The Dilema

A funny story to start with. Last night I was in Detroit on a layover. My first one in my new NYC base, I might add. And I though it would be a great time for a post. Problem? I went straight to the airport from apartment hunting which meant that I didn't have my computer. So how could I blog? For a moment I thought I could type on my iPhone. Silly me. Then I thought maybe there is a dictation app! And lo and behold there were what seemed like millions to choose from. I pick one then decided to start my post. After about 5 tries I quickly realized that there was no way that was going to work, I need to see my words on paper as I think them out. So the little dictation app shook and was no more. At least I tried.
That brings me to the post I wanted to do last night.....apartment hunting in NYC! Where to begin? We are still figuring it all out too, but the basics are this. You can choose to use a real estate broker or not. If you us a broker they find apts for you and take you to them to see and in return you pay them a fee. Usually 15% of the yearly rent. So if you rent an apt for $2000 that is $24,000 a year for a hefty $3600 fee! Yowza! Originally when we were still in Seattle we thought no way were we going to get a broker. Who wants to pay that much money when you can find a place on your own? As it turns out we might be who wants to pay that much. If you don't use a broker you can look at sites like Craigslist and a few other NYC based sites to try to find "fee free" listings. What we have found so far is that they are few and far between. The majority of listings are with brokers and the brokers know their stuff. We have looked at, I would guess, 15 apartments, in 2 days and all but 1 were with brokers. So here we are, not wanting to pay a fee, but finding ourselves in a place where we almost have to. Plus, we have people telling us that the broker is the way to go. That they tried to find a place on their own and had no luck, or even if they did find a place on their own that apt was tied to a broker and they had to pay the fee anyways! But on the other hand we have talked to some people that said they pounded the pavement and found their place with out the fee. It seems we are faced with a dilema. To pay or not to pay? That is the question.Which brings me to: Pros and Cons Lists!


Pros to Paying:
*It's flipping cold outside! A broker helps us not have to walk the streets looking for avaiable apartments.
*You get to see a lot more places in a smaller time frame.
*You can view apartments that you can only view with a broker. 
*Sometimes a broker can negotiate a rent reduction.
*Brokers often pay application fees.
*Brokers can take us to place that they know we may like and help us avoid wasting time looking at places that we wouldn't.

Cons to Paying:
*We would have to pay. A lot. I don't want to.


So that's where we are right now. Trying to decide what we want to do. We are looking at more apartments this week, of course, and are going to try our hand at "fee free" listings. We have at least narrowed down the area that we want to live in. Between W. 66th and W. 86th St.  Cross your fingers for us, there are a lot of places to see.

My favorite place we have seen so far. A building that use to be use for music artist to record. So the rooms are all sound proof and the living room HUGE! This photo shows only half the size.