<p>Well, I spoke too soon. Somehow the deal fell apart as the place went to someone who had the lease before or something, not sure what the whole story is. Anyway at least she has some time (she’s in school housing until late December) as we are back to square one.</p>
<p>Brooklyn is much easier. While D’s landlords (who live on the 1st floor of D’s brownstone) originally asked for a guarantor, there was no specific salary requirement. D and her roommates just signed a new lease, and our guarantee was no longer necessary.</p>
<p>Sorry things fell through, FallGirl.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear that, FallGirl. our student had a couple of situations like this. Brokers get them hopeful and then, oopps-the landlord failed to mention they were 2nd in line or some such line. These transitions were, at times seemed “sketch”, even with major broker organizations and large management organizations. All calls and correspondence should be documented and try to keep as much info as possible secure. Much vigilance and perseverance required. That said, they wound up in a building with an apt. they wanted originally, with the paper-work /vetting being considered done from a non-sucessful attempt at a unit. Even better, the second unit was renovated completely before they moved in. Courage to all. We found this exhausting- the time pressure was a big factor.</p>
<p>We were lucky that we didn’t have to do any guarantee for D1. She handled the whole application by herself. It was the first grown up thing she did. D1 is coming up for a renewal this summer. She is wondering if she wants to get her own place or stay with her roommate. Both she and her roommate work crazy hours, so they are never at the apartment at the same time.</p>
<p>FG, it happens often. Hope your D is working with a good, strong agent, who could help her close the deal. If she is looking at UES, have her check out Rudin Realtor. They have some nice, large apartments at UES. Have her email them directly to see if they have vacancies. They don’t charge a fee if you go through them directly.</p>
<p>What neighborhood is she going to WORK in? About how much is she willing to pay? Does she want studio or one bedroom?</p>
<p>She doesn’t know exactly where she will be working but would like to stay at about $1600 or less for a 1 bedroom. The place we thought she had was just slightly over that. She is open to looking in Brooklyn, but when she checked out UES near 2nd ave, she really liked it there. Not looking for a “trendy/fun/happening” place just somewhere safe and with necessities like a supermarket/subway nearby. </p>
<p>OF- I will suggest that she contact Rudin Realty.</p>
<p>She is coming home today and will be here through the weekend so this will likely be put on hold until next week.</p>
<p>Not as trendy as UES, you may want to check out Queens, along the 7 or F train lines. Forest Hills, LIC and Flushing. Some times, you can start in the basement of a house and that is cheaper and larger than an apartment. I stayed in Kew Gardens for a while, near the airports. Not bad experiences at all.</p>
<p>Is the apartment two bedroom? Then she would rent out the other bedroom if the relationship did not work out.</p>
<p>Even so, if a financial bind arises, D spent an entire year living in the bedroom of a one bedroom while her roommate lived in the living room with a curtain around her bed. A little kitchen area and dining area were shared.</p>
<p>The apartment was on 87th St. just off CPW, and it was only $2100 for one bedroom in a nice brownstone. It was a fifth floor walk up.</p>
<p>She now spends weekends in a nice 2 bedroom in South Park Slope, Brooklyn. It’s a 2 bedroom she found for her BF and his best bud. Even amortizing in the broker’s fee, the apartment was cheaper than some that didn’t have brokers fees. 40x salary was just met by BF, but a guarantor was still required.</p>
<p>D has great rent: 0. She is living at home going to grad school ten minutes away, and so is S. just worked out that way. I did no credit checks. LOL.</p>
<p>decent apartments just became much, much less available since hurricane sandy destroyed so much housing in nyc, and many people are looking for places to live. before the storm it was a good deal easier to find something. now, not so. if she finds something else that is decent, she should take it right away. doesn’t really matter which neighborhood it’s in. nyc is very easy to get around-- now that the transportation system is up and running again.</p>
<p>My son sublet his Gramercy Park NYC apartment in 24 hours via Craigslist to a young woman displaced by Sandy. His (male) roommates had to sign off on her, but they were happy with her. </p>
<p>The moving van is there NOW to move his stuff to LA – he found a share on Craigslist out there!</p>
<p>A 500 sqft studio loft in Brooklyn in the building where my D rents currently goes for $1,775, utilities not included (it’s opening in January according to their website; with a bed loft space already built in, a full kitchen, and it looks like a tub is in the bathroom (as opposed to only a shower). It’s in East Williamsburg in a very up-and-coming neighborhood. The building is an old textile building and has a nearly 15k sqft roof deck with views 360* (it’s not a “finished” roof deck, but she and her roommates take folding chairs up and hang out day & night). My D could never afford that type of rent, so she’s in with 3 others in a 900 sqft unit, and they each pay $825. </p>
