[Music]
hey guys and welcome to these long
awaited New York apartment hunting video
I have been tingling to make this video
tingling is a weird word it sounds like
I have to pee out this video
um I am an itching to make this video
for a while because I just love
apartment hunting I love looking at
spaces I love thinking about prices and
what's a good deal even in like my free
time I will go to open houses and be
like that [ __ ] who eats the free food
and pisses off real estate agents
because I just love looking at real
estate so today I'm gonna walk you guys
through the entire in New York apartment
hunting a process I toured over ten
apartments so I'm gonna show you all of
them give you my thoughts and I'm also
going to include exact rent prices and
locations because that's what makes one
of these [ __ ] videos useful to begin
with I know it's very expensive I know
it can feel personally offensive when
people pay a lot of money in rent but I
want to live here while I'm young I'm
very lucky to be able to afford it I
know it's thanks to you guys and yeah I
just wanted to be transparent about rent
because I don't think it should be a big
[ __ ] taboo don't roast me thank you
so Before we jump into my actual
apartment tours I wanted to give you
guys some background on the New York
real estate market because I have found
that it is so different from anywhere
else in the United States
first of all rental units in New York
just go really [ __ ] fast one of the
first apartments I toured in New York I
showed up on time to the open house and
somebody else had already showed up ten
minutes early and submitted their
application and the apartment was gone
by the time the open house opened in New
York you have to be ready to decide
literally where you're gonna live within
like 20 minutes or a couple hours of
looking at a place what is a good time
to start apartment hunting in New York I
would recommend to start looking at
apartments online around six weeks to a
month before you're ready to move now
six weeks out you're probably not going
to actually be able to rent any of the
apartments that you look at but I always
think it's a good idea to do some
research online to get a feel for how
much space you get for certain prices
what different neighborhoods are looking
like so when you actually go apartment
hunting you're not getting screwed over
and you know what's a good deal and what
is a rip off street easy is the main
site where people list rental
in New York you can also look on Zillow
but I just found street easy to be
better organized and it was a lot easier
to contact the agents and arrange times
to view apartments so that was the main
one that I ended up using then I'd
recommend coming out to New York around
2 to 3 weeks before you're ready to move
in
that's what I did I came out here
January 17th I apartment hunted right
after I landed in New York and I was
ready to sign a lease starting on
February 1st not being said if you
aren't familiar with New York I would
recommend either starting by coming out
here and subletting an apartment for a
couple months or making a visit in
advance and really taking a look at a
bunch of different neighborhoods at
different times of day visiting New York
feels very different than living here
and the neighborhoods that you might
love when you visit you're like ooh
Times Square baby trust me you don't
want to live in Times Square if you're
not sure it's always better to be on the
safer side and sublet a place first
before making a year-long commitment to
a lease fall and winter are generally
considered offseason in New York where
there are fewer rental units available
so it can be harder to find the exact
type of unit that you're looking for but
because fewer people move in the winter
there's also lower demand meaning that
you can get a much better price on an
apartment I would say apartments were
renting for like 10 to 15% cheaper in
the winter than they were in the summer
in the summer there are a lot more
options available on the market but I've
heard that it's also very very
competitive because everybody likes
moving in the summer the weather is nice
people will come up to New York
post-grad which means that you have to
be ready to sign a lease even faster and
you end up paying a premium on rent
because there's so much demand so how
much money do you need saved up in order
to move to New York I would recommend
saving four months of rent before you
move out to New York which I know is a
lot of money but it will go very very
fast here first of all when you go tour
an apartment and you are ready to put
down an application there is a twenty
dollar application fee and they will
also ask for usually a month's worth of
rent upfront as kind of a good-faith
deposit while they approve your
application in order to hold the
apartment if you don't get approve you
will get that money back if you do get
approved that will go towards your
security deposit then if you do get
approved for the apartment you'll have
to pay first month's rent and a broker's
fee which is such a little [ __ ]
honestly basically what a broker is is
the person who arranges open houses who
shows the apartment
who has you signed the leases so as a
tenant you have to pay them for their
services most broker fees are between
one month of rent and 15% of annual rent
