NYC Apartment Hunting! Touring 8 Manhattan Apartments between $2700-$3150 | *Post Pandemic Prices*

[Music] foreign [Music] hello and welcome back to the channel or if you're new here I'm urbi and I'm so happy to have you here my lease up end of March so I'm moving and over the last month or so I've looked at about 24 25 apartments in different parts of New York and I've been taking videos of everything documenting everything because I know so many of you find it so interesting I'm going to try to break it all up between three videos so it's kind of like going to be a series of New York City apartment hunting since I did this the last time the New York City rental market has changed completely pre-covered the prices were high during covet there were some great deals out there and 2022 was the most expensive time to be a renter in New York and some of that has carried on to 2023 although it's a little bit better than last year things are rough here and studios are going between anywhere from like 26 2700 even if it's not in Manhattan uh to 3 500 like that is just wild to me especially as someone who wants to live alone not have roommates have my own space and has nobody to share expenses and rent with it is really really rough out here I don't want to hear anyone in the comments say move out of New York it's terribly overpriced we all know it is I still want to be here at this point in my life so it is what it is before we get into the actual apartment I want to answer some of the questions that I have continued to get since my last apartment hunting videos number one where do I find my Apartments literally I only use Street Easy I stock Street Easy I open it like probably 20 times a day and I'm sure anyone else who's looking for apartments in New York also does that it's just because the rental market here is so competitive you have to really really be on top of things but my only medium of looking for an apartment is treat easy you see a listing you contact them and go from there talk to whoever responds to you and go from there I don't have one single broker who I've worked with I find it's just so easy to reach out to people and Street Easy that I don't find the need to have an individual broker but that is something you can do a lot of the times the people that you will reach out to for one listing will end up asking you your requirements and your must-haves Etc and then they'll put a list together for you that's something that you think might be interesting or easier for you to do that is a possibility when you guys reach out to me and say please help me find an apartment that is not my job I am not a broker I'm just a person who goes on Street easy and looks at listing which you can do on your own so I cannot help you find an apartment all of the apartments that I've toured in the last month or so most of them obviously have rented because you know that's how things go here it's really really fast but I will leave addresses in the description for all the apartments that I did tour because if not for that exact unit you can look at the building and see if there are other units in the building available if that's something you're interested in in terms of requirements for renting in New York you do need to make 40 to 45 times the rent so your income has to be 40 times your rent or 45 times your rent sometimes depending on the landlord you do need to have good credit I think the requirement is like 720 plus there are some buildings that allow pets that are some buildings that don't there are also three types of rentals in New York condos co-ops and rental units I cannot properly explain the differences because again I'm not a real estate agent but with condos and co-ops there's usually a bigger or a larger application fee and the fee completely depends on the condo or the co-ops management so sometimes it'll be like 500 for an application combining like move-in fee application fee credit check fee Etc and I've also looked at a apartments that have fees like upwards of a thousand dollars so it all depends another thing you need to keep in mind when you are looking on Street Easy there is an option to look at no fee apartments only there is a filter that you can toggle and it will only show you no fee apartments that means that those apartments do not have a broker's fee I started my search by only looking at no fee Apartments but I quickly found that to be kind of limiting with inventory so when an apartment is not no fee it means there's usually a broker's fee attached the broker's fee can be anywhere from one month's rent to 15 of the annual rent and that is extremely high but that's just how things are in New York one thing that really helped me like compartmentalize these apartments and kind of make sense of the fee and baking it into rent for me personally let's just say your budget's 3 000 you can just say apartments for three thousand no fee and you can save down searches on streeteasy which makes it really helpful and sweet easy will send you like a notification every time a new apartment is added to that search or every time something goes in contract things like that but what you can also do is factor in the broker's fee into the rent usually my rule was that I'm not willing to pay more than 10 percent 10 is the maximum for me that I'm willing to pay on an apartment that I really love ideally I would only pay one month's broker fee and the way I kind of baked that into rent is if your budget is 3 000 look for apartments that are somewhere in the 2700 range that way when you bake that broker fee and all the other fees into your rent it would still be in that 3000 price range if that makes sense but