ve lived here my whole life. My life has become very Manhattan-centric these past few years as my school and work are both there. I’ve been in the same (a beautiful place btw) for 6 years in Brooklyn, but it’s time to move on. I’ve put the word out to people, but the main prob is they only know places in Brooklyn.
www.roommates.com (assuming you want to share, I’d assume you do). however I don’t think you can check individual suburbs just the entire city of NYC. I have no idea how to narrow it into specific burroughs or suburbs.
http://www.citycrybs.com/ lets you check individual suburbs and burroughs.
Yeah, I’m going to go walk around some 'hoods today and look for any leads I can find.
[quote=Ichbin Dubist]
Lol, unfortunately that isn’t an option right now, but nice one.
[QUOTE=World Eater]
Yeah, I’m going to go walk around some 'hoods today and look for any leads I can find.
Where are you looking to move?
[QUOTE=Maeglin]
Well it’s a bit of a balancing act. I’m mainly focusing on Manhattan and areas of other boroughs directly across from Manhattan. I work at the tip of lower Man, and go to school towards the top (137th). Ideally something along the 2,3 in between those places. As I get more deperate my search will slowly expand deeper into the other boroughs. There is a catch though, I don’t want to live above midtown because my girlfriend is in the village, and all my friends are in Brooklyn. Brooklyn Heights would be ideal as well. I’m looking for $1000 or less (preferably $800-$900, as I pay $900 now and would like to save a few more bucks) in either a studio for myself, or sharing with some room mates.
$800-900 per month in midtown? Good luck, dude.
FWIW, I work in the WFC and I can see the Broadway Bridge out my living room window.
When I lived there, I just did what you said, walked through the neighborhood and looked for signs “for rent”. What worked, however, was when I went into a local Gay bar and told the bartender I was looking for an apartment in the area. He went to the other end of the bar and said something to an older guy sithing there having a drink. The guy came to me and said he was the manager of a building three blocks away. I met him at the building an hour later. Two hours later, I had the signed lease and I moved in the next day. So I guess the trick is to get the word out that you are looking. Ask shop keepers at the local deli, as the waiter at the diner, as the person making coffee, ask the hot dog vendor. At some point, someone will know someone who knows someone.
BTW, my best friend in NYC called me yesterday…she just got an offer on her studio (450 square feet) that she couldn’t refuse. The neigbor wants to tear down the wall and make his apt bigger…he offered her $400,000. She paid $65,000 for it 6 years ago. She took his offer.
I can see the Brooklyn Bridge too.
…[sub]when I look at the picture on my ATM card[/sub] 
Yeah I know those prices are tough, but they’re not impossible. My GF landed a place (a nice place) in Union Square for $800 a month after about 3 weeks of looking. I just have to look at a lot of places and it’ll work out. The more ways I can search for places, the easier it be to accomplish my crazy goal.
World Eater, why don’t you move to Boston? I’m looking for a tenant. And they fixed the Acela… I think.
Everything along the 2-3 until you hit Harlem is expensive, and Harlem is getting expensive. Brooklyn Heights is expensive. Two couples just moved into a one-bedroom across the hall from a friend of mine, splitting $2600 a month for the honor of sharing a tiny bathroom and a few dozen square feet each in a not-very-nice part of Park Slope. OK, the whole frickin’ city is expensive. You’d be better off being rich, I hate to break it to you.
That being said, if you really want to live alone for less than a grand I’m pretty sure you can still get a studio near the Grove Street PATH station in Jersey City for that kind of money; certainly a share. It’s very quick to the WFC, reasonably close to the Village and Brooklyn, and you can do your homework on the long train ride to City College. The area is better than its reputation; it now contains trendy coffee shops and restaurants in addition to the old Cuban places and old-man bars you don’t want to go into. You can save even more money by living near the Journal Square PATH, but there’s less to do and it’s quite a bit more downmarket.
(OK, I think this may be the 3rd time I’ve extolled the virtues of Jersey City in 101 posts; I’d better stop that. It’s a death trap, it’s a suicide rap…)
I was going to say Astoria, but it’s not convenient to Brooklyn. Ah, well.
You might also want to consider living in the Museum of Natural History a la From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil T. Frankenweiler. If that seems stuffy, there’s always the penguin house in the Central Park Zoo.