which I personally think is such a
ripoff but that's real estate baby I
guess in good news though they did just
pass a law in New York that the landlord
now has to pay the broker's fee I think
it should go in effect to the next
couple months
and that would be great news for tenants
because it would mean that you wouldn't
have to pay several thousand dollars
more just to get an apartment but it is
possible that rent will just go up
because landlords will then incorporate
the broker's fee into the monthly rent
price so yeah turns out landlords still
have control over everything in the end
we love to see it New York is also very
strict about the income you need to
qualify for an apartment pretty much
every landlord will require that your
yearly salary is 40 times the monthly
rent price most apartments will also
accept guarantors within the United
States but your guarantor is yearly
salary has to be 80 times rent which is
a lot my final tip is to make sure you
come with your paperwork prepared I will
list on the screen now a list of all the
documents you need in order to apply for
an apartment here it was best if you
gather them up front at front because
basically once you find an apartment you
like you will put down your application
fee and your good faith deposit and that
will usually buy you around two days to
submit all of your application materials
so it's just best if you have them all
up front you can submit them right away
rather than potentially losing out on an
apartment because you couldn't find your
tax return or you couldn't get a letter
from your landlord in time and yeah it's
always good to be prepared the Girl
Scouting me talking all right so now
let's get into the stuff that you guys
have probably been waiting for this
entire video which is the actual
apartment tours so I was looking for a
studio or small one-bedroom in downtown
Manhattan for under $2,500 since I work
from home and I make videos I really
prioritize having good natural light
a quiet apartment and some nice little
vintage details because I am a vintage
ho so my first appointment was in East
Village the East Village is historically
an immigrant neighborhood like us all of
New York is technically historically an
immigrant neighborhood because we're all
immigrants then in the 60s and 70s it
became a center of like punk rock
counterculture I personally liked it
because it has
a very like old-school New York feel
mixed with a lot of young artsy people
Jesus I just described gentrification
didn't I so the first apartment that I
visited was a studio in East Village but
it was a pretty spacious one at that
there was definitely enough room for a
bed and a desk and a little corner to
film in which is pretty much what I
needed in an apartment I also really
liked that it had high ceilings it made
the space feel very spacious it also had
a separate kitchen which was kind of
nice because a lot of apartments in New
York will have the kitchen like as part
of the main studio area and it's kind of
nice to have that separate space to cook
and I keep all of that kitchen clutter
the bathroom was also the bathroom it
did the job I'd had quite a long hallway
which was a little bit awkward but I'm
not complaining there was enough space
for like some extra shoe storage the
windows were pretty big so it did get a
good amount of light but they faced
north before this round of apartment
hunting I really had never thought about
the way that my windows faced I didn't
care I was like it's a window what's the
difference I learned the hard way in my
last apartment that north-facing windows
never get direct sunlight because of the
way the Sun rises it basically made
filming videos so hard because I would
have to use studio lights pretty much
all the time in order to get enough
light to film with video and especially
during the winter where I was at home
all the time I just like never fell to
the Sun on my face it made me so sad and
it made me constantly want to get out of
my apartment so this time around I was
kind of a stickler for getting apartment
windows that faced south which would get
direct sunlight for the majority of the
day or at least east or west where they
would get a couple hours of direct
sunlight another thing that I always
look for in apartments is just like the
vibes some apartments you walk in and
you're like ooh this is a weird a weird
place like I couldn't imagine myself
living here but this one felt super
homey although I might have been biased
because the furniture was just really
nice after I toured the apartment I was
also allowed to go up on the rooftop now
the vast majority of pre-war buildings
in New York will not let you go on the
roof because it's like not zoned to hold
human beings and the landlords don't
want to get sued so it was really
special that this one had a rooftop it
obviously was not particularly well
finished but it was really gorgeous to
see the view of New York
and it would just be really fun to like
be able to have friends up there to get
drunk and go up on the roof to even
shoot videos up there however I did look
around and I noticed that there was an
empty lot that they were starting
construction on right next to the
building which would be a concern in
terms of shooting videos a day after I
toured this apartment I did ask the