I had two different searches saved down one with no fee slightly higher priced apartments and then one with Brokers fees but slightly lower price department so it all Nets out to the same amount so all of these are just some of my tips that I use and have helped me in my five years of being a renter in New York this is going to be my sixth apartment for me I've lived in Manhattan for the last three years before that I've lived in New Jersey and Brooklyn and I just really love being in Manhattan so even though that wasn't like a requirement I would have preferred or nice to have so I did look at a lot of apartments in Manhattan and that's what I've compiled for this video midtown east Midtown and West upper east side and Upper West Side Apartments are what's going to be in this video and then in the next video we'll cover some other locations and other boroughs of New York City for my search I looked at mostly Studios and Junior one bedrooms in the price range of like 26 to 2700 to on the higher end 2 900 to 3 000 but that's just going to be the Baseline for this video now let's get into the apartments so the first apartment is in this super nice luxury building on West 42nd Street and 11th Avenue it's a studio and this is slightly about that 3000 price range I think the net price on this with one month free on a 14 month lease was 31.50 so the gross was obviously higher close to 3 300. the unit itself was small but nice it did have a washer dryer and unit I know that's a big thing in New York and all of the finishes were are really nice and new I love the bathroom and the backsplash tiles in the bathroom and just all the new fittings there was a coat closet in the entryway and the kitchen is just part of the living room there was no separate kitchen but again all the shelves and everything looked really nice and new just something that comes with living in a luxury apartment the living area itself was actually pretty small I think it would only fit like a bed and a small love seat and it did have one half closet apart from the cold closet in the entryway I think the Highlight in this one there is an outdoor space like a balcony which is nice um and it does like face the water a little bit so you did have a slight water view but the apartment itself I felt was a little bit small for the price this building did have all the amenities a doorman a gym a outdoor pool and indoor pool the only caveat was that the gym is owned by LifeTime Fitness and even as a resident you don't get to use it for free you have to pay 250 a month to be able to use all of the fitness facilities associated with lifetime which just didn't make sense to me because if I'm paying upwards of three thousand dollars for a tiny Studio that I should be able to get the amenities for free or at a low price at least this next Studio that I looked at was also slightly above my price range at 3095 so almost 3 100 but it was also in a luxury building in Hell's Kitchen on 10th and 43rd if I'm not wrong this unit was obviously being refreshed when I went to tour it someone was there painting it but as you can see it had like a little kitchen area of its own and then there were two closets in the entryway a decent sized bathroom with like nice nice finishes and then the living space itself had kind of like an Alcove like a hidden Alcove for a bed which I like I prefer that like not having the bed in full view when you walk into the apartment and on the opposite wall I could put my couch the only thing I didn't like about this unit was that obviously was about 3 000 but it was looking at a hotel on the other side and it was on a busy street so you literally faced a very busy street so that could get noisy it was on the third floor it wasn't a very high floor this was also a luxury building so it had like doorman gym common areas all of those amenities the good part about this one was that there was a very low amenity fee I think it was like 50 a month which he said was negotiable this was only the second apartment that I'd seen so I didn't want to really make a decision and this was also like early in February another thing to know about New York is people don't like let you sign a lease or let you rent an apartment if your move-in date is more than a month out so my move-in day being end of March this wouldn't have worked anyway because they just don't want the apartment like lying empty without making money off of it for that long the next apartment also Studio was in the Murray Hill Neighborhood it was on East 39th Street elevator doorman rooftop all the amenities for me natural light was really important but I saw this unit in the evening so I couldn't really gauge what that situation was with this as you walked in there were two closets and then there were windows in both the living area and the kitchen which most times you don't really see in New York as sad as that is but the living area itself I thought was kind of small the bathroom was not clean here but it was decent I guess I just didn't feel like paying three thousand dollars for her literally just like a box like this on the location obviously was amazing I think the best part about this building though was the rooftop and the view it was it just felt like I was at a rooftop bar in New York City it was so nice surrounded by all of the best views and you could see the Empire State and I think it was just like a nice idea but I know like having such a small living space would make me feel so cramped that the roof was not enough to make up for it this next apartment was in the Kips Bay Area East 30th Street and let me tell you before I show you guys this I wanted this apartment so so bad the owner