NYC APARTMENT HUNTING 2023 | 20 apartments tours w/ prices + tips

it's a cold but we were starting to lose hope seems too good to be true maybe you thought we were just being too picky but I bet you it is [Music] New York City is such a roller coaster ride it is chaotic it is time consuming first time that I moved to New York I got so lucky last summer when I moved here from Boston I looked at two or three Apartments before signing the one that I'm currently in took maybe three days and I thought apartment hunting was always going to be like that it's gonna be easy it's gonna be fast I was wrong this time my roommate and I looked at over 30 apartments with 20 of those being in-person tours over the past two months at first I was so excited to see new places now after looking at more than 20 Apartments I'm tired I'm just glad now that the search is over so let's get into it before we go into the actual apartment tours I want to go over the checklist of things that we were looking at first is budget we're looking at apartments between 3.8 and 4.8 K I do want to acknowledge that that is a lot of money and I feel super grateful and super privileged to be in this position as some of you know I grew up in a low-income household in an immigrant family so growing up this was something that I never imagined I never thought I would have the opportunity to live by myself in New York and now that I'm here it's something that I'm extremely grateful for in terms of location we were looking at both Manhattan and in Brooklyn we currently live in Brooklyn where you definitely I'd say get more space for the money that you're spending but you trade off for that in terms of time especially where we live where there's only one subway line and that subway line is often down it is kind of annoying to get to the city or bedrooms since both of us work from home about half the week we wanted to make sure that both bedrooms were big enough for both a queen size bed and a desk in terms of other must-haves I'd say good lighting good Windows is a big thing on my list I'd say lighting is really important not just because I shoot YouTube videos or self tapes or auditions for acting but because it has such a big impact on my mental health and mental wellbeing was actually having a conversation with my mom about this and she was telling me Jackie whatever you do make sure that your next apartment has good lighting sure you could save money but you probably can't buy back your happiness in the same way that you could if you just had better lighting next up Subway Lines place that we're currently living at has only one subway line so a must-have for the next apartment is to make sure that it is on at least two Subway Lines so that if any of them are down for maintenance we can still use the other one next up storage and closets I feel like since I've lived in Brooklyn and there's so many good thrift stores here I've definitely increased my wardrobe living space is probably the last must-have so Dylan and I both enjoy hanging out and watching shows to unwind at the end of the day and we just want to have space that's comfortable that we enjoy lounging out in or hanging out with our friends in terms of nice to haves for other amenities there's laundry preferably laundries in building though the more we toured the looser that requirement became as we realized that half the places we were looking at just did not have laundry especially in the East Village and the Upper West Side dishwasher not that important for me I grew up without a dishwasher washer and even though we have one now it's not something that I use that often and then finally a gym a gym would honestly be a great to have I think it really does make a big difference to have one close by because it takes away the inertia of exercising and exercising just has so many benefits for mental and physical health even though it's a really nice to have I know that it's going to cost a lot more money and most of the buildings that we looked at didn't actually have gyms and buildings so that's the full checklist of things that we're looking at let's jump into apartment number one I'm gonna look at notes while I do this to see because I don't remember all the stuff oh I'm so happy with Dylan's back roommates so I moved into the bedroom because I was getting a little too warm out there okay going into the apartments the first two apartments that we looked at were in Sky town we had never really visited Skytown before but I had a couple of friends who used to live there and the area looked really convenient it's right above East Village it's close to Union Square and the L train price range for the first two apartments was between four thousand and forty eight hundred when we asked the broker if there was a specific price they told us that it depends on the finishes of the apartment it also depends on the day just based on how their demand model Works which confused me a little bit so we saw two apartments the first was their base level apartment and the space itself was actually pretty nice the appliances looked good there were Windows the living room was pretty spacious and the bedrooms were also a pretty good size I think you could probably fit a desk and a bed in both of the bedrooms and it looked pretty good I think what threw us off about the apartment was not necessarily how the apartment itself was but the overall feeling of the community I know that some people really enjoy Sky town and I've spent a lot of time there but for both me and my roommate Vibes just felt a little bit off it almost felt like people were too happy to be there and not to say it's a cult but it felt a little bit like a cult it's a cold body it seems too good to be true and I bet you it is it almost didn't