Have spent a week looking for a place to live in New York. Quite challenging – the market moves fast, and desirable properties are rented quickly (and I am well-aware that my budget isn’t quite right for any of the beautiful upper east side luxury apartments in the city). When I started thinking about looking, the first thing I did was actually sit down and think about my priorities and what it actually is that I need from this apartment. I soon came to the conclusion that I am looking for a place that is convenient to NYU (for me) and to the uptown subways for Nik (my charming jetsetting girlfriend).
I had heard horror stories about demanding landlords and high prices, but it has turned out to be easier than expected, given my total absence of a credit record in the US. (I have not lived in the US for 21 years). I started by looking at a few different rental apartments on real estate websites similar to Urbanests and then everything else just seemed to fall into place. I have been accepted for every apartment I applied for so far. This turned out to be a huge weight off of my mind. After all of the trouble that I expected to face during my apartment hunt, I can’t believe how straightforward it seemed to be. All that was left for me to do was to look through all of the apartments for rent that I decided to apply for and choose the one that would be right for me. I had to choose one that wasn’t too expensive, was close to my girlfriend and one that was an easy and convenient trip to NYU so that I could get to my classes on time. After sleepless nights and some careful consideration, I think I found my perfect apartment.
It looks like I’ll be living in a nice pre-war building, big one-bedroom apartment with a newly refurbished kitchen. I had looked at some of the ones a little further into the center of the city after reading about moving into the city on Manhattan Miami, but this will work just fine for me. It’s on 2nd Avenue between 10th and 11th, so just one block away from one of New York’s “Little Japans”. I already spotted the Asian convenience store that sells onigiri and unsweetened tea.