landlord for an application just cuz I
got like good vibes from the building
but he said the apartment had already
been rented just cuz it was such a good
price but it's okay because ultimately
because of the north-facing windows and
potential construction nearby it
probably wouldn't have been the best fit
for me as a video person anyway
the next apartment I saw was a 1-bedroom
in East Village for $2,300 what I loved
about this apartment was the vintage
details around the windows and this
absolutely gorgeous fireplace I could
really envision this as like the perfect
backdrop for fashion videos through this
doorway there was another huge room but
unfortunately it didn't have any natural
light this is like such a New York thing
but there were windows in the living
room that directly faced brick so it was
essentially just another wall for this
apartment it wasn't as big of a deal
because there were other windows that
let light in but it didn't mean there
was a lot of square footage that I
couldn't fully take advantage of because
I couldn't fill there because it was so
dark but it could have been a good place
to like put my bed and have more like a
cozy night time 5 the kitchen was quite
small but had a nice modern finishes as
did the bathroom which actually also had
a full-size tub which is very very rare
for New York out of all the apartments I
saw I think this was my favorite
aesthetically however this apartment was
[ __ ] loud it faced
a multi-lane street and the glass was
just really thin it was not soundproof
properly it sounded like I was there on
the street another concern I had was I
could occasionally hear the pipes like
squealing and rattling and some
apartments if they're not well
maintained when somebody showers or
turns on their heat the pipes will like
squeal and scream at you Ross your man
Jake
for me if I had to record a video I just
like wouldn't be able to do it and it
would be really frustrating you know
like getting set up for work for the day
and then the pipes are just like hahaha
that was my best pipe impersonation I
wouldn't have been able to do my job if
I lived there so yeah that kind of stuff
I didn't end up applying to that one my
next appointment was in Kelsey which if
I had to put it in a nutshell
I would say that it is a little bit of a
bougie ER kind of like the type of
person who owns an art gallery or is
featured in Architectural Digest 5
there's a lot of art galleries fancy
restaurants and it's also a large center
of lgbtq+ culture in New York it's also
a great place if you need to commute
because it's so close to all these
different subway lines
I didn't think personally it was the
best fit for me in terms of neighborhood
but it is still like a really really
good location and I really like this
apartment this studio with a couple
floors up and a walk-up and the actual
studio space was quite small it could
pretty much fit a bed and then a very
small desk if you got the location just
right and that's it so for me that was
definitely pushing it a little bit
especially because I have to work from
home however the thing that I wanted to
check out in this apartment was the
beautiful outdoor space this Terrace
face the back of the building and it was
actually up on the third floor so I got
a decent amount of light but it was also
like so nicely tucked in a little Cove
of buildings and I don't know I felt
like I was like wrapped in buildings it
was really lovely the outdoor space was
just so freakin beautiful that I was
really considering it but ultimately it
came down to a value calculation of do I
want to spend six months cramped inside
a tiny apartment where I can barely fit
a desk in a bed and then have six months
with this glorious outdoor space or
would I rather have an apartment where I
have enough space year-round and maybe
no outdoor space so I ended up not
applying to that apartment but it was a
really lovely space my next apartment
was back in the East Village
it was a 1-bedroom for around $2,000 I
forget the exact price on this one but
it was a lot of space for the price it
was kind of a suspiciously good deal
when I had seen this online I really
liked the large windows and this little
archway detail that it had in the middle
however what I didn't see on the listing
is that this apartment had like a valley
in the middle it's hard to tell in this
video but the floors were so slanted
inwards it was literally like a dent
inside the apartment the broker was
trying to convince me she said the last
tenants put like books underneath their
couch to level out their furniture and
like they made it work but I think a
problem for me more than the fact that
the floorboards were slanted is that
that is a sign of a really badly
maintained building basically over time
hardwood floors will cave in but in
order for hardwood floors to cave in
that severely the landlord had not
updated that apartment in probably like
50 a hundred years like it was really
really slanted if a unit is like that
badly neglected I think that it could
point to larger issues with the building
and it turns out that I was right
because as I was walking down from that
apartment there was this eighty year old
lady who came out of another one of the
units in the building and she was like
did you just go to an open house please
do not live here I have bedbugs I have