matter how nice the apartments were because we just didn't feel quite at ease while we were there going to the second apartment you can see the living room is really really nice it's a lot of space there's good lighting bedrooms are a really good space too it's also just a ton of closet space there were closets just left and right down the hallway and it looked like it hit all of our requirements again it just didn't really feel like a place that I would be really comfortable with and so we decided to move on while we were in that area the third and fourth apartments that we looked at were in East Village I wasn't quite sure if I actually wanted to live in East Village but since I'd never really spent that much time in the area this seemed like a good excuse to visit and the price point for these two was I think 3 700 for the first one and 4 000 for the second one both with the 15 Brokers fee which the landlord told me or the broker told me is just common in that area and I think the issue with both Apartments was that they were just a little bit too small in the first apartment that we looked at everything seemed a little bit crowded it was a couple living there and they used one room as their bedroom and they used the other room as their living room slash Nook space and it looked really cute and really comfortable but it just felt a little too small for me and my roommate since we both would be working at home it was also I think a fourth floor walk-up with no laundry in the building so that would have been a little bit inconvenient second one looked really really nice the living space had really big Windows really good lighting seemed really spacious just the first bedroom also looked really good it had a lot of lights it had really good closets the apartment seemed fine up until this point of the tour that's when I saw the second bedroom I think you could probably only fit a bed in there and you wouldn't be able to fit a desk that was an issue that I think we saw with a lot of apartments and this is probably when I first started noticing it where you would have a bedroom that is a great size you can fit a bed you can fit a desk but then the second bedroom would be much much smaller and Not only would it make it not possible to work from home there at the very least you'd have your desk in the living room which has less privacy but it also just created a really weird rent split for me and my roommate and so we decided that these weren't for us either going ahead to apartment number five we started looking in the Upper East Side I think the budget for this apartment was 3 700 but because of the 15 fee it brought us up closer to 4 600 because it also had an earlier move-in date by a month the size of the apartment actually looks pretty good in the kitchen they had a breakfast bar so connected both the kitchen dining area and the living room which is really nice the living room it's self was also pretty spacious they were able to fit a good sized couch in there and also some other Furniture like a dining table there wasn't any windows in the living room area but I think that was actually okay um I guess there was actually a window but it faced a wall so it felt almost the same as having no window the bedrooms in this unit were both pretty evenly sized as well both people had a desk and a bed in there and they also had space for some other things like a dresser so this one was actually pretty decent the main issue that I had with it was one we were pretty early in the process so we felt like it was a little too soon to settle we felt like there was probably something better we can get if we just looked a little longer but the other major issue was that there just wasn't a lot of sunlight it was a really nice day when we were walking there and there's a lot of sun when we were entering the building but when we got into the apartment because a lot of the windows were facing walls we just didn't get to experience a lot of that and I knew that that was something that would make me sad so that was a no-go the sixth apartment was also in the Upper East Side this one we were looking at just a little bit for fun it was five thousand dollars which was already out of our budget but it was no fee and in an area on the Upper East Side that we hadn't looked at before whereas that first one was in the 80th Streets between I guess second and third Avenue this one was closer to 50s and 60s my initial impression was that the Upper East Side areas would be kind of similar but it felt really really different the apartment itself was really big really spacious had a lot of windows but the bedroom layouts were pretty weird the first bedroom was really small it had these weird doors that led one into the kitchen and then two into the living room and the living room doors didn't lock they were just these folding doors that you could enclose so whoever lived in that bedroom really wouldn't have that much privacy the second bedroom was huge like just absolutely massive the closets were big the windows were big and again it just created this really weird rent split not that we were considering this place super seriously to begin with because it was already out of budget but even if it was within budget just because of the layouts of the room I don't think it would have worked out apartment number seven was also in the Upper East Side this one was a bit on the cheaper end it was around 3 300 and it had a one month fee which brought a close closer to about 3 800. the issue with this one was I think that it was a little too dark and a little too small the living space did seem a little cramped they had two bedrooms but one of the bedrooms was a little bit bigger than the other one where they could fit a bed and a desk but