I haven’t posted in the last couples days. I was originally going to say that it’s because a lot hasn’t been going on; however, things have progressed a bit.

I’ve been approved for the $1890 apartment. This is good news. This means that the error in my credit report was overlooked, and I’ll soon have a place to stay.

I’ve already signed my portion of the lease, but I can’t move in yet. Since my guarantor is out of state, I have to wait for the guarantor portion to arrive in the mail. It should arrive tomorrow. Once it does, the landlord has to do some processing, and then I get keys! I’m unsure how long their processing will take, so there may be a chance I won’t get keys until Tuesday. Even so, at least I have an apartment — this is a big relief.

So — it’s almost over. I’ll soon have a nice place in Manhattan, and my apartment search will be over.

Here’s the quick scoop: The people leasing the $2000 apartment don’t want to give up their lease, so that apartment is out of the picture. The $1895 apartment is still up for grabs, but, because of the crazy landlord, I’ve spent the last two days getting the needed information.

Most of that information was hard to get — either physically hard to get, or stressful for those involved — but thankfully, we did it. This gave us everything we needed to submit an application, and allowed the management company start processing it. For those who don’t know, the management company works for the landlord, and pre-screens applicants before handing information over.

During the management company’s processing, one of their duties is to run both mine and my guarantor’s credit. My guarantor’s credit checked out fine, but mine came up saying I have a criminal record.

According to the credit reporting agency used by the management company, I have a criminal record for not paying a $43 moving violation back in 2001.

I drove in the bike lane. I admit it. About a month after I got my driver’s license, I drove in the bike lane to pass a couple cars that were in front of me. I got caught by a motorcycle cop, went to court and plead guilty. I payed the fine in cash.

My broker called up the Multnomah County Circuit Court, and was able to receive public records stating that not only was I pulled over, but I plead guilty and paid the fine in full. The records showed the case as being “closed,” and showed it never went to judgment. Why would this show up on my credit report? Why would it show up as a criminal violation?

I haven’t gotten that resolved yet, but the records we received from Multnomah County should be enough to convince the landlords that there was an error. Although I can’t say definitively that it’ll work, it looks like things are going to work out.

As a side note: http://www.freecreditreport.com does not list a criminal record on my credit report. According to FreeCreditReport.com, I have “0 items on my public record.” This includes “bankruptcy records, court records, tax liens and monetary judgments.”

So — all we can do now is wait. Due to some funky situation with the landlord, our application won’t be looked at until Monday. The management company assured us that we’re the first in line for the apartment, but due to the landlord’s schedule, we have to wait over the weekend.

As a good faith judgment, and to show that we are truly serious about the apartment, we submitted the certified checks needed to actually lease the apartment. From what I’m told, this will take the apartment off of the market and prevent the management company from showing it to anyone else.

My mom and my aunt left New York today (now Day 8), and I had to move out of the vacation rental apartment. Right now, I’m sitting in a coffee shop trying to get a hold of a friend. Although I won’t have a place of my own to stay, I do have a friend who lives right across the river who will let me crash for a couple days.

Things look like they’ll turn out alright. If I don’t get this apartment, at least I don’t have to go through the whole process again.

Here’s a one sentence description: This was much harder than I thought.

As stated yesterday, the $1650 apartment is taken. I still have an application on the $2000 apartment, but we haven’t really heard back. Other brokers tell me it’s odd that I haven’t heard back by now.

As a backup, I decided to put in an application on an $1890 apartment in a much better neighborhood, with newer appliances on the inside. Unfortunately, this apartment is owned by what I’m told are “crazy landlords.” They want proof of assets, and information that no other landlords require. Fortunately, I have my mom as a guarantor, so we can prove it. Unfortunately, my mom is stressed giving out that much personal information.

I put the application in with a broker who was willing to sign a contract stating I get my money back if I decide not to go through with it. She also said that legally, the other broker — the one with the $2000 apartment — can’t keep my deposit if I decide to back out.

I really like this new apartment (the $1890 one), and I’m really hoping that everything goes through. Unfortunately, I have to get all the information in a way that will keep the stress level down, but still satisfy the landlords. This is a hard thing to do.

I’m sitting in a coffee shop now waiting for a call. If the call goes the way I want it to, things should start looking up. Right now, things are crazy.

I’ll keep you posted.

It’s Day 5, and I’ve put in an application on an apartment. Usually this is a good thing, but — because of some recent events — I’m a little down.

I put in an application for a nice apartment right in the middle of West Village, only about 6 blocks from work. It’s an awesome apartment, but it’s a little over $2000 a month.

At the time, I didn’t find anything that was significantly cheaper.

Then I got a call from a broker I’m working with who tells me there’s a rent stabalized apartment for $1650 month, about 10 blocks from work, and is bigger than the $2000/month apartment. I should have been ecstatic when I heard about it, but the beauty of the deal never really sank in — that is, until I put in an application.

