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Tips for living in NYC [General NYC Advice and Girl Thread]?
Erios
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
H/A,
This thread is a happy, non-venting one. My very wonderful girlfriend and I are graduating from college this year and are moving out of university housing to the big, scary world of employment and normal people living. We will be living together in New York as she has already been offered a job which pays 35-40k a year starting plus very nice benefits. Plus, we just want to live here. I don't have a job offer yet, but I figure with my credentials, I should be OK for employment.
However, we're both new to the apartment hunting, tax filing, grocery shopping, building super fighting life that is adult life in New York City. So, I'm posting now to see if anyone has any relevant experience or "gotchas."
Anything ranging from:
-Where to rent an apartment.
-What to look out for in apartments and the related lease contracts.
-General living advice
-Tricks for living in an (initially) modest income environment in an expensive city.
-Pest control tips
-Property safety tips
-relevant experience to living in New York.
Any advice would be well appreciated.
EDIT: Just to be clear, we've both lived here for the past 4 years. Just as college students.
This thread is a happy, non-venting one. My very wonderful girlfriend and I are graduating from college this year and are moving out of university housing to the big, scary world of employment and normal people living. We will be living together in New York as she has already been offered a job which pays 35-40k a year starting plus very nice benefits. Plus, we just want to live here. I don't have a job offer yet, but I figure with my credentials, I should be OK for employment.
However, we're both new to the apartment hunting, tax filing, grocery shopping, building super fighting life that is adult life in New York City. So, I'm posting now to see if anyone has any relevant experience or "gotchas."
Anything ranging from:
-Where to rent an apartment.
-What to look out for in apartments and the related lease contracts.
-General living advice
-Tricks for living in an (initially) modest income environment in an expensive city.
-Pest control tips
-Property safety tips
-relevant experience to living in New York.
Any advice would be well appreciated.
EDIT: Just to be clear, we've both lived here for the past 4 years. Just as college students.
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well, where in the city is her job first
On the med school campus.
EDIT: Or down by Columbus Circle. I keep forgetting because one of her internships is going to continue into next year.
i know a few grads who live in wash heights
its not a bad area
hmm
tips for apartment hunting: if looking in brooklyn you're gonna find a LOT of places for a good price, they're probably all around the Marcy projects....I wouldn't suggest living in those places.....if you like the price you probably don't want to live there, haha
go here for all your super hero needs
lern2cook...although the grocery stores here aren't really what you'll be used to, pretty cramped and often weird smelling, your best bet to save money in the city is to not eat out....find an apartment with a nice kitchen that you won't mind spending time in...
hmmm..i'll have to think more on any relevant advice...what field are you going into? may be able to give advice on job hunting
Forget Manhattan exists. You can't afford it. Try Bushwick or Astoria. Both are fun neighborhoods and MUCH cheaper.
Shop sales at the grocery store and try every one in a reasonable walking distance, even especially the delis. Freshdirect isn't that bad for items that arent meat or produce, but Im not sure how that works without a doorman building.
Start looking for a job yesterday. Don't figure SHIT with your credentials. You're a recent grad with zero professional work experience looking to live in one of the most awesome cities in the world. You aren't the only one with that plan and there are a shit ton of people looking for work at the moment.
For example, I put my buddy's resumé into HR for top-of-the-pile treatment for some bullshit entry level job and there were 50 other resumés there... For that job... from internal referrals. I don't want to crush your optimism, but it is motherfucking terrifying out there in the real world right now.
Finally on a lighter note: The Onion, AM New York, and Metro are your friends. Especially the Onion. In the back there is a whole section with weekly events catered to people that read free newspapers filled with lulz.
Good luck, holmes. Congrats!
My girlfriend works in Midtown, and reads AM New York religiously. Freakin' fantastic when it comes to being in-the-know for city life.
That is AWESOME. I'm taking a field trip there immediately!
i'm looking at the new york times right now and everything seems extremely old so i'm worried there too...it sucks so much looking for a place in new york
I walked around and called places with signs up. At first it was kind of difficult, there aren't too many signs around. Try to walk around an area you want to live in. I figured I wanted to be a few blocks from the subway, but not too far. Once I started walking around that distance from the stops I found a places.