the other bedroom seemed to have a twin size bed and a desk and because of the windows there just wasn't a lot of light in the living room or in the smaller bedroom so that wouldn't have worked out for us the eighth apartment that we saw was also on the Upper East Side and this was definitely one of my favorite Apartments going in so you walk into the living room and immediately see just an amazing amount of light because of how big the windows are and because it has a balcony and when we go up to the bedrooms it was a duplex so we had to take the stairs there was also just incredible Lighting in the bedrooms the first bedroom has this amazing circular window and I just absolutely loved it the bedroom was also a pretty good size and it had its own closet and the second bedroom was also a similar size had two closets and also a half bathroom Detroit off there is that one has a half bathroom but it doesn't have that massive window and my roommate and I are okay with that I would take the room with the big window and he would take the one with a half bathroom the issue with this one is that they wanted us to move in on April 15th it was 4 200 and no fee but because of the April 15th move-in date it would have brought us up to about 4 700 which while still within budget did just feel a little bad that we would have to pay extra rent for about a month and a half and so we really really deliberated on this one this was one that met all of our requirements was in a neighborhood that felt really nice the night of that we saw it we were thinking about it we were really close to signing but we decided to sleep on it and then when we woke up the next day after talking to some friends we figured maybe there's something better that's still out there we're still very very early in the process and so we decided to pass apartment number nine we're staying Uptown but we're looking at the upper west side instead this first one was a townhouse that was 3 600 but it had a 15 fee a one month earlier move-in date so it would have brought us up closer to about 4 400. first bedroom was really big and really spacious it had a decorative fire to place Windows closets kind of enough space for everything the living room also looked super super nice and had enough space it had really good Windows it also connected to the kitchen with a kitchen bar which again I really love just because it connects the two spaces together and makes the whole common space feel a lot bigger the amazing thing about this one is it also had a walk-in closet area where they had a big closet they had some storage space up top the bathroom layout was a little weird because they split it up into two where you had one bathroom that had just the toilet and the sink and then you had the other bathroom that was the shower I guess that works out for roommates who you can still use the bathroom if your roommate is in the shower the biggest turn off and I think the reason why this place didn't work out was because the second bedroom was just too small whereas the first bedroom was a great size the second bedroom could only basically fit a full-size bed and that's about it it had a closet it had good lighting but I think because you can fit a desk in there and because the rent split would have been so weird we decided to forego this place otherwise as our first introduction to the Upper West Side it was a really really gorgeous apartment apartment number nine is also on the upper west side but now we're instead of looking at the 70s and 80s we were looking at Lincoln Square it was 3 300 oh I take that back it was 3 500 with a 15 broker fee which brought it up to four thousand it had a pretty good sized living room it fit a full couch that had nice windows and both of the bedrooms were pretty evenly sized as well within them they fit both a bed and a desk so I met some of those requirements but it did feel a little bit more cramped and the lighting in one of the bedrooms was a little dark sounds like I'm nitpicking on this one but I think when we're spending that much money to live in Manhattan we really just want to make sure that the Space is really comfortable and I think that was one of the biggest differences for this apartment and the earlier apartment whereas that Upper West Side apartment in the 70s felt a lot like a neighborhood moving down just 10 streets to the Lincoln Square area made it feel a lot less neighborhoody the whole area felt a lot more academic where you had a lot more concrete buildings and a lot less of those kind of neighborhood Brownstone red brick atmosphere Vibes so that one was a no-go for us one all right number 11 was back in the Upper East Side this one was 4 400 but had a one month fee so it brought it up to 5100. this already brought us out of budget but it was worth seeing in part just because it was such an interesting unit it was by far the largest apartment that we had seen when we went to see it it was actually flexed into a three bedroom where they made the living room into a three bed it had good Windows good lighting and all the bedrooms were a really really good size so on the space front this definitely met all the requirements kitchen and dining room area were also really nice biggest issues for this one were that it was out of budget and it just didn't feel like a neighborhood that we would really love this one was the furthest Uptown for the Upper East Side Apartments that we looked at it was in the 90s and again just moving 10 streets up felt a lot different than when we were looking at apartments in the 80s and it just felt like if we were gonna move to Manhattan and we wanted to be somewhere more convenient it didn't make a whole lot of sense to spend a lot of money to live uptown even if that meant that we would