Woes of renting in New York City

If anything has led me to question my decision to move to New York this summer for graduate school, it is the imperative of finding housing there.  As many people know, it is a process fraught by not one but many complications: apartments are expensive beyond belief; space is limited; brokers charge preposterous fees (12-15%) relative to the minimal service they seem to provide–particularly if, like many people, you found the apartment first on Craigslist; turnover of rental units is small; and renting requires extensive documentation that attests to one’s income being at least 40-times the monthly rent.  Apartment hunting and landing is certainly the New York transplant’s introductory test of survival in the city.  

So far, I have found that the best way to deal with it is to research the whole process, both by asking friends and by using this great little device, oh you may have heard of it, called Google (that was for my friend Tim).  You will feel a little less the disarmed small town kid in-over-her-head in the big city if you try to tackle it head on.  A few things I have learned that one may not find out right off the bat:

• You can negotiate a broker’s fee.  Back in 1985, when broker’s fees in New York were almost uniformly a now enviable 6%, a Federal Trade Commission survey of the real estate brokerage industry  emphasized that this rate was not mandated by any state law or industry policy. (Disclosure: The FTC is my employer).  Thus, it is perfectly within one’s bounds to ask to negotiate the fee.  In fact, consider it your duty, as a staunch, America-loving free marketeer to keep the industry competitive.
• When a broker asks you to register with him or her by filling out a form with your contact information, s/he is getting you to agree to pay a broker fee in the case that you rent an apartment through him/her.  I had a young guy–the picture of a lazy and vaguely sleazy New York broker–try to casually get him me to do this.  When I objected, he quickly became impatient and frustrated with me.  Sure, he had taken his time to meet me and show me the apartment, but he had not disclosed on his Craigslist ad that he was a broker who charged a fee.  (It really gets me when businessmen don’t seem to have any use for how far honest business dealings will go with customers).  His pushiness immediately turned me off to using his services, though unfortunately, he may do just fine, with the 15% fee he is charging.  Oh, and what did this charming fellow offer for his fee?  A narrow 2-bedroom apartment whose floors were covered with dried paint and wall dust and that housed a live pigeon that had made an impressive nest in the corner window of one of the bedrooms!  And here I thought buildings were generally averse to pets.
• You need many documents–last two years of tax returns, recent bank statements, letter of employment–that attest to your ability to pay, or you need a guarantor–someone who co-signs a lease essentially agreeing to be held responsible for rental payments should you default.  Most people looking in New York learn this pretty quickly, but it is good to know for the wanderluster who idly considers moving to the city, as such demanding income parameters make it impossible for many people to make the big move.

It is such endeavors that dissuade people from moving often, and I can understand it.  When I was first looking for housing in D.C., I remember wandering the area around U St., which I had been told was the up-and-coming place to live–though, considering there have not been many changes there over the 2-years I have lived in D.C., you could say, it has already up-and-came.  I stood helplessly in the insufferable heat that day, having lost any hope that I would be able to afford anything in the safer parts of that condo-ized corridor and worrying that I would put myself in imminent danger if I looked a few blocks farther away to what was more affordable.  A year later, I would move about a mile north of where I stood that day in a lovely house in Columbia Heights.  The point is, it is much easier to judge the rental stock when one has lived somewhere for a while than when one has first arrived.  The effort it takes to re-locate to a new and interesting place can seem daunting, and I am not always sure I am ready for it, but, after having lived in D.C. two-years and made it my home–if not a little reluctantly–I can say that getting to the point of familiarity with a place that once seemed intimidating is very fulfilling.