<p>OP, you can PM me for a link to the building if it is of interest.</p>
<p>I agree with franglish that this is a difficult time to look for an apartment in NYC (not that it’s ever easy). Our S is one of those displaced by Sandy. He lived in the financial district in a building with over 900 apartments - all are now uninhabitable until at least March. He used a broker to find that apartment in July (just graduated last May). Since being displaced he was very fortunate to find another apartment without a broker where he’ll live with roommate. In both cases he had to be willing to commit to the apartment on the spot - multiple people in line to take the same apartment in both instances (first time he was in one of 8 groups of people scheduled to see apartment that morning and in 2nd instance he thinks the broker knocked another group out of contention b/c they weren’t employed (though had guarantors). So make sure she has thought through what she’s willing to take, has all her paperwork in order when she goes to see apartments (for him that was offer letter from employer/pay stub, bank statement, tax statement) and is ready to make a quick decision. Good luck!</p>
<p>Fallgirl - you might want to suggest that she take a look at the bedford ave area of Brooklyn. The subway stops right there and there are some good restaurants/bars in the area. It’s a short subway ride on an L train - takes you right to union square or you can go beyond that and transfer to pretty much any train in the city very easily.</p>
<p>Here’s an example of one I found online - <a href=“Zip Code 11216 Apartments for Rent - 197 rentals | HotPads”>Zip Code 11216 Apartments for Rent - 197 rentals | HotPads;
<p>There are some nice apartments over there - a friend of mine lived in the one building but they just decided not to renew their lease because his roommate is getting married.</p>
<p>the price you quoted - would that be just her portion or is that the price she’s trying to get for the total?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That would be Williamsburg, aka hipster central. ;)</p>
<p>Booklady,</p>
<p>Didn’t know the official name for the area. I just know the subway stop - LOL.</p>
<p>I know my experience may not be typical, but I found both of my apartments in NYC (both studios) on my own through Craigslist. Each studio was around $1300 (the first one was very small, and the second one is in an old building, so there are trade-offs), and they were both on the west side, below 100 street and close to the subway.</p>
<p>It can be a lot of work, but it IS possible.</p>
<p>Both our NYC daughters used listings from a known broker (we helped with the fee) to rent their apartments, as we felt it eliminated the chances of getting ripped off, and they make it easy. We did have to co-sign (as new grads they have no money and no history) but our being on the west coast was no problem. Everything went smoothly and as expected. They’ve each been in their apartments over a year and are quite happy dealing with reputable landlords (yes, it’s too expensive, but what can you do?).</p>
<p>Both of my daughters live in Brooklyn and I live in Nassau County and work in midtown, dh is retired, senior federal executive so I am the guarantor for both of their apartments. Younger d lives in a railroad flat walk-up in Greenpoint with friend, they pay $1800 and just had no increase in rental beginning their second year there. Friend has the bigger bedroom and pays $1000, daughter pays $800. Heat is included, they have cable connection for internet access, no TV’s and electricity is not too bad. Older d lives with boyfriend in Prospect Heights (across Eastern Parkway from Brooklyn Museum and down a few blocks)-they live in older apartment building and pay $1800. Both leases required one month’s rent as fee in addition to security deposit. Older d moved from Philly where she had an entire row house for $1100. Younger d lived in apartment before this move in Bushwick- in a renovated tenement building with 2 roommates for total of $2100 a month. Younger d had the smallest bedroom and paid the least rent. Was guarantor there and also paid one month broker fee and one month security.</p>
<p>I am currently sitting in mr D1’s apartment on the UES. It is less than half a block to Central Park. It is big enough to sleep six of us easily tonight. There is a queen size bed, an inflatable queen size and two twin inflatable beds. There is even room for more.</p>
<p>She has a one bedroom apartment by herself. She started looking at the beginning of August because her lease on her other apt. ran out at the end of August. She said there was no use looking earlier because the apartments would be gone. For an example, her current apartment became available the day she looked at it. If she did not say yes and put down a deposit on that day , it would have been gone. She had to wait several days to know if she was the one who got the apartment. Competition can be brutal.</p>
<p>She tried no broker, but found the apartments to be “not to her liking”. However, she was able to negioate a lower fee with the broker she got the apartment from, the one I’m sitting in now.</p>
<p>She had to provide, as many have said, proof of employment, salary, etc. We did not have to do anything. She makes enough to not need us! Hurray, hurray!</p>
<p>all of the above posts about the logistics and prices involved in finding nyc apartments are normal. they’re expensive, landlords need a lot of info and guarantees of payment, and apartments can be awful. also hard to find.</p>