get really big rooms apartment number 12 was in Hell's Kitchen it was 32 250 with a 15 fee and a one month earlier move-in so ended up being around four thousand dollars which was definitely one of the more affordable ones within the list that we were looking at the apartment itself was pretty nice it was a fifth floor walk up the living room was pretty spacious as were both the bedrooms there are a lot of people touring when we visited this apartment but there was also something about the neighborhood that I just didn't really like too much I work in Times Square and Hell's Kitchen is really close in theory it's really convenient I could probably walk to work from where the apartment was but I almost didn't like being that close to work because to me it felt like there was no separation and I think while I want to live in Manhattan and be in the city and be Central living in Hell's Kitchen felt almost too Central or like to New York where it felt like the moment that I walked down from the apartment I was thrown into Manhattan and that just seemed too much of a contrast apartment number 13 was the first and only unit that we saw in Chelsea it started off at 4 700 and it had no fee but one month earlier moving so it would have brought it up to 5100 that brings us above object and it probably would have been too expensive even if it hadn't been bidded up but we were here serious and we wanted to see what the Chelsea area was like so we decided to go see it this was one of the best looking apartments that I have ever seen and there were so many people waiting outside for it the living room was gorgeous spacious it has everything that you'd want it has good Windows it has enough space same thing can be said about the kitchen area and the bedrooms the bedrooms were slightly different sizes one was smaller than the other but both were big enough that you could fit a desk and it has great light and it has a bed so really no complaints there even if it hadn't been bitted up because by the end it went up to I think 5700 so a thousand more than there initially was it probably would have been too expensive for us but it was nice to dream and it was nice to look at for a little bit apartment number 14 brings us back to Brooklyn where we started looking at apartments in Williamsburg in part because we're starting to get a little depressed by looking at Manhattan the places were really expensive they weren't as nice as I think we thought they would be so we thought maybe Williamsburg is the best of both worlds where it's still convenient because you have the L train and the G train going through amongst others and it's also just a little bit cheaper than some of the areas that we're looking at it's a little bit cheaper in air quotes because Williamsburg is definitely starting to become one of the more popular and expensive areas so for apartment number 14 it was in the heart of Williamsburg very close to McCarran park it was four thousand dollars a month no fee and our ideal move-in day the reason why it was so cheap and no fee is because it was actually a lease break that someone had posted on Facebook this apartment was really really nice the only issue that we had with it and we found out from seeing it in person was that the second bedroom was just a little bit too small to place a desk so going into the apartment itself it's a railroad style apartment so the kitchen and the living room are next to each other and the bedrooms are on opposite sides the first bedroom is absolutely massive right now there was a couple living in there so they actually used the first bedroom as their living room area and it has really nice lighting it's really big it has good closets absolutely no complaints about it second bedroom was a lot smaller the couple had their bed in there but there's no room for a desk and I think that was a deal breaker for us just because we both work from home we considered potentially putting a desk in the living room but just looking at the living space and how is a railroad apartment it didn't seem like something that was that feasible and so even despite the really amazing price and the really great location we ended up passing on this apartment apartment number 15 is also in Williamsburg it's forty four hundred dollars but because of the one month earlier move-in it brought it up to 4 800. this one we also did not find on Street Easy it was another lease break the living room area was really really nice even though we went to see it in night time from the pictures and the other video that we saw online during the daytime it got a lot of light it was on one of the busier streets but because of face the back it was also really quiet so it was the best of all worlds it was spacious you had a lot of good light and it was quiet and because it was on Main Street it was also really convenient the downside of this one were that the bedrooms were a little bit smaller and they didn't have any closets so one of the bedrooms you can fit both a desk and a bed just based on how it was set up it was a little bit longer so you can have a bed on one side and then on the other end of it you can have the desk the other bedroom they didn't have a desk they just had their bed so it probably would have been a little bit difficult to squeeze the living room had a couple of closets which is really nice and I don't have it in the video but this building also had a rooftop and a gym we ended up really really liking this apartment and we talked to the current tenant to connect us with the landlord they told us that there was one application in before us and then we never heard back that was a little bit heartbreaking because when we saw this apartment it met everything that we liked sure the bedrooms were a little