Apartment hunting

It's a pain in the ass to find apartments in New York. Not only is it super expensive to live here, but good apartments and rooms for rent get snatched up quickly.

I have put in an application for an apartment I want, because if I didn't they'd go ahead and leave me in the dust. Three real bedrooms, eat-in kitchen, living room, exposed brick, newly renovated, close to trains and buses, rent-stabilized ... these phrases now sound like poetry to me, and even though the description for this apartment didn't include "laundry in building" or "elevator", I really wanted it. I'm familiar with the neighborhood, Washington Heights, and that part is not bad. It would be nice to get it so that I can stop the madness of schlepping all over the place looking at apartments.

I saw one place that turned out to be a tiny two-bedroom with no living room, in the basement -- disgusting. I saw a beautiful and huge renovated apartment but it was at the tip of Manhattan, which isn't so bad in itself, but the walk from the nearest train station didn't feel safe -- through a rather desolate industrial area. Saw a large studio that was actually habitable, but I had gone through a broker, which would have meant paying a fee of 12% the annual rent -- $1500 or up, which is completely ridiculous. And the one place I was set on getting, and for which I had applied (which meant submitting an application fee as well as a million financial documents), turned out to be deregulated, meaning they can raise the rent however much they want. Granted, I didn't clarify the rent before applying, so the loss of the application fee is all my fault, but nobody would have guessed that they were going to raise the rent by $900 a month! Shane is the current holder of the lease, and they pay $1600 for a large three-bedroom. I thought the highest it could go would be $2200, which would still be reasonable, but they told me $2500. I almost had a heart attack when they told me that. A monthly rent of $833 is not bad in New York City, and in such an up-and-coming (read: gentrifying) neighborhood in particular, but Shane has had bad experiences with the management company and the superintendent of the building, so it is definitely not worth more than $700/month.

So this place I'm applying for, it seemed great, especially after all the other crap; I saw it, got a good vibe from the no-fee brokers, and felt very sad when the guy told me that someone else was going to put in an application. When they told me that I could have it as long as I gave them a deposit of the first month's rent, I decided not to wait and see if I could get a better deal.

Nevertheless, I can't stand the thought of moving lots of furniture and all my stuff up to another fourth-floor walkup. Somebody told me I should hire movers, which I've never done in my life because I'd rather save money and move things by myself (and rope in a few friends to help), but it might be worth it.

Now, on to the task of finding roommates....