contacted the landlord they won't do
anything about it it is disgusting here
please do not move in I was like oh my
god this is New York baby look out for
those red flags if you're getting weird
vibes from a building if it seems like
it hasn't been well taken care of
it probably has not been at this point I
was getting a little demoralized so I
decided to check out this apartment just
for the hell of it I kind of had just
gotten obsessed with this apartment on
street easy and I knew it was too
expensive for me but I really wanted to
check it out anyway because I happened
to be in New York and in the
neighborhood so I was like my god this
apartment was on the border of Greenwich
and West Village which I would describe
as like the East villages bougie or
older brother there are some of the most
expensive neighborhoods in New York
hence this apartment being expensive as
[ __ ] to put it in a nutshell when you
think of where a girl in a rom-com lives
this is the neighborhood it's so like
romantic quiet the architecture is
universally beautiful so this apartment
I mean I don't even know what to say
about this apartment because like I knew
off the bat that I wasn't going to get
it because it was so expensive but um
let's just take a moment to add rule
over this place okay
look at those windows look at that
chandelier look
vintage details and most importantly
look at that [ __ ] terrace this place
have like the most gigantic private
Terrace it was overlooking a park so it
had like sweeping New York City views
it was lovely it was so lovely this
apartment is so nice
I showed so many people the videos of
this apartment cuz I was just like look
at it look at how nice it is I still
would daydream about that apartment
sometimes anyways on to the next
apartment that I saw my next apartment
was in Chinatown now I kind of had mixed
feelings about living in Chinatown
because on one hand I felt like such a
gentrified like going in there and
looking at a nice loft apartment when
there are like grandmas and grandpas who
have lived there their entire lives but
I also felt this need to like show my
appreciation for Chinatown I think there
definitely still is a stigma in New York
for living in Chinatown and even this
listing was listed as Little Italy
online instead of Chinatown as like a
way to get more people to come to the
listing which is kind of shitty so I
don't know it's complicated but that's
where this apartment was so anyways this
apartment it was a little bit over
budget for me it was $2,600 but my like
heart dropped when I walked into this
place it was so so gorgeous this was the
first apartment I'd seen that had
south-facing windows and oh my god it
was so so nice seeing and feeling that
direct Sun come through the window I
also just really vibed with the layout
of this apartment it just like made
sense to me
I could definitely envision the bedroom
being super nice and cozy and just
curling up there and then having a
workspace out in the main living room
and shooting outfit videos against this
brick wall they were also in the process
of refinishing the apartment so all of
the finishes on the kitchen in the
bathroom were super super nice yeah this
was just it was like the perfect space
for me I was so so so so close to
applying to this place but as I was
getting my phone to send the broker the
apartment fee the upstairs neighbor
started walking around and I could hear
like every single step the ceilings were
just insanely thin and then the upstairs
neighbor also turned on the TV and even
though it was that like a medium volume
I could hear everything
going on the TV I was like maybe I could
make this work like if my upstairs
neighbor works a nine-to-five I can just
film during the day while they're gone
but then it's like what if they work
from home
what if there's a holiday and they come
home what if they are just like loud is
fine and I can't film anything in this
apartment so once again the fact that I
have to film videos to my apartment kind
of [ __ ] this one over for me
so moving onwards we have apartment
number [ __ ] like 500 I've looked at
so many of these this was quite the
mystery unit a couple days into my
apartment honey came up on street easy
and it didn't have any photos which you
normally it's like a horrible sign but I
happen to have some extra time so I
decided to check out this apartment this
one was two thousand two hundred and
ninety five dollars it was a studio in
East Village and it actually turned out
to be a really good option the reason
they didn't have photos was because they
were renovating it versus the apartment
just being ugly as [ __ ] so it turned out
to be pretty promising they were in the
process of renovating the kitchen and
giving it new finishes and they had also
recently like torn down the wall that
had separated the kitchen before so the
apartment seemed a lot more open and
spacious which was definitely a good
move this apartment was also so tall
that it had a little storage loft which
was super cute unfortunately you
couldn't sleep up there but it would
still be a good place for storage and I
thought it was still cool detail I also
asked the broker to show me all of the
finishes of the kitchen and he kind of
like showed me in the pile of boxes I
was sitting in the apartment the
countertops and what the sink would look
