Reasons why New York Sucks - Page 102

Well, I wouldn't say it saves money (mostly because the whole thing is absurd to begin with, and most people don't stay in places long enough for it to break even), but I agree that most non-fee places are more expensive to cover it. Also, the stock of non-fee places tends to be worse. Occasionally you'll find a nice place in an owner-occupied brownstone or whatever, but that's the exception.

The thing that really kills me about having to pay a broker's fee this summer is that this will likely be our last year in New York, and so amortizing that fee out over one year is a serious increase in the real cost of the apartment.

yeah, it sucks to pay it, but I've def. saved money with the lower rent over the course of a few years.



when I said "no deals for newbs", it's because the types of places like this are usually sapped up by NYers first since putting them on Craigslist or something tends to be a last-case scenario for the owner. It's word of mouth at first. We were very close to moving to Bleecker and Sullivan this way.

Definitely, those types of places are gone in a second, and usually through word of mouth. Which makes sense--if someone is living in your house, you kinda want to have some sort of reference from someone you know.

Thought it's not all rainbows and unicorns. We lived in an owner-occupied brownstone in Park Slope for a while, and the owner turned out to be crazy, and to have children who were the spawn of Satan. We were very happy to leave.

we also looked at a place in Brooklyn that was owned by one of my wife's co-workers. They did a full gut and redesign on it, and it turned out f'ing beautiful. Two-one bedroom units on floors 2 and 3, and then the ground floor + lower level was another giant unit with something like 4 bedrooms. The apartments themselves were wonderful, but I was a little meh on the area. This was just over 3 years ago, and they were starting to build that stadium nearby (yep, Barclays).

Now they're getting $3,500/month for those one bedroom units.

Whoa, that is a good sum for a 1BR in that area. Must have really done a good job on the reno.

yeah, they killed it (it helps that they're architects and know a lot about materials and construction. It also helps that they have taste). Perfect blend of old and new, and the ceilings seemed like they were 18' high.

Wish I had pictures as it set the standard for beautiful apartments to me.

Yeah, we have thought about trying to find a really nice place for our last year here, but the brokers fee would kill it. I'm willing to pay the rent, but amortizing the broker's fee over the 8 months or whatever that we would be here just kills it.

In Brooklyn? WTF. That's top of the market in Manhattan.

There are plenty of 1BRs for $3k in brownstone Brooklyn (unfortunately...) but yeah, $3500 is very high.

I was shocked too. Barclays is right around the corner, but there's no chance of herds coming from there ending up on their street. It hit the market just as that area became hot.

they're good sized units too, and the furnishings are superior to the vast majority of buildings that have names that start with "The". There's quite a bit of extra storage in the basement, etc.

Yeah, I'm sure you could find a way to make it worth that kind of rent--even nice $3k apartments are kinda shitty in many ways. If you had done a very nice renovation, it was spacious, and included storage space, I'd imagine you'd find someone willing to pay an extra $500 for that.

Heck, if you had put some serious insulation between the floors and walls and included nice triple pane windows, you could justify it just on not hearing your neighbors' every footstep.

I have a feeling when april hits it'll go directly into 70% humidity 80+ºF days.... you know... kind of like last year...

last year's winter was weird. I remember snow once really early, then no snow at all and warm temperatures.