bit smaller but given how nice the living room was and how good the lighting was that was a compromise that we were both willing to make we just never heard back so we moved on the final apartment that we saw in Williamsburg was 4 500 and it had a one month fee and a one month earlier move-in so that brought it up to an unfortunately ridiculous price of 52.50 the reason why we saw this to begin with was because we thought that the move-in date was flexible but after seeing the unit and touring it they told us that it wouldn't be possible that there were too many applications and that we'd either move in a month early or we wouldn't be in contention that being said it was a really really nice apartment even though it was listed as a two bedroom there were actually three bedrooms with one of the bedrooms not technically being listed because it didn't have Windows but it was still a really good size the two normal bedrooms had amazing Windows had access to a balcony even though the windows were North facing the lighting was just really really good the living space was actually pretty large as well there was no windows in the living room but I think just based on the amount of light that the bedrooms got that would have been okay with me it was a second floor walk up in a really nice part of Williamsburg I was heartbroken that there was no flexibility with the move-in day because this would have been one that I really really liked having that third bedroom would have been really nice as well for something like a YouTube Studio or just as a workstation so we could have our desks in there instead of in our bedrooms alas it didn't work out apartment number 17 brings us back to the Upper West Side this one was 47.50 had no fee but it had a one month earlier move-in date which brought it up to 51.50 again this brought us out of budget since the 4750 was already at the top line but I figured there might be some negotiation room with the move-in day I figured wrong I feel like every time a broker told me that there was actually flexibility on the move-in date there turned out not to be flexibility on the move-in date and we would either waste our time viewing the apartment or end up viewing doing it and really liking it but then have our hearts broken because it was just a really competitive market so if I give a piece of advice there don't look too early because if you do you're going to see places you like and then you're not going to be able to get them because people will be moving in earlier than you okay that said this apartment was also really really nice it was in the 70s and 80s area of the Upper West Side really nice neighborhood both bedrooms were fairly large one of them was definitely the master bedroom and a lot larger had really really good sunlight the other bedroom one we visited had a lot of stuff in it so you couldn't really tell how big it was but I was told you could probably fit a full-size bed in there and then the person who used to live there put their desk on the outside the living room was railroad style so the living room and kitchen were connected really good lighting for the most part but not my favorite I'm just not a huge fan of the railroad style I also had a backyard area that was shared between the couple of buildings in the area but given the move-in day and the budget just didn't work out we saw one last place in the Upper West Side starts off at 38.50 it had no fee but with the move-in day it brought us to 4200 I don't even have a video of this unit just because the moment we stepped in we knew that it wouldn't work out the photos looked really really nice on Street Easy the price point looked amazing and so when we were walking in we figured you know what's the catch with this apartment the catch was one but the living room size was much smaller than what was shown in the photos I think the angle that they took it out and made it look like there was a separate living room and dining room but it was all just connected together with the kitchen so there really wasn't any separation between the two and it felt like you basically had a dining room and no living room the other major red flag was that the apartment was next to a public school and that it was just going to be really loud on the weekdays when the school bells are ringing when the kids are outside playing on the playground this is something that we asked one of the current tenants there and she said that it does get pretty noisy on the weekdays and I always appreciate when tenants are transparent about what it's like to live there when people are touring our apartment right now we say the same thing that it's a little inconvenient because you only have one subway line and it's sometimes down and because we're also next to a highway it does get pretty loud I'd say at this point it all sounds a little bit like white noise but occasionally you do get a motorcycle revving you do get a bust that makes really loud noises so if the tenants are there and they're comfortable with it definitely ask them questions try try to get the actual truthful situation of what it's like to live in that building and not just what the broker tells you because let's face it the broker does have an incentive to get you into the building and they might not be giving you the full picture of what it's like to live in that unit apartment number 19 brings us to LIC I also don't have a video for this apartment because the moment we stepped in we knew it wasn't right it was four thousand dollars and had a one month fee and a one month earlier move-in starting to see a theme here so it brought us to 4 700. it was a ground floor unit the space itself was okay and by space itself I mean spaciousness-wise but it just looks completely different than