About one hour after putting in an application on the $1650/month apartment, I was told that someone had beat me to the punch. I didn’t get it. Now, after getting “teased” with the 1650, I’m stuck looking for something cheaper.

Even though I can look, I still may not be able to back out of the $2000 apartment. If I back out, I lose the $2000 application fee needed to apply for the apartment. If the landlord denies my application (which could happen), I get the $2000 back; however, if he doesn’t, I either get the apartment, or lose 2000 bucks.

I’m a little mad that I put in an application on the $2000 apartment without first looking cheaper; however, I’ve been looking for the last five days, and nothing cheaper has shown up. As my broker told me, the $1650 apartment was a needle in the haystack. Unfortunately for me, this one was a really shiny needle.

This will be a quick one — I don’t have much time.

The apartments we saw yesterday (Day 2) were extremely small — smaller than a room in one of Florida Tech’s residence halls.

I’m waiting for a call today from a broker who’s supposed to show us around the Greenwich village area.

I’m very excited about a tall building right outside of the city, that might make for some nice views: http://www.eastcoastlic.com/main.htm. Things are a little cheaper there, and it looks like there’s a bunch more amenities. It’s also right on the river.

We’ll see what happens. I’ll keep you posted.
Tim

So I made it into Manhattan yesterday, totally exhausted. I had flown in on a red eye from Portland, OR, and had spent the whole day before packing every item I owned. Although I could only take two pieces of luggage on the plane, I had to get everything else ready so my dad could ship it.

I don’t remember any of the plane ride – I couldn’t even tell you how long it was! I had a layover in Cincinatti on my way to LaGuardia, and all I remember was transferring from one plane the next. If the plane was in the air, I was out cold; only when I had to walk somewhere did I keep myself awake.

I met my Mom and my aunt Susan in the LaGuardia airport. They had flown in Atlanta, Georgia to help me with the move, and came in about a half hour after I arrived. For some reason, all but one of Air Tran’s baggage claim carousels were broken, and so three flights ended up sharing the same one. After about 15 – 20 minutes of waiting, my mom and aunt finally got their luggage, and we were ready to leave.

We took a cab into the city to a vacation rental apartment between 41^st and 42^nd on 10^th avenue. My mom was shown pictures of the apartment before she rented it, and the owner seemed legit; however, my mom still had doubts whether there’d actually be a room for us, so she was relieved when the front desk handed us a key.

The apartment may be called “small” by some standards, but by mine, it would have been perfect had I been the only one staying in it. It was fully furnished, and was as if someone was already living their. In the closet there were suits, in the cupboard there was food, and on the wall, there was a master’s degree from Harvard. The person we were renting from had graduated from Harvard.

After getting settled in the apartment, we now had to find some food. We walked the streets to see what we could find, and we eventually stumbled upon a swanky little pizza place serving pizza by the slice. I forgot the name of it – apparently they’re a dime a dozen – but the pizza hit the spot, and got us ready to do some apartment searching.

Unfortunately, the only thing our vacation rental didn’t have was an internet connection, so that meant going down to a coffee shop to do our searching online. We started at Starbucks just down the street, but had to pay to get online. We ended up paying the fee, but we used the one time payment to find another coffee shops with free wifi. To our surprise, there was one about 500 feet away.

We searched Criagslist for some apartments in my price range, but didn’t find a whole lot in the areas I was looking for. I wanted somewhere South of Central Park – preferably somewhere in Greenwich Village – but we found most of the postings were either for Harlem or the Upper East Side. I eventually found two apartments I was interested in, so I made some calls and set up an appointment. Here’s some links:

http://www.prestonny.com/MainSite/Listings/Listing.aspx?ListingID=116661
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fee/399547610.html

The first apartment is in Murray Hill, and the second one is in Greenwich Village. The first one looks nicer than the second, but the second is a lot closer to work.

After finishing our apartment search for the day, we visited Times Square, and then ate at a nice Italian restaurant on Restaurant Row (46^th street between 8^th and 9^th avenues). We forgot what the restaurant name was, but it ended up being really good for the price.

That’s the end of day one. I’m looking forward to day two as I’ll be seeing my first two apartments. Although I don’t want to be too desperate and ruin my chances for something better, if I see an apartment that’s a good fit for me, I’m going to snatch it up as quickly as possible.

All,

I’m moving to New York City today! I’m excited to live somewhere new, and can’t wait to get there.

I’m going to be out of email communication for a couple days — I’m not sure how long. Within a week, I’ll have an apartment (hopefully in Manhattan), and soon after, I should have broadband. If I need to, I’ll catch a coffee shop and steal some internet there. I won’t be totally out of communication, but it may take me some time to respond.

I’ve had some requests to blog about my New York moving experience. I thought that was a great idea, so I’ll be sharing my week with you as it goes.

Tim