@busdriver11 - my D lived in a 4th floor walkup in Hamilton Heights for a year. She was not far from City College and could walk to the one train in 5 minutes. She had many friends that were also actors that lived in the area. She never felt unsafe there.
That’s good to know! I was looking at some stuff online that was about 8 years old, and they mentioned not much as far as services, some gang activities going on…kind of scared me. He says he feels safe, that it is right by a college and a high school (though I don’t know if that’s a great thing).
@busdriver11 - if he is near City College then he should be fine.
Thank you, I’ll ask him!
Yes, it’s right across the street from the college. Looked it up on Google maps, looks really nice. Can’t believe these are 2-3 million dollar condos. Hope it’s not a scam.
@busdriver11, if you would like to PM me and tell me the street that it’s on, I will speak with my nephew, who’s a sergeant in NYC and works in Hamilton Heights.
Sure, I will. Thank you! I think he’s going to go with it, he said the other ones he looked at tonight are really small, and he’s running out of time.
Late to this thread.
My d found an apartment via “Street Easy” in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. 4th floor walk up.4 beds. Her share is $1100. So right at your d’s budget.
She found the process stressful. She also started looking too soon. You really have to wait till the month you are moving. They found the place and moved in the following week. A couple of the girls sublet their rooms in their previous apartments to summer interns. In the end they found a couple of places they would have been happy living.
DonnaJ, my daughter used Diggz when she needed a new roommate. And her place is about your daughter’s budget but it is a 2 bedroom converted from a one bedroom.
You can set up a custom search on Craigslist and Streeteasy. Streeteasy will email you new listings every day.
Brooklyn is a big place, with varying accessibility between neighborhoods. But I’m sure your daughter knows that!
I agree completely that the later in the month you look, the more likely it is that you’ll find something that sticks!
“busdriver11 - if your son ends up subletting, I would have him pay the landlord, not the tenant. Make sure the landlord approves the sublet. I certainly wouldn’t give 3 months rent to the tenant”
That seems odd, pay the landlord? I can’t imagine the person subletting the place would allow that.
However, I am uncomfortable with what the tenant is asking—first and last month’s rent, and a deposit. For a four month lease. Last month’s rent? Who asks for that?
It’s common for one-year leases, @busdriver11. They don’t want the tenant to skip out.
Okay. Well, it’s just a four month lease. He seems quite confident it’s not a scam, found it on gypsy housing, the guy has all sorts of stuff on his facebook page, and seems very traceable. Can’t help but be paranoid about this stuff when I’m not there, I guess that’s what a mom does!
Speaking of Hamilton Heights, the area north of there, Inwood is also really nice, on the west side of Broadway.
Just an update:
D found a spot in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn (listed on Craigslist and at the top end of our recently increased price range–no surprise), and is very happy with it (nice area and less than 25 mins. door to door to school), but the whole experience was such an unpleasant drag. At least ten trips into NYC, mostly after a full day of work, the worst of which was the one where she got a text just as she arrived at the address at 8:30 saying that they had decided to go with the person who had the prior appointment. I think they should have seen everyone who had appointments before deciding, but etiquette doesn’t seem to be a strong suit among some young folks. (But then there was the nice person who insisted D have a beverage and take a granola bar for the trip home.) She was thrilled with a place in Harlem, and was all set to take it, but then on the way back to the subway she passed two strung out junkies and saw several police cars converging on a corner and decided it wasn’t the right neighborhood.
It does seem true that, as one poster mentioned, more places surface as the last month of occupancy comes to an end (advance planning also not a strong suit for many). So my parting advice is to leave plenty of time for the hunt and be prepared to jump on the right spot, even if it means either taking a place a month before it’s actually needed or taking it the day before move-in.
Now I’m happy to take advice on buying a bed. Chances are it’ll be left behind when she leaves in a few years, so it has to be on the cheap end. It appears Ikea offers a platform bed and mattress that fill the bill, and they’ll deliver any amount of stuff for a flat $59, so we may deal with that madhouse this coming weekend–though the prospect of putting furniture together doesn’t thrill D. I’m thinking there must be some local place that offers same day or next day delivery and set-up with low-cost options, since there are so many students with the same needs in NYC, but I’m not finding anything other than the usual chain stores.
Best of luck to everyone on the NYC housing hunt!
My D bought some second hand furniture when she was living in NYC and actually rented a van with her roommate at the time and picked up furniture from 2 places and took it to their 5th floor walkup and carried it upstairs! My D grew up in California and was used to driving the big suburban I used to have so driving a rented van was fine for her.
Glad she found something! NYC is just tough – no two ways around it.
No great ideas for bed…typical ideas of places that set up and are reasonable are Sleepys and Bobs. For my D we brought a bed from our house (because it was on its last legs and we’ll toss it out when she moves) and got a new one for our home.
Congratulations on your D finding a place.
There are many outfits in NYC that will assemble Ikea furniture for her. Look for furniture assembly in Yelp. This service will aslo deliver your furniture and assemble for you.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/ida-flatpack-furniture-services-new-york-2
We bought a bed at Macys in our hometown and it was delivered ( no delivery fee) to her Manhattan apt.
Beware of Red Hook Ikea delivery. D was told the process can be very frustrating. We bought some bedroom furniture and we took a minivan/cab back to her apartment. There is a taxi service right outside Ikea.
MommaJ, congratulations to your daughter. Prospect Heights is a lovely neighborhood.
There are Zipcar and Uhaul rental vans in the Red Hook IKEA parking lot.
I have an IKEA mattress that I LOVE. It cost less than $200 and fit in the reclined front seat of my car. I think it’s this one:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30307409/#/70307407
It’s a very comfortable firm spring mattress. I figure that if it wears out in a few years, I can afford to buy another! They also have foam mattresses, mattresses with memory foam, etc. on display for customers to check out. After I rolled the mattress up the steps and unwrapped it, it magically got taller. Reallly a wonder of packaging. I was going to borrow a friend’s car with a hatchback but it turned out not to be necessary.
I got a box spring via Amazon–
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZJTV5NI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It seems bizarre but it comes together in a jiffy and does the job. I put the box spring on top of a metal bed frame (the kind that’s adjustable for twin-full-queen size box springs but if you had or bought a slatted bed frame, the IKEA mattress would be fine.
I have a friend who bought a bunch of IKEA furniture and paid the store to send someone to deliver and assemble it so that’s also a possibility. And I believe that your daughter could buy her stuff at any metropolitan area IKEA and they will arrange the shipping. My friend bought her stuff from the Hicksville (Long Island) IKEA and it was delivered and assembled in Manhattan.