Moving to New York City – Step 1: Finding an Apartment

Spacious one bedroom with exposed brick!

After weeks / months of preparing, searching new posts on graigslist and broker websites, almost being scammed (still to be posted – stay tuned) and contacting brokers, in the beginning of November 2008, we finally put theory into practice: the search for an apartment in Manhattan.

Compared to Brussels, the real estate market of New York is very liquid: each day a few hundred new apartments are added and on the same day an equal number is rented. So, must be peanuts to find an apartment in the Big Apple … if only we weren't (i) foreigners (from Belgium, the capital of Brussels!), (ii) without fixed income as of January '09 and (iii) without guarantor (being, a rich sugar daddy). In addition, the relation landlord – renter is completely different in the US than in Belgium. Where the Belgian renters are (maybe over-)protected, in the US it is more an "eat or be eaten" mind-set. The renter needs to fill in an application (for which in most cases he needs to pay an application fee!) and the landlord decides at his own discretion whether or not to accept the renter and how much security he will ask. Finally – and this is unthinkable in Belgium, the renter needs to pay the broker's fees up to 10 to 15% of the annual rent.

… OK … so this may not be as easy as we thought.

Upon arrival in New York and after having dumped our luggage in our cosy bed & breakfast (which we can recommend btw!), we just enter the first broker's agency which crosses our path (right around the corner from our B&B). A strategy from Ward – talk to as many people as possible within as little time as possible. Afterwards, it seems that the broker's agency is JC De Niro & Associates: an upscale broker's agency incorporated by Jack De Niro (indeed, family of…). Our broker, however, thinks we have potential (a future MBA student sponsored by his employer who may once buy an apartment in New York – who knows?) and immediately helps us in our search. Before we know it, we're facing our first New York apartment viewings in Chelsea (downtown Manhattan).

Many people warn you about New York apartments, they're expensive and small. So we came prepared… According to craigslist and the broker websites, the high end of our budget (i.e., the price of a nice Brussels' apartment times three) buys us the following in Chelsea: "Chelsea steal! Elevator building with 24-hour doorman and on-site laundry. Close to all transportation. Spacious one bedroom with hardwood floor, generous storage space, on a high floor and abundant natural light". Sounds perfect, not?

Reality hurts. Our first viewing in Chelsea is indeed an apartment in an elevator building – and indeed, there is a little old man with gloves at the entrance – and indeed there is an extra room which might, with some imagination, qualify as a "one bedroom" – and there are hardwood floors, but they may be a little gray rather than brown – and there is some "abundant natural light" thanks to a small window facing a wall. Wake-up call!

The following viewing surprises us (at least compared to what we saw earlier): ok, a small but decent apartment/studio with everything you need and when you look out the window, the top of the Empire State Building! This is what you expect when you move to New York, not? Ward, very excited, convinces me to sign an application form – and nothing's free in NYC, to hand over the dollars to consider our application, …

At night, there is doubt – do we really need to spend the following year and a half in a small apartment of 35 m²?

***to be continued***

Links:
Craigslist
Our B&B
Our broker