Before moving to NYC, I had been here as a tourist a couple of times with my family. On the first time, I stayed in Midtown East and second time in Midtown West. This third and permanently (let's say time), my husband's company found us a temporary flat in a lovely building in Midtown East. Quintessentially NY! With the main tourist attractions, the big American corporate head quarters and sky high prices for pretty much everything. It was very close to the hotel I had stayed at the first time I was in town with my family. And when we finally found our permanent flat after seeing nearly 50 flats all over Manhattan, we settled ourselves in Midtown West. It is so hard for someone who has never lived in the place before to decide where to go!!!! One thing is being a tourist, another thing is being a permanent resident. You can search on Google, read forums, etc. However, nothing is like experiencing the real thing. By experience the real thing, I mean wandering the streets of different neighborhoods to get the true feeling. As I always emphasize, different people have different expectations.
Our plan was to stay in Manhattan for the first year as we didn't and still don't know where I am going to work, my husband's work is based in the south of the island and we wanted to get the experience of living in a shoebox in Manhattan for at least 1 year before filing for bankruptcy with the price of the rents here! On top of that, you will probably live in sky rises with at least 5000 thousand people in the same building. In the rush time, you are likely to have to queue up for the lifts in order to arrive at the comfort of your own home. It is quite crazy! Mainly moving from London, where the houses are pretty grounded and there are not many tall buildings. Also, forget about having washing machines inside the flat. That will be exchanged for dishwashers. Does anyone ever hand wash plates in this city? lol The washing machines will be located in the basement and shared with the whole community in the building.I am not complaining about the dishwasher - my new best friend!!! I love you!!!
After this initial year, we are thinking of moving to the sticks, get a car and a house with garden + spare bedrooms for family and friends stopping over :) After living in a shoe box in London for the last years + a shoe box in Manhattan, we do feel it is time to get some more space and get used to the life in the suburbs. God knows if we will get used to that again! Let's see what happens...
Anyways, going back to the flat hunting soap opera....We were pretty much opened minded about the location to live in Manhattan. In the beginning, our main focus was on the Upper East Side. Then we moved on to Lower Midtown East, Upper West Side, Financial District and finally Midtown West. Funnily enough, it was the only place we saw on Midtown West, but the broker was spot on!!!! Brokers, let's talk about them...Coming from London, where everything is quite straightforward, we never thought we would be expected to pay from 12 to 15% of the annual rent to brokers. Ok, some say they have the best properties Blah Blah Blah...It took us 2 weeks to realize we didn't need to pay the broker's fee if we focused our search on no fee apartments. Some companies/tenants pay the brokers directly and/or give you a one month free rent (our case). It is worth looking at those, mainly in periods of financial crisis. We used Craigslist (the local Gumtree - one of the most famous sites in London for such things). It is really helpful and all the flats we have seen and the brokers we have met was through it.To be honest, the best apartments I have seen, and I have seen many have been the no fee apartments. The flats are in pristine condition and have been renovated recently.
We worked with 6 different brokers focused on no fee apartments to find our love nest. Two of them were very, very pushy and didn't make us feel very comfortable at all. Therefore, we just did a few viewings with them. The others were very helpful and I wish we could have closed the deal with them all. Make sure you have your pay slips (or pay stubs as they say here), letter of employment and bank statements when you go for viewings in case you like the flat. Because if you do, you have to be very quick and put an offer down immediately. Good flats are like hot buns in this city. They fly off the shelves very quickly!
In summary, you need to prove you earn annually at least 40 to 50 times the amount of your monthly rent. I have heard from brokers that during summer rents go up considerably. We had much more bargain power in late November and December, when the market is pretty slow and everyone just thinks of holidays. Good luck in your search:) Please feel free to ask me any tips!!!! I will be more than happy to help :)
No comments:
Post a Comment