I snuck away for yet another quick trip to the Big Apple…….except, this one was much different.
I have now decided apartment shopping is my least favorite activity ever, seriously. It was an absolute nightmare.
So I went with a couple different options to look at, Union Square Apartments, Educational Housing Services- the New Yorker, a bedroom in a local’s apartment, and Pink Dorms. We also talked with a real estate agent.
First of all, let’s start with an overview of the meeting with the real estate agent, Angelica. Here’s how it works, if you make 40x the price of rent you’re eligible for that apartment(keep in mind…. average rent is anywhere from $2,000-$3,000 for a studio apartment). At this point, you know I am moving to go to school, so I will need a guarantor for my apartment if I use a real estate company. My guarantor has to make 80x the price of rent, so if I find a studio apartment for $2,000 per month(totally not likely), my mom would have to make $160,000 per year. There are a few ways to get around this, one being paying all upfront or doing a large deposit; it all depends on the owner. After that conversation, we discussed some of the better neighborhoods to live in. She suggested the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side near Central Park.
We walked a few blocks, ate Joe’s Pizza(totally delicious by the way), and checked out Union Square Apartments(I knew this was going to be the one, I just knew it!!).
Union Square Apartments was a total disaster. The building was extremely run down, there were no elevators, and you had to walk down to the basement to meet the super(this is like the building attendant) and he was slightly rude, no totally rude(I am spoilt on southern hospitality). The apartment building as a whole was pretty nasty and not kept up at all; there were bugs and dingy things everywhere. Pretty sure it could have been a haunted house at one point in time. The studio size was about the size of 1 bedroom and then had a private bath (one of the very few positives). The studio was recently renovated so that was a plus. Overall, it was extremely disappointing.
After that, we hopped on the Q train and took it to the Upper East Side to check out where the local’s apartment was.
A bedroom…. One single bedroom for $1,369…per month. That’s insane, but also relatively inexpensive in the city. It was located on 101st street in the Upper East Side. Let’s just say, the apartment was fantastic. It was a large bedroom with a good size closet and also had a big window. The outside, well lets just say this…. I would have felt safer walking in the dark in downtown greensboro(or even Winston Salem) than in the daylight there. Side note: this was also the day I had a complete and total breakdown in the subway and wanted to give up on my dream. The day had been that awful so far.
Pink Dorms is an all female student/young professional housing building so I scratched that one off the list without seeing it.
Educational Housing Services was the last one we looked at and honestly, it was the last one on my preference list. I despised the idea of dorm housing, I didn’t want to have an RA watching over me, I didn’t want to follow someone else’s rules, I didn’t like the idea that I could only have one guest at a time, I just didn’t like it. I had a really negative mindset going into this tour and so then we show up and the people didn’t want to give us the tour because we were 10 minutes late. Needless to say we had to leave and come back the next day. What a great start to looking at this option, right? So Sunday rolls around and we come back and honestly it was the nicest out of them all. It is in the New Yorker Hotel, so it’s pretty upscale. The living quarters is like a dorm room, it has a private bath, bed, dresser, closet, mini fridge, and a TV. Really everything I need except decorations. The facility has a nice gym and a communal kitchen which has several ovens and stoves, which will be nice. This was also the most expensive option available to me and that was the downfall. It costs $21,450 for 9 months….. 9 MONTHS. This is insane.
Okay, okay, you’re probably thinking hurry up and get on with it…. Well I chose EHS- The New Yorker and I feel certain it will be the best option for me! I am excited, nervous, scared, really all of the emotions! The good thing was that I got a wonderful vacation after all of this overwhelming apartment shopping, lol! So as of right now, June 27th, I have submitted my deposit for my room at the New Yorker and I bought my first bit of decoration yesterday!