I wouldn’t knock Jersey City, around Grove Street, at least. I crashed with relatives there for a year and I really liked it. Prices aren’t as nice as they used to be around there, but you can still find something decent. And the PATH is reliable. I recommend it.
I lived west of Journal Square for about six years, in the Marion District. It was affordable, but remote. I grew bored and lonely there. I moved out because the rents were going up and the neighborhood wasn’t getting any more interesting.
As to where I live right now: don’t ask. It’s a long story. I intend to get the hell out as quickly as possible, and shake off my unpleasant situation. I’m looking for a place, myself, ideally a quiet neighborhood where my girlfriend and I can move in together. We’d love Park Slope, but it’s just too expensive these days. We’ve heard good things about Astoria and Sunset Park, but we want to case those neighborhoods first.
We’ve done most of our looking on Craigslist, but it’s just casual glancing for now, since we don’t expect to move until October. The New York Times site has some good stuff, we’ve found, but since we haven’t actually started looking, I can’t tell you what works quite yet. Checking neighborhood publications sounds like a sound idea, though. I’m going to try that.
As to moving in to the Museum of Natural History: my dad went to high school with E.L. Konigsberg for a while, so maybe he knows someone who’s still in touch with her and explain the logistics of that and maybe appropriately shame me for gratuitously mentioning that fact.
I’ve thought about Jersey city, but do to a combination of factors, I really prefer to find a place in Manhattan. Not so much because I don’t want to, but more because other people don’t want me to. I continuing to pound the pavement and picking up local newspapers was a good idea, so keep the suggestions coming. 
Similar people probably would have urged you not to move to the Lower East Side in 1980 or Hoboken in 1988. Screw 'em. A year ago I had a 3-room apartment in JC a ten-minute walk from the Grove Street PATH for $750 a month – with a parking spot. Try that in 212. Hell, If I had money to spend on real estate I’d be probing icky unimaginable corners of the South Bronx right now. By the time a neighborhood is acceptable it’s too expensive to live in for mere mortals. (Yes, please, non-New Yorkers, feel feel to laugh at this whole damned thread. Me, I love to remind city people when they mock “trailer trash” that your average trailer is three or four times the size of their apartment, and four months or their rent would probably pay one off in full.)
More helpfully, I wonder if Battery Park City has a message board for shares – that seems like a good spot for your needs. I doubt you could afford to live there alone, but maybe there’s an unadvertised deal. If you like that whole artificial-lost-fishing-village vibe. (But then again, your view would be Jersey City, sad to say.)
Have you considered buying? It’s a little pricey, but here is a nice place described in the NY Times. 
:eek:
Listen to the gay men about this, if you can engage one in conversation. My uncles (technically, my uncle and his partner) lived in Brooklyn Heights until 1973, when they bought a dilapidated three-story brownstone in Jersey City, cheap, and fixed it up. People told them they were insane, but they knew what they were doing. In the beginning they would have to take shuttle buses from the Grove Street station to their home, which was no more than four blocks away. They would hear guns at night, and car theft was sometimes a problem. But their patience paid off, and they found themselves living in a nice, quiet neighborhood after a little bit, and when they sold in 1999, I imagine they cleaned up. (I would never ask them what they got; that would be crass. But I’m dying to know!)
Despite what it says up there in the right-hand corner of this post, I’m currently living in the South Bronx. It’s temporary; I’ve been there just over a month, and I’ll be out by the end of October, hopefully. I still think of myself as a Brooklynite; this Bronx move is unacceptable to me. (It’s a long story.) I told my uncles about it, and they blanched. I guess if I’d bought property there and weren’t renting they might have a different reaction, but they can’t wrap their minds around living there. Neither can I, frankly, and if I had the money, I don’t think I’d buy there, either, although there are a few fixer-uppers on my block, at least. Conveniently located a few blocks away from the jail, in fact.
I hate the place. I don’t mind being possibly the only white guy on the block, but I do mind being reminded about it by the delightful urchins who call out epithets to me as I walk past. Shopping isn’t so great up there, either. I’m seeing my uncles in a couple of weeks, so hopefully I can get a clearer idea about the High Bridge neighborhood when I do. In the meantime, I’m trying to find a nice two-bedroom in Sunset Park or Astoria or some such place. As Ogden Nash so eloquently put it: “The Bronx? No, thonx.” Maybe it will be hot property in the year 2025, but I’m not prepared to be so forward-looking…