of this apartment was living here and she'd lived there for 12 years and she was kind of just ready to move on but since she lived there herself she'd made it so so beautiful and designed it so nicely as you will see this was a junior one bedroom like a converted studio and the rent was three thousand dollars building had an elevator and laundry and a doorman it did not have a gym or a rooftop and this was a Condo building which meant that the combined fees of the condo application moving fee Etc came up to about 950 dollars this is a one-time fee that you pay when you sign an application with most condos and co-ops in New York even though this was a studio there was so much storage space there was a closet in the entryway as you walked in there was the kitchen right in front I really loved all of the light fixtures that were in this apartment I thought it was small but felt so so homely the kitchen was right off of the living room it wasn't really big and not a lot of storage space in the kitchen but it did do the job she converted part of the living area into a small little bedroom with a glass pane and a door and then there was a curtain so you could like shut off the glass pane and it would kind of become its own area and the living room itself was like so so cute I had the same couch that she has so I was like it would fit perfectly the highlight of this apartment though was the storage she had custom Alpha closet storage systems installed so even though it was a studio there was so much storage and it was so well thought out there were these shelves there was a walk-in closet that she designed herself and she was going to leave all of the shelving the way it was so for me having as much stuff that I have I think storage was also one of the most important parts in New York I've always felt when I walked into an apartment whether or not that could be my home and I know a lot of other people do too and this just felt right for me I did end up applying for this unit she said she had about 30 people look at this unit in two days and in the end I didn't get it because I think there was someone more financially qualified let's move a little bit Uptown to the Upper East Side now this apartment was a one bed one bath apartment that was listed for 2700 no fees I really liked it it looked really nice on Street easy and it was one of those apartments that you could Tour on your own but I just felt like it was such a catfish in terms of the pictures looked really nicely staged and the light looked really great in the apartment but that was not the case as you will see and that's another tip I think being wary of most times what you see on Street Easy is not what the apartment actually looks like in real life I think real estate agents in New York are the best Photoshop users that's why I prefer seeing every single apartment on my own and before I even go to see the apartment physically I always try to request a video from the realtor to make sure that it's actually worth my time to go there in person this building was a walk-up this was on the third floor so you walked out two flights of stairs this is the door I walked in here right on entering his the kitchen I just want to show you before I turn the lights on what the light in here looks like I mean the living room basically is not getting any light because this window faces a wall typical New York City let's turn on the lights so this is the kitchen pretty tiny walk in here stuff it looks really dirty like it hasn't been cleaned this is a fridge Granite it is only 2700 and for that price this is pretty big if they were to like clean it that's the living room there's an AC unit don't know if it works because it looks a little broken they were to clean the space I think it could be good but again the issue is there's no light in the living room there's also no closets in the living room this is a bedroom faces this street so there is some light coming in here and it's a decent size like it could fit a massive bed maybe even a desk that's the only closet that's a really good sized closet I like the bedroom it's spacious there's another AC unit here this is the bathroom [Music] see if this opens yep medicine cabinet shower little window in the shower which is always nice yeah that's the apartment I didn't hate this apartment it was decent and it was on the lower end of the price range I just feel like natural light is such like a necessity for me after having lived in my current apartment for so long and seeing how nice it is to have the Sun come in um it's just like a basic human need which I feel like is so crazy that so many apartments in New York just don't have natural light not having any light in the living area I know for sure that would make me unhappy because my last apartment was like that and I just didn't love it but for someone else for who that is not a necessity I think this was a good option this next apartment was also on the Upper East Side on 86th and third or second Avenue so the area was really nice lots of restaurant lots of things to do it was close to the Q train easy to commute from this was a co-op building there was elevator laundry and a doorman the rent was 28.45 and it was a no fee apartment apart from 650 dollars worth of Co-op application fees this was a studio that was converted into a junior one bedroom you walked into the apartment to the kitchen a little kitchen on the right side and then on the left side there was like a lot of storage three big closets as you can see and then a little tiny Nook for whatever like a coat hanger or whatever you wanted and then another closet also so storage was really really good in this apartment