the photos the lighting was terrible the setup of the bedrooms was really strange where the bedroom itself had a door that connected to the hallway of the building so someone in theory could instead of going through the front door just take the hallway door and go straight into your bedroom which I don't know if that ever happens but the possibility of that was something that felt really weird I think that's something that is maybe common sense but definitely something that we saw throughout this process is that photos look so different than what you actually see in real life and the sense of space the sense of light are also completely different because people are editing the hell out of those photos online and when you step in and you see that it's beautiful outside and completely dark inside it instantly lets you know that something is off there apartment number 20 is back in the Upper East Side this one was 46.75 it had no fee and it was our perfect move-in day jumping into the living room the space itself was actually pretty large the living room was a good space the bedrooms were both a good size as well but from the video you can see that it's pretty dark and this was taken at about 4 P.M on a really nice day outside and as nice as the size of the space was I felt like if I had lived here without any sunlight I would just get really really sad it was also in the 60s in the Upper East Side and rather than feeling like a neighborhood when I walked outside I felt immediately thrown into the financial sector where I would see people who look like they work in finance wearing Patagonia vests talking on their phones sounding very businessy and that just wasn't the atmosphere that I was looking for it didn't seem like a really relaxing place to live and given that given the sunlight just did not work out apartment number 21 final apartment for privacy reasons because it's the one that we end up with I'm not going to say where it is starts off at 4200 but after a 15 fee jumps closer to about 4 800. this was one of our top choices of the apartments that we looked at at this point we were also really really tired of searching we had seen so many and we were starting to lose hope that we would find one that met all of our requirements maybe we thought we were just being too picky maybe we should have picked the Upper East Side one before but then we saw this one and all our doubts were erased when we go in the living room is a decent size there's no windows but you can fit a couch you can fit a coffee table and a TV but the selling point of this one really the bedrooms going into the first bedroom which is a smaller of the two we see really really good Windows you can fit a desk you can fit a bed and these were south facing on a quiet street so you'd get really nice lighting all the time if you jump into the second bedroom it's even larger same big south facing Windows it even has a closet so you have a lot of storage space the moment I saw those windows I kind of knew that I wanted this place I knew that it was going to be at the top end of our budget but also just knew how much those windows would make me happy and after all that we'd seen so far and the convenience of this neighborhood it was just something that I was willing to break my budget a little bit for looking back at this entire process I think there are definitely things that I would have done differently so we started looking in the middle of March and we finally finished our apartment search at the end of April so from beginning to end it took us about a month and a half versus the three days that it took us last year if I were to give myself advice I'd say one look for apartments early but don't look that early because you're gonna end up heartbroken I think that was probably the biggest mistake that Dylan and I made is that we started looking at apartments too early so everything that we were looking at had a move-in date that was a month earlier or available now and we were just so eager to find a place because we were scared that we wouldn't that we were willing to make concessions that I don't think we needed to if we had started looking a little bit later I think we would have started seeing apartments that matched our move-in day where we wouldn't have to pay overlapping rent for periods the second thing that I actually think we did do pretty well was looking at other websites that weren't Street easy so it's really easy if you're not from New York is the main apartment hunting website that people use it's searched by move-in day budget all the things that you're looking for and it's by far the best user experience of the other apps but if you look at places like rent hop lease break Facebook you're gonna find hidden gems that you might not find on Street easy so for a couple apartments on this list including ones that I really liked we actually found them on Redhawk or Facebook it didn't end up working out but I think it gave us options that were a little bit of a better deal than what we found on Street Easy just because we knew these were things that not everybody was looking at the final thing I'd say is this if you have the option to definitely go see the apartments in person or a lot of the apartments that we looked at the photos end up being completely different than what we see in person and you just also get a way better feel for the neighborhood for the unit and for what living there would actually be like so that's it good luck to you if you're looking to find an apartment in New York City I'm excited to move bye

Channel: Jacky Ye

Views: 62,157

Keywords: nyc apartment hunting, nyc apartment tour, nyc apartment

Id: HzUOSgsy5Uk

Length: 26min 34sec (1594 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 07 2023