Day 5 - Whoa.
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.
Wow Tim! The $1650 one would have been nice! But who know that needle was so shiny. Everyone was going for it at the same time and someone beat you to the punch. Just make do with what you can get now and work on something better down the road. Good luck on the $2000 apartment! I will be calling soon.
Dad
Tim,
When will we see some pictures on the blog? That would be cool!
Dad
Hey Tim,
Keep the $2k apartment and consider it a great start to your life here in the city. Rent stabilized means cheap, but it can also mean:
1) constantly broken elevators
2) non-existent maintenance people
3) ZERO hot water
4) broken laundry machines in basement
5) psycho neighbors (more than you’d expect)
I once had an apartment on the upper west side that was sharing some rent stabilized units in the building. What I learned was that the owner of the building had zero initiative to take care of the place, and our 1 year there was absolute hell. For example, the sewage backflow opened up right in the middle of the basement, in the middle of the room with the laundry machines - you had to carefully step over human excrement to get to your ‘clean’ laundry. Yuck.
Speaking of pictures, check the ruby-talk list for an announcement/teaser on an updated gallery rails plugin
Welcome to the city Tim!
– Mitch