Moving to NYC next fall, looking for advice

I've worked with Nada Rizk at BrownHarrisStevens in the past. She has one essential trait that so many other brokers seem to lack: honesty. nrizk@bhsusa.com

If the broker's fee is covered, concentrate on finding a good rental broker with first hand knowledge of the neighborhood where you want to live. Be sure to initially look at new and older rentals and coops and condos, so that you get a sense of the full range of housing stock in your chosen neighborhood. This will help you make a commitment when you see the place that is right for you. You should be able to quickly narrow your search based on your early likes and dislikes. I also recommend you develop secondary and tertiary neighborhoods where you would consider living if you found an apartment that exactly meets your criteria, outside your target area. Finding an apartment in NYC usually entails compromises, so you have to discover what compromises you are willing to make. If neighborhood is not among the possible compromises, you can skip the last suggestion.

Are you looking to buy or rent? If rent, then yes, your price range is definitely doable.

Of course, if you want to rent next fall, you'll want to check closer to your expected move-in date.

We live in an all-rental doorman building on WEA and paying just shy of $3500 per month for a very generous-sized 2-bd/2-bth. The 1/1s are easily in your range, from what I've heard.

Either way, it can't hurt to look at places now, to get a feel for things, but you won't be able to lock in a rental this far out from your expected move-in date.

if your household income is below $175k (read somewhere there's discussion about rising it to $250k, but don't count on it), try to get a rent stab as soon as possible (avoid by all means market rate rentals). you could end up paying around that price but for a 2 bedroom, very convenient for a home office till the 1st kiddo shows up.

about areas, the UWS is very patchy. it has some areas that are great, some that i personally would rather not walk at night. anyway, some people don't mind walking at night in isolated places though. if you do, look into this for stuff above (i'd say) 90th and for areas right next to riverside in the 60s.

Lowndes: You may be interested in the Paris @ 752 WEA (the listing broker is Caran Properties, here's a link to their listings: http://www.caranproperties.com/BrokerWebsite3/code/rental_list.asp) or one of the buildings managed by Metropolitan Equities (http://www.metropolitanequities.com/rentals.php).

There's always turnaround in those buildings. Even if they weren't your first choice they usually offer something decent so you can keep them as a backup. Caran leases tend to be year long leases, whereas Metropolitan Equities requires commitment to a 2-year lease (I don't know if that is negotiable in this economy).

You don't say where you are living now. Since we're talking about this time next year, the ideal is to make a couple of trips to NYC to get the lay of the land & a real feel for your new home. You can learn all sorts of things online, of course, but nothing beats feet on the ground. Come on your vacation, perhaps take a few long weekends & explore & have fun. Best of luck to you!

Lowndes,

You can certainly find a 1 bed apartment within the $2800-$3200 price range. Ideally, you should have a salary equal to 40 times the monthly rent. Of course, there are other questions to be asked in narrowing your search (which may affect your price range): Are you hoping for a renovated unit? Do you need a doorman building? Are light/views important to you? Do you have pets? (Having a dog will limit your options quite a bit.) You should also be aware of all of the necessary paperwork needed when applying for an apartment. In general, also keep in mind that apartment rentals come on the market usually 15-30 days before the desired rental date. It seems like you have some time. Take a look at my partner and my link (we were just voted among the top agents in NYC). We'd be happy to help you if you need it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5o1l7nmBsw

Brad Malow
Charles Rutenberg Realty
212-688-1000

@beckinbrad - In the past, your income needed to be 40x-50x the monthly rent. I used a new service, Insurent, http://www.insurent.com/ that got me the apartment I wanted in one day, and my income was only 29x the monthly rent. You do need to have good credit for Insurent to guaranty your lease though.

You will not have any trouble finding a great 1 - bed in your range. The prime area of the UWS, IMHO is between 72 and 86, between CPW and Riverside. I don't care for the Trump development by the river, and personally don't care for the areas above 86 - it's block by block past 86, some are great, others, not so much. High 70's / Low 80's near the Nat. History Museum are ideal, best proximity to restaurants, shops, parks, transport, etc. Enjoy! You are moving to NYC at a great point in your life. Go out and enjoy it!!!

"""that got me the apartment I wanted in one day, and my income was only 29x the monthly rent. """

Why would you want to over-extend yourself like that? Seems like cutting it too fine, IMO.

Thank you everybody for the advice, it is much appreciated. I have taken all of the Broker recommendations and put them into a spreadsheet I am creating for this task.

I'm in my third year of law school in Berkeley, California so maybe we will plan to come back to NYC on Spring Break and explore the different neighborhoods a little more. I also really like the suggestion of being shown all sorts of different apartments, different conditions, age, etc. to determine what we like and where we are willing to comprise. This way when we come back to NYC we will know where to focus are energy. I'll start work in Mid September so are planning on coming to NYC early August to find a place. Hopefully, move in soon after.

Also, we are definitely looking to rent. I'll be making $160K and my wife will probably work but we don't want to count on that (if she decides to work we will just put her entire income into savings anyways). I guess that means we could rent a place up to $4000 a month on the guidelines mentioned, however, I still would like to stick to my budget. It will be nice to build up a little savings over the next couple of years. The cheaper we can live and still have a nice comfortable standard of living the better.

Also, thinks for the recommendation on WEA, I think that is a great street. It's nice to have a few backups like that just in case. Our ideal preference would probably be a Pre-War but we are still open, considering we haven't seen all that many yet.

Forgot to ask, Admin mentioned rent stabilized apartments. How do you find these? I'll be making a little less than $175K so if that is the requirement then we qualify. Are these apartments nice? For some reason, I thought rent stabilized apartments were for people who lived in a place for a long time and otherwise would be priced out of the apartment in today's market. If somebody could explain these to me then that would be great.

One more odd question: Why do so many NYC apartments have parquet flooring? The only place I have ever seen this is NYC?

@ bramstar - I make about $87,000 a year and got the $3,000 a month apartment in a great hi-rise. Without the Insurent Program, I only qualified for about $1,900 a month (45x the monthly rent) and was looking at crappy studios. I didn't have a parent at this crazy 80x multiple (almost $240,000). I only paid a fee of about 70% of one month, and now I have a great view of the city for me and my wife.

How can you afford that? Isn't you after-tax monthly income like $5000 a month?

CarnHill - personally, that would cut it a bit fine for my comfort level, but if it's working for you, then that's what matters.