So I just published a video with Ryan Serhant giving you a tour of a $10.8
million dollar luxury apartment in Soho.
In this video you'll see what type of apartment you can get if you want to live in New York but you don't happen to
have ten million dollars lying around.
My good friend and business partner Mike Sheffer is kindly giving us a tour of his Brooklyn apartment and shown us what
it's really like living in New York City on a budget.
Welcome to Brooklyn this is my three-bedroom two-bathroom one thousand square foot apartment with a
spacious living room functional kitchen private outdoor deck and back terrace
all for a grand total of thirty six hundred dollars per month of which I pay
$999. You are watching this video because you want
to see what it's like to live in New York City for only one thousand dollars
per month the key is to find multiple uses for a single space and that's kind
of the theme of what I'm going to show you today starting off the first room of
this apartment is a dining room that also doubles as a pantry this wooden
shelf actually didn't come with the apartment New York City apartments
aren't known for having abundant storage spaces we built and installed this shelf
to house all of our spices as this open pantry here we also installed a series
of hooks along the bottom to house all the pots and pans for easy and quick
access so now we're gonna move from the dining room into the kitchen and you can
see this is a pretty typical New York kitchen it's small but it's functional
we've got your standard appliances stainless steel sink oven fridge shots a
rarity for New York City a fully automatic dishwasher you do not know how
rare it is to have a dishwasher in an apartment for only $1000 a month this is
huge and we have a tiny little bit of countertop space just enough for one
person to really use it at a time another tip to save money is to make
your own coffee I buy fresh roasted beans every week and every morning I
measure out just enough beans for exactly one cup grind them up and then
make the best damn pour ever coffee you'll ever have in your life this is
not bad pretty standard living room couple things that maybe are a little
bit odd we have a bike station here for bikes and even though I lived out
Brooklyn I ride my bike basically everywhere there's three bridges that
connect Brooklyn to Manhattan so getting between boroughs is pretty quick but
when I get home my bike comes into my apartment with me which may seem strange
but bike theft is a huge problem in New York City it's reported that around
15,000 bikes are stolen every single year right next to the bike station
tucked away in this corner is the guitar rack and this is where I keep all of my
guitars acoustic electric and when I'm in the living room usually I'm only
impaired to play guitar but as I said before we kind of double utilize the
space so this also doubles as the guest bedroom if someone comes over stays the
night fold this out we have a spare bedroom just like that and now we're
gonna go to the private outdoor backyard deck the only outdoor space is you and I
have seen it in New York City have been these multimillion-dollar apartments
with private outdoor spaces it doesn't exist in Manhattan unless you got the
big box true if you want a private outdoor space in New York City Brooklyn
is the place to be this feels like a huge deck well it's actually just about
the size of the entire apartment that is ridiculous to have basically your
apartment outside it's amazing we do barbecues we actually used to have a hot
tub back here go away that's another story for another time this isn't the
only outdoor space that we have here this is the rooftop this is a common
space shared by everyone in the building it's got two separate levels we have
lights benches tables plenty of room all provided by the building for everyone to
use this rooftop has one of the most breathtaking views of Manhattan I mean
look at this it is true one of the overlooked benefits of living in
Brooklyn is that you can see the entire city skyline which is something that you
actually need to leave Manhattan to see let's head back inside and I'll show you
my room and this is my bedroom not bad I mean for $1,000 a month this bedroom
does seem bigger and it is bigger than most apartments you'll get in Manhattan
however there's a trade-off there are no closets in this apartment at all Evon
zero every room that you're in is just a box with four walls there's no closet
because there's no closets that actually makes the room smaller because you have
to build an entire closet you built this I built this myself it's
a little messy up there that's kind of odds and ends go where I keep my
suitcases all sorts of things that I'm not really sure what to do it is a
onesie that's a onesie yes is that actual it's a onesie with fire trucks on
it let's just keep going to the tour you got to maximize every inch of space you
have so if you look over here more hooks all my hats immediately right here all
my shoes on a shoe rack behind the door all my coats jackets towels and
sweatshirts hooks hooks hooks in keeping with the theme of maximizing space and
kind of doubling up on functionality my bedroom also serves as my office the
room is kind of split in between we have the bed sleeping arrangement on one side
and the office business side on the other my people are probably wondering
how are you able to pay on nine hundred and ninety nine dollars per month to
live in this space that you just showed us Wow you're right this is not a
realistic place to only spend about a thousand dollars a month you can't get
something like this in New York City for $1,000 a month you can't the key is
roommates generally speaking in New York City
each roommate will pay a different amount per month depending on the size
of the room and what features they get for example Derek's room here is the
largest bedroom and he has his own private bathroom he pays a bit more
every month to balance out that extra square footage and private bathroom that
he gets and then our third roommate here also pays into that total rent which
leaves only 999 dollars left for me to pay each month so if you found some
value from this apartment tour make sure to subscribe for more high quality New
York City videos and with that I will see you in the next one
put it right here in the middle to watch another New York City apartment tour
this time a multi-million dollar place