like and it looked like they were
renovating it to be really modern so it
would look really nice the only con of
this apartment is that it wasn't the
brightest the windows face Northwest so
it would get some direct sunlight only
in the afternoon but I definitely kept
this one in mind as something to apply
to as I went to the rest of my
apartments for the day next up I headed
back to Greenwich Village to look at a
one-bedroom for $2,700 now this was a
little bit out of my price range but I
thought it was worth checking out
because if it was a larger space I was
like maybe willing to push my budget a
little bit and I just liked looking at
apartments I was like wow
[ __ ] not right when I walked into this
apartment the thing that struck me the
most was how peaceful and quiet it was
it was five flights of stairs up and
face the back of the building so he
really couldn't even hear Street noise
it felt like a nearly peaceful Oasis
away from New York I also loved the
finishes on this apartment it had brick
walls but they were painted white a
while ago I had DIY my own wine hole out
of a piece of styrofoam that's how much
I love white brick walls it also had
dark wood floors which hoo baby ooh baby
that gives me going in a different way a
lot of apartments in New York has the
classic kind of orangey hardwood floor
which is still very nice but it feels a
little bit bright and brassy compared to
my preferred aesthetic which is a little
bit more like muted which oh these
floors were so good overall this was
such a beautiful apartment but my main
concern was the kind of long and narrow
layout it would make it harder to film
outfit videos because in order to film a
full body shot I need my camera a
certain distance away from me and this
apartment just didn't have a lot of
width it was just a long void but it
wasn't girthy yeah I was a little bit on
the fence about this one I wasn't like
so crazy head over heels for it that I
needed to get it and then I needed to
spend two thousand seven hundred dollars
a month on it so I wanted to take like a
couple more days to think about it but
it turns out this apartment was super
popular it so it got taken off the
market by the end of the open house so I
never got a chance to apply to it anyway
so at this point it was coming to the
end of the weekend and I was a little
bit nervous because I had seen so many
apartments and the ones that I liked
even a little bit were already off the
market so I basically at that point was
considering that two thousand two
hundred and ninety five dollar one in
East Village that was still getting
renovated maybe the one in Chinatown but
I had one more apartment to see this one
was a studio with a little bedroom
alcove for two thousand dollars per
month I showed up so early to this open
house because at this point I have seen
like what 13 apartments I have seen so
many hard minutes all the ones I liked
were going off the market so fast and I
was reaching like the end of my rope I
was ready to just commit to an apartment
knew what I was looking for I knew what
my options were and I was like I think
this could be the one so I showed up
like 15 minutes early to the open house
and I made sure I was the first one in
the door because this was such a good
price it was the cheapest apartment I
had seen in Manhattan not saying that
2,000 a month is cheap but for Manhattan
it is very hard to come by right when I
walked in I was like they seize it baby
this is what I've been looking for her
so sorry I'm like horrible at building
suspense I'm just way too excited about
this apartment it has windows that face
south it has open views and right when I
walked in there were so much direct
sunlight streaming through the windows I
was just like oh give me that dopamine
baby give me that vitamin D I need it
because it's winter and I'm so sad it
has a little bit of that vintage charm
it has an exposed brick wall but it has
a pretty updated kitchen and it has a
real oven which is also something that
sometimes is a little bit rare in New
York especially for cheaper cheaper
apartments like this one in the back it
has a cozy of a whole bedroom nook which
I actually really like it's nice to have
a little bit of separation between my
sleeping space
and my main working area there are
definitely some cons of this apartment
though namely that the ceilings are very
very short like noticeably short while
you walk in here and you're like bro I
could I could literally touch the
ceiling I think that they are like like
eight feet tall ceilings and the other
quirk of this apartment is that the
bathroom is one of those funky ones
where the toilet is in a separate room
than the shower and this absurdly tiny
sink so yeah the things you do to get
slightly cheaper rent so in case it
wasn't incredibly obvious this is the
apartment that I ended up Tuesday it's
all mine oh yeah so yeah I have lived
here for about a month now and I love it
like i 100% chose the right apartment
for me
kiss good job Ashley it's just a great
place and I'm so excited that I can
finally show you guys because I've been
like hiding it in all of my Instagram
stories and stuff anyways I hope this
was really helpful for you guys if you
are apartment hunting best of luck may
the odds ever be in your favor and I
will see you guys next week bye
[Music]