When to look, if want apartment available Aug 1?
Asked by
OldMom (
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)
May 10th, 2010
Daughter moving to NYC at end of July. Hoping to find 1 Bedroom apartment that will be available for a 1 Aug move-in. Any advice as to when we should look? Also, would appreciate advice on whether or not $1500 will get her a 1 Bedroom in a safe neighborhood. She’ll be working in lower Manhattan but are thinking Manhattan is probably too expensive for her budget, so are leaning toward Brooklyn. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
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6 Answers
I also suggest you look right now. Most places require their tenants to notify them 3 months before they leave. If you want the good rooms at a cheap price, gotta grab them before the rest.
I agree with the others – it’s never too early to start looking. I just went through a couple of weeks of looking for last-minute summer housing and it was a very stressful process. Better to secure something early on (higher likelihood of getting a good deal, too) and then rest easy.
http://www.renthop.com/
http://www.apartmentsource.com/
You should have looked before now. But since you haven’t, definitely start now. Most people don’t wait til last minute to find a place to live since it’s a pretty important thing to have so good places go really quickly.
Brooklyn is the new place to live!! I’d highly recommend looking there… I would think the apartments would be a little more reasonably priced.
One month is really all you need.
Mostly when people move out of apartments here the landlord takes a week or two to repaint, repair and make any improvements. (Certain renovations mean they can raise the rents on stabilized apartments to market value.). They expect that they might have the apartment sit empty for that month, but that rarely happens because people are always looking here month round.
$1500 will get you a nice sized one bedroom on the fringes of the “brownstone belt”: the area around Prosoect Park (Park Slope, Carrol Gardens, Fort Greene). I’d check places that advertise as “Windsor Terrace” or “South Slope”.
A bit further out on the far side of the park is Ditmas Park and Midwood. That’s definitely in your price range. In fact you’ll get a much bigger space there. Just know that the neighborhoods are not as safe, although that will be different in about 5 years. There are lots of new folks moving out there right now.
You’ll do better if you can afford a broker’s fee, but don’t worry; it can be done without one.
Let me know if you have any other questions. Welcome to Brooklyn!
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