What is wrong with this apartment?

Why are you suspicious? The streetview of the building from Google maps looks reasonable for the unit being described. Why not visit the place on Saturday? It is a second floor walkup. I guess $3800 is a little high so maybe that is why it has not rented. Maybe you should ask the guy for a floorplan so you can see the size of the rooms.

Check number of bathrooms, too. If 3-bed but only 1-bath, I'd say price looks about right. If 2-baths, and rooms are decent size, looks like a pretty good deal to me, even with the walk-up

Okay, so I did go see the apartment.

Two main misrepresentations in the ad, as far as I am concerned. It is a 2 bedroom with small den (not big enough for a dining table), not a 3 bedroom with den. 3rd floor walk up (with a big stoop, so more like a 4th floor walk up), not 2nd (unless you're in the UK and the first floor is the ground floor).

1 bathroom. Bathroom and kitchen in decent shape, but otherwise typical old townhouse apartment that has not seen any structural improvements in god knows how long - creaky, sloping floors, an odd hole (or two) in the wall, and REALLY loud radiators.

But the killer as far as I was concerned was the lack of laundry in the building (or anywhere nearby).

Sounds about right. 3-rd floor walk-up, a stretch for a 3-bedroom, only 1 bathroom, creaky... overpriced at $3800.

Thanks for reporting back on what you found. If there is no picture of something, you can be almost certain that it will be worse than what you imagine. Unfortunately, with most rentals, people do not post a floorplan so it is hard to figure out what you are getting.

Having no laundry in townhouses is quite typical. The first townhouse I lived in on the Upper East Side had no laundry so I had to drag my clothes down the block. It was a pain but that's New York living. It can be fun to hang out with people in the laundromat, though.

Have you ever seen the film, Barefoot in the Park, with Jane Fonda and Robert Redford? They rent a fifth floor walkup in Greenwich Village. Everybody struggles with the stairs. When the telephone installer guy finally makes it to the apartment, he asks, "Are you going to live up here?"