One thing to ask about when you call is whether or not they charge a fee. Around here its pretty normal for an 'agent' to charge you a fee for finding a place (that isn't one of their properties) equal to about 1 month's rent, or 1/10th of the annual rent. Which is a lot of money to me. If you are shown a place by an agent and decide to rent it you legally must go through them.
I moved into a place near the last subway stop in Astoria about a month ago. I pay 1225/month and consider it a really good deal. I would expect to pay 1300-1450 for a one bedroom in the area.
edit: shop around for groceries. Prices very widely. Both in general and for individual items.
He didn't dick me around at all (which was surprising considering he's a fuckswallow broker).
That being said, Jersey may not be the atmosphere you're looking for. Keep your options open. There are so many diverse neighborhoods that you should be able to find the type of area that suits your lifestyle.
Other than that, I echo everything else said so far.
Edit: oh yeah, also HopStop is your friend.
If you don't mind hipsters too much, Williamsburg is fun. Lotta good stuff in the area, and prices are (relatively) low nowadays. Don't go too much further past the 4th or 5th stop on the L, though, that way lies Mordor. South Brooklyn (Carroll Gardens, Park Slope) can also be decent, but you'd have to look around for deals. Queens is OK in a pinch, but I always found it kind of remote.
If you at all can, get an apartment a floor or two up. It's less likely that you'll get someone strolling by and looking in at your stuff and going "huh, I need a new TV". And in any case, get renter's insurance. It's a piddling cost for something that will cover you against theft and such.
Once you have a job, you're going to want to get an unlimited Metrocard. Might want one anyways, I use it 3-4 times a day as is.
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Yeah I know. Though that is out of our initial price range (which probably caps out around 1600). I am from a pretty rich-kid background, and I know I could get my parents to support us for a few months. However, I want to be able to have us both survive with only her salary and no parental support, at least until I have a locked-down job. Basically I'm hoping for the best while preparing for the worst.
Thanks so much for the advice on renter's insurance and second story+ units!
Anyone know of any particular traps in rental lease agreements?
Yeah. That's pretty ludicrous. It makes sense, the rental market is taking it in the face.
A much more realistic number would be $1300. $40,000 won't get you far once you factor in metrocards, food, cable/internet, cell phone.
I moved into the city years ago when I was making $45,000 and it was doable, but it hurt.
Still finding some really nice places for 2 people to live in for 1600. I'm even getting some mid-town apartments, which look pretty nice and comfortable for 2 people.
I really don't know much about apartments or the hunting of them, but I know 1600 is a damn good price for a 2BR apartment in midtown manhattan or UES.
Edit:
-In NYC, you'll be surrounded by food, places to eat, the works. However, don't eat out all the time because it's convenient... that shit gets expensive FAST. There are TONS of really cheap, and really tasty places to eat, but you'll do your self (and your wallet) good by making your own meals (Kudos to you if you do that already anyway).
-Pest control: be aware that EVERY BUILDING in NYC has rats and cockroaches. Every. single. one. Even nice restaurants, so if you see a roach in your living space don't freak out. Be aware of it, but don't lose your shit. To keep those things at bay, you just have to be clean. Don't leave food out, or anything that they'd want to find and eat, and be a tidy person, and they won't come out.
-Get you and your girlfriend unlimited ride metro cards. They bumped up the single ride fares by 25 cents, and even though that's not much, it adds up, especially since you'll be taking the subway/bus EVERYWHERE.
Let me know if you have any more questions.
Check out my art! Buy some prints!
And NYC city taxes is like 6%.... its bullshit.
personally if i had actually gotten a job offer in nyc (unfortunately I did not
I doubt there's any "traps" you really have to worry about. NYC renter rights are pretty robust, and there are a lot of protections landlords simply can't contract around.
Also, roaches: The only way to kill them is with Boric Acid, and it actually does work.