the bathroom was decent standard nothing special and then through there you walked into a little converted bedroom Nook she just like made this system where she divided the living area with a large bookshelf like thing to convert and make a separate bedroom area the nice part about this apartment was it was on a high floor and the views were really pretty I think this was a top contender in my search I really liked it it was a decent price range but I think by the time I went to see this I'd already applied for another apartment and just heard that I was approved for it I'll tell you guys separately and give you a separate tour of the apartment that I I chose I obviously don't want to include that in these videos because I don't want to give out the address and everything but um at this point I'd already gotten approved for that one and I just really loved that apartment so even though this building in this apartment was really nice it just was not something that I ended up going for this next apartment was a one bedroom on West 53rd and 7th Avenue now if you know New York that is not a great area it is really Central but it's also where all the tourists go is super close to Times Square there's a bunch of hotels there that all the tourists stay at so area wise if you're looking for like a neighborhood kind of field this wasn't in the best one it was the elevator doorman building one bedroom for 2800 which in that area is a great price range change the thing that threw me off right off the bat is when I got here the agent had not mentioned to the doorman that I was coming and they were just so rude and they were like if the agent's not here we can't let you see the apartment and after like 15-20 minutes of waiting I was able to get upstairs to see the apartment but just like it just didn't start off right this apartment might not look like it in this video but it was dark and there wasn't really a lot of light coming in I thought it was a good apartment because there was a lot of storage as you can see there were like closets on the left when I entered there were also Closets By the kitchen the kitchen was its own little area so it was a separate kitchen something that I did notice was that this apartment hadn't looked like it had been cleaned since the last person moved out there was a lot of furniture Left Behind like just chairs and random lamps and stuff and the kitchen was extremely dirty [Music] foreign but it did have a separate living area and a separate bedroom and the bedroom also had really good closet space um there's another like random lamp line here and then the bathroom had a window which was nice I just don't know if it comes through in this video but it was just all really really dirty the landlords will always clean the apartment when a tenant leaves before the new tenant moves in I called the agent to ask if the apartment was going to be cleaned and she was like no it's not and I was like okay but there's all this like random stuff lying around in the apartment is someone going to get rid of that and she was like I don't think so but you can get rid of it if you want to and I'm like that just made like all these red flags go up in my mind she was like well it's a great area it's a great price point we're not cleaning it and it's just what it is and if that is the experience with even before renting an apartment I just was afraid of what was going to happen if something broke and I wanted it fixed like the landlord would probably just be unrest responsive and so this was like a No-No for me I couldn't have walked out of here fast enough after that the last apartment for this video was a one bedroom on the upper west side really really nice area of Upper West Side the rent was three thousand dollars and the owner was paying the broker's fee on a two-year lease signing and this was also a condo which meant there was like upwards of thousand dollars in other condo fees it was an elevator doorman building but same issue here with like all the windows facing the back of the building or the wall and so they're not really being any natural light um the apartment itself was decent there was a kitchen which was part of the living area that was just connected to the bathroom which I always find weird with New York apartments when the kitchen is literally leading right to the bathroom there was one closet in the living area and then there was a little French door that led to a bedroom which was cute but again no light the only thing I liked about this apart man was a storage and the location the price was kind of high for having like zero natural light and just this just didn't fit my criteria so I didn't even think about it foreign those were all the apartments that I'm going to include in this video all the addresses and details are in the description so please check that out hope you enjoyed this video I will be back with more of these videos so stay tuned on those but I'm also documenting over the next month my moving Journey my apartment decorating it Etc so just lots of exciting things coming if that's what you're interested in stick around and thank you for watching I will see you guys in my next one bye good [Music]

Channel: Urvi Mehta

Views: 66,614

Keywords: rentinginnyc, nycapartmentour, nycapartmenthunt, nycapartments, nycrentals, nycrealestate, livinginyc, rentinginmanhattan, manhattanrents, manhattanapartmenttours, urvimehta, movingtonyc, nycrentspostpandemic, leavingnyc, nycvlogs, nycvlog, newyorkcity, nyclifestyle, postpandemicapartmenthunt, 2023apartmenthunting, nycapartments2023

Id: Nn-oJ6B4gsY

Length: 24min 52sec (1492 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 12 2023