It has been a little over a month since I moved out of my graduate student housing at Columbia University and into my first “big girl” apartment in Brooklyn. This was my first time going through the apartment search process in New York City, and I know just how daunting the process can be, so I’m sharing a recap of my NYC apartment search.
Where/how I searched
StreetEasy was my primary (and honestly sole) method of my NYC apartment search. Funny enough in the year leading up to my official search I would occasionally go on StreetEasy to get a sense of the types of apartments in the city and the price ranges that they fell into (so I could mentally and financially prepare.) But once I officially began my search, StreetEasy was my best friend.
On StreetEasy I filtered for the borough and even specific neighborhoods that I was looking at. I added a filter for apartments that did not require a broker’s fee as well as filters for some of my other nonnegotiables like in unit laundry, a dishwasher, and sometimes even a gym in building. I added apartments that looked decent to my saved list and when the time came to tour I requested tours through StreetEasy and was contacted by a leasing agent from the building to schedule a tour.
I want to note that the law firm I’ll be working at partners with real estate brokers that would have done the search for me, but that would have required a broker’s fee that might have been somewhere around an additional $8-10k and quite frankly that did not seem necessary.
Lastly, there were some buildings I looked into and visited because of word of mouth—either I knew people who lived in the building and had seen it for myself when they invited me over, or people reached out sharing that they liked their building and would recommend I check it out as well. Moral of the story is don’t be afraid to use word of mouth especially because sometimes apartment buildings may offer rent credit for those who successfully refer a new resident.
Some of the buildings I looked at
While I have a dedicated playlist on my TikTok sharing specific details of the apartments I visited, here’s a brief recap of what I liked and disliked about some of the six apartments in total that I viewed:
- I viewed only one building in Harlem because I was set on moving to Brooklyn. The apartments were spacious and bright but the amenities, which is usually what lures most people to the building, came at an additional hefty price that especially could not be justified in light of what felt like very real safety concerns for that particular part of East Harlem. As a native New Yorker, I don’t feel safety concerns too often because I’ve truly become accustomed to a lot of things, but walking to and from the visit sparked a level of hypervigilance on my end that would be draining to maintain on a daily basis. And even if in actuality I had nothing to worry about, being safe and feeling safe are two different things, and the latter is not to be overlooked.
- I took a look at a lovely building in Brooklyn that has the most beautiful finishes in it’s kitchen. I fell in love with a 1bd 1.5 bath that I visited but it was out of budget. I saw the 1bd 1ba which fell within budget but did not love it as much as I loved the 1.5 baths. The building had all the amenities I wanted and I probably would have gone for this building if I didn’t find where I am now.
- I took a look at an apartment that was a very uncontroversial place, nothing about this place was awful or wrong, but nothing about it excited me either. It was the safe option that seemed like a good back up if I needed one.
How I found the one
Even though I had done my searching exclusively on StreetEasy, I actually found my current building by chance. I was on a day of about 4 back to back tours in Brooklyn—I preferred it this way because I got to just camp out in Brooklyn instead of going back and forth between Harlem and Brooklyn on multiple days—when my phone was about to die and I was incredibly hungry. While sitting at a nearby restaurant to eat and charge my phone, I looked up and noticed a building I had never seen before that hung a large “now leasing” sign from its top floors. I immediately called to book a tour later that day after my already scheduled tours.
Almost as soon as I saw it I knew it was the one. In addition to my genuine excitement about the place, it checked all of the boxes on my needs and wants list: washer dryer in-unit, dishwasher, floor-to-ceiling windows, proximity to numerous public transit options, a secure package system, various grocery stores in close proximity, and a kitchen & bathroom aesthetic that I thought was beautiful.
My NYC apartment search as a recent graduate
I was very anxious about the apartment application process. I had heard many horror stories about how hard it was to secure an apartment with how fast apartments were getting taken off the market. Additionally, this was the first time that I was entering the NYC housing market, after living in graduate student housing for three years and having moved back home after college for two years. But overall the process was seamless:
- As a recent graduate, I had no recent pay stubs so I could not fulfill that requirement. But I requested a letter from my future employer confirming my offer and salary. A signed offer letter probably would have sufficed but my offer letter did not state my salary which was necessary to show that I qualified for the apartment. I submitted that along with bank statements from the previous two months, filled out an application and within 24 hours I found out I was approved and cleared to submit my first month’s rent and security deposit. I was given 24 hours to accept and submit payment.
- I set a move-in date for mid-July which was about 2 weeks prior to the bar exam, I wanted the ability to have my keys so that I could gradually move things in when I took study breaks and so that I was not scrambling immediately after the bar exam since I had been given a July 29th move out date by Columbia housing and the exam was from the 26th-27th.
Overall the process wasn’t that difficult, and it certainly was not as difficult as I thought it would be based on some of the experiences I’ve heard about finding housing in NYC in general but especially during this time. I say that with the caveat that my budget allowed me great flexibility and going into a job with a sizable salary meant that the 40x rent qualification was not an impediment. I did not need a guarantor. It helped that I knew what I wanted and honed my search in that way, and it also helped that I was looking primarily in Brooklyn and not in Manhattan, but my experience was much easier because I easily qualified for the apartments I looked at.
My process also was easier than someone looking to move to NYC from another state. I already lived in the city so I did not need to set aside a particular day to visit. I visited all the apartments I saw over the course of one week on four different days within the week. Overall I would say I spent a span of about 10 days between my first apartment visit and when I was approved for my apartment.
Bar Prep and the NYC apartment search
I was nervous about having to go through an NYC apartment search during the time that I was preparing for the bar. I had to be very diligent about how I spent my time and often spent my mini breaks from bar prep searching for apartments online. Because apartment tours themselves weren’t time-consuming (maybe a max of one hour) I don’t think it was as heavy as a burden as it might seem when you do the math: if I viewed a total of 6 apartments, that becomes 6 hours dedicated to tours. I lost time due to travel but that could have easily been fixed by better planning and putting all my Brooklyn tour visits in one day. All of that is to say I definitely could have packed my tours into no more than 1-2 days. If done early enough on in bar prep it can fall on a day that you set aside to take off from studying and not be a heavy burden.
Reflections after a month in my new apartment
I’ll probably save some deeper thoughts and reflection on my apartment (as well as home decor updates) for a future blog post but I have to say I love it here. The peace of living in a home that you love is truly priceless and I am grateful to be in the position to finally be at ease in my own home after feeling like I was on edge for the past three years in law school.
“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Psalm 91:1