I’m going to warn you right now: there aren’t many jobs here unless you have loads of experience, connections, and exceptional skills. Plan to wait tables or work retail until things bounce back.
Forget Manhattan exists. You can't afford it. Try Bushwick or Astoria.
I have a friend in Bushwick who has been mugged and needed to go to the ER twice this year. You have to be really careful about where you go down there. Not a good idea for a newb.
Alice is right about midtown-lots of great deals there right now if you don’t care about nightlife and can deal with the tourist infestation. Consider living in Harlem where rents have dropped 50% in some neighborhoods. There are a ton of deals right now, and because the Manhattan economy is in the tank it’s easy to get a lease. If you want to bargain with leasing agents the financial district is full of empty apartments with incentives—they were built for all those wealthy bankers who got fired and left town last year.
I doubt there's any "traps" you really have to worry about.
Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village are horrible traps. STAY THE FUCK OUT OF THESE PLACES. Seriously, people will try to con you into living there, don’t fucking do it.
Lime sandwich. As for the red, the OP cannot afford to live in the financial district on 35 - 40k. I live here and everything is retardulously expensive. There's even a noticable difference between my new gristedes and my old one.
Also, a lot of those deals are a combo between reduced rent and +months free. They're still checking your credit on the full 12 months though, so you will certainly need a garauntor.
Right on, I'll look into it.
Thanks a ton for the advice on Sty-town and the other one. I imagine flatbush gardens is much the same. We may end up living in West Harlem, as I think her job is at the Columbia Medical School. She may take a different job though, she's one of the Valedictorians here at Columbia so her prospects are a slight bit better than mine.
i used to live between 109 and 110 on the west side, It's pretty decent.
yeah, i sublet a room last summer on 107 btwn columbus and manhattan
i mean, for 1 room in a 3BR 900/mo isnt cheap but for the fact that its in manhattan isnt terrible...
though i'm sure you could do better
seriously, check out washington heights though, thats possible
my friend's ex boyfriend lived around there when he was going to med school at columbia
One more apartment searching tip: Though I don't know how to do this, try to figure out what the noise situation is going to be like (both street noise and neighbor noise). Ask people in the building, if you can. This will have a huge impact on your quality of life. Nothing is worse than not being able to sleep at 2am on Saturday night because of yelling bros.
Have you not been following the news? The owners have lost fortunes on it already and they just lost a huge court case that prevents them from raising the rents of the people in rent-controlled units. It’s almost guaranteed that they’ll go bankrupt, be unable to provide tenant services or maintain the buildings, and because the buildings are rent-controlled nobody else will want to buy them. And that’s just the recent stuff—there’s years of awful stuff behind Stuy Town/
Right, but the entire point of the court case was that they weren't ultimately able to raise the rents and whatever, and they're even in bailout discussions right now. The city isn't really going to let a property as large as Stuy Town just get trashed, and even if they're doing terribly financially right now, that doesn't actually effect most people on an individual level.
?I live in jersey and have a shorter commute than most of those places but yeah
I was thinking about making a thread like this myself so I have to jump in here. Might have a job offer soon, it's in the Flatiron District. It seems people approve of Brooklyn and the commute from there looked like it wouldn't be bad, but I don't know one neighborhood from the next... And I don't want to be somewhere that I have to walk empty blocks in the dark alone to get home from work.
Also if you do browse Craigslist with a lower max rent, everything comes up Harlem/Morningside/Washington Heights. Some of the pictures look really nice. But I have the impression that Harlem is still not a great place to live for a single twentysomething white girl. Or am I just Googling the wrong things?
that place is expensive
When we were coming up here it wasn’t any better. Every classified ad we tried was just some inexperienced young guy trying to scam us into crappy buildings or Stuytown. We just gave up and went with a Corcoran group apartment broker.
Brooklyn isn’t the best idea if you don’t know the neighborhoods because Brooklyn is enormous and has everything you can imagine, good or bad. Harlem is ok, but I wouldn’t sign a lease there until I had seen the block at night after dark. I know a young white woman who is pretty happy up there. Try coming out for a few days to scout locations.
there have been some muggings around recently that we got word about