Apartment Search Day 1: figuring out the NYC apartment scene

Today I officially met with a broker and saw a few apartments! It was a very, very interesting experience.

I am quickly learning that not everything that my roommate and I want in an apartment is going to be possible. I did know that would happen to us before, but now that I have actually seen a few places, it has been officially shoved in my face and I have to accept it.

I WISH this is the type of places we were looking at!

We went to 2 different apartment buildings.

The first building was on 28th street between 1st and 2nd Avenue. It was beautiful - new, there was a doorman, laundry in the building, and literally the PERFECT apartment was one of the places that I saw there. Like I literally am in disbelief that that place was so amazing, and within our price range. But the location is just too inconvenient. We want to be more central, with 2nd Avenue being the FARTHEST east we could go. And we want to be closer to a subway than that building is.

The second building was on 38th between Park and Lex. It was an older building but still had a doorman and laundry. One of the places could have worked but it was just too expensive. The other couldn't convert into a 2 bedroom and have a decent sized living room. So neither place really worked in that one.

So, even though I didn't find anything I learned A LOT today. And this broker that I met with was very nice and definitely has our best interest in mind. I told him what was good and bad about the places I saw so he knows what to look for to show me in the future. I also have a meeting with another broker tomorrow! Hopefully I can put some of my knew knowledge to use.

Ah, it's been such a crazy day, and it's not even 1pm!

<3, Charlotte

Okay, it's time to find an apartment!

Tomorrow, I'm supposed to meet with a broker to look at some apartments. Looking for a new place has been more challenging than looking for my summer place for a few reasons:

1. My roommate isn't living in NYC right now. She's off in Chicago at training for her job. So it's basically all on me to find us a place. Ugh.


2. We have started to contact brokers too early. We've been talking to them for 2 weeks now and places are JUST opening up. I know how that's how it happens in NYC but AHHH I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHERE I'M LIVING IN A MONTH!!


3. When I was looking for a summer place, I had the mentality of "I can deal with this for 3 months". Now, I'm freaking out at every place I see because I know that we want to ideally live there for 2 years. Finding a more permanent place is much more stressful than finding a temporary one!

This may be us if we can't get our act together...

Hopefully I will have some success tomorrow so we can get everything settled within the next week! Then all the madness will be over.

Wish me luck!

<3, Charlotte

Early planning stages - moving for a second time!

I'm sure I've mentioned in some other posts that the place I'm living at this summer is only for the summer. I'm going to be moving to a new place in September, and my parents are paying for my summer housing for my graduation present (they are seriously the BEST for doing that for me!).

On Saturday, I had lunch with my future roomie, Eliza. We went to Pershing Square (which I was SUPER excited about since Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis went there in Friends with Benefits), where we would discuss all the different things we were looking for in a place. Our list of wants ended up being as follows:

• 2nd Avenue or west


• Between 44th and 23rd


• No more than 1400/month


• Doorman


• Not too far from a subway stop


• East Side

So, we have OFFICIALLY established our criteria and are not beginning our search. We are open to living with some more girls - supposedly the rent gets cheaper as the number of people you live with increases, so if we can find some good big places we may do that!

I am sooo excited to begin this search again and to find a new place! (Should be much easier than last time now that I actually LIVE in NYC!)

That's all the updates on that for now...

<3, Charlotte

No longer a hobo!

I HAVE OFFICIALLY FOUND AN APARTMENT! I am proud to announce that I will be living in Murray Hill for 3 months this summer. It is the biggest relief ever. And I have never had my own set of walls in NYC before, so I'm totally excited.

Some things I learned from my Craigslist search:

1. There are actually a lot of normal people that use Craigslist. You have to correspond a few times and see how they talk via email, but it is pretty easy to tell who is going to be normal and who is going to be a weirdo!


2. Time frame is EVERYTHING. A few times, I went to apartments that wanted a year lease, and I told them I only wanted to commit to 3 months at the moment, but I would be more than happy to extend it if everything works out. NEWSFLASH: no one wants to do this process more than they have to! If you don't match with their time frame, don't even bother.


3. It is impossible to hit everything on your list of apartment criteria. Though I did get a lot of the things I wanted (neighborhood, safety, time frame, building perks, [kind of] price range), I do with my roommates were cooler. I was debating between this apartment and one with an AWESOME roommate, and the apartment itself was nicer than the one I decided to take. However, this building is much nicer in general with a doorman and laundry in the basement. And it happens to be closer to my job which is good.


4. Your introductory email is incredibly important and needs to be amazeballs. This is the first impression people get of you. If you come off like a boring stiff or essentially say nothing, you’re going to get no traction. Once I fixed my introduction email and included my a link to my Instagram account, I got so many more responses, and people already had me on high priority without even meeting me!

So, yea, I learned a lot from this experience. Hopefully when me and my friend look for apartments in a few months we can use some of this knowledge and get a KICK ASS place!

<3, Charlotte

The apartment search continues...

Okay, so some of this Craigslist stuff is not as weird as I thought. Although I have run into a few of the "please scan and send me a picture of your ID so I can prepare the agreement" requests after my first email to the listing. That combined with the email being in barely-conceivable English is top-notch sketchball alert. Anyway, I have found a place I REALLY like and am going to check it out tomorrow (which also means I will be in NYC - YAY!). The girl renting it out went to the same college as me, so I feel like we will get along great. And I really want to live in Stuyvesant Town, and that is where this happens to be!

I've also tried roommates.com, which seems like it would be amazing, but if you actually want to interact with anyone you have to subscribe and pay at least $20 depending on what kind of access you want. I'm really starting to personally encounter that expression "no such thing as a free lunch". SPOILER ALERT: IT SUCKS.

On a completely different note, I have 2 close friends that are moving to NYC about a month after I start my job, and they really want us 3 to live together. It's an idea I would be entirely for, except I really just don't want to move twice in one month, and be starting a new job, and be still adjusting to New York in general. I feel bad, they really want me to, and it would be great, but personally I just can't do that. And housing is supposed to be completely about you and what you're comfortable with. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise!

If this is my experience tomorrow, I just might lose it.

Hopefully after tomorrow I'll have some exciting apartment news to report!

Until then,

Charlotte

Offer Official!

Today, I am happy to announce that I received my official offer from a big advertising media agency! I am so so soooo relieved. The account I will be working on is great, and I really like all of the team members I have met during my interviews.

My celebration was cut short when I realized that I still need to find a place to live. This summer, I plan on subletting for a few months. I want to live in NYC for a little before deciding where I want to permanently reside (well reside for 1 year, at least). I also have some friends who I want to live with, and their jobs aren't starting until September. Well, one of their jobs isn't starting until September, the other needs to figure out what she is doing, but I will put enough pressure on her so she will figure it out by then.

So, I have officially started the Craigslist room search escapade. It sounds extremely sketchy (I did watch that movie The Craigslist Killer when it was on TV - oh my goodness how terrifying!) but I have a friend who did it and loves the roommates she found on it! Plus, with advertising's salary being so low, I figure I should give it a shot.

Hopefully, I will officially be in NYC during Memorial Day weekend! Until then, I must apartment-search my eyes out until I find a place that's just right.

Catch ya on the flip-side,

-Charlotte