The Apartment Hunt

*photo property of brooklynnynews.com

What: Apartment Hunting
Where: Midtown East/West, Hell's Kitchen, Greenwich Village, West Village, Bushwick
Who: Carson and Me

“It will all work out.” A lovely sentiment from friends and those I encountered while apartment hunting in New York City, but since their bum was not between a rock and hard place their words were lost on me.

Growing up I had apartment/condo/house hunted on multiple occasions with my parents. The main difference between then and now was that there was no dire need to move, no end point at which we had to vacate our current premises, no landlord banging down the door, and definitely no management company threatening to withhold a security deposit.

Last month there were all of those things and more. Brokers missed appointments, other brokers showed Carson and me the same apartment, even worse brokers showed us apartments that were already rented, and the very worst brokers tried to bait and switch us.

With eight days left in our lease Carson found an apartment on his own. Feeling slightly more screwed than before I panicked and reached out to a few friends whose couches I proposed a rental fee for.

Then, with four days left, Carson found out that there was an opening in the apartment he was going to sign for. However, when I found out there were no windows in the room I had to turn down the offer. The past year without windows dubbed me Harry Potter (I should also mentioned that I literally lived under a staircase) among my friends and I feared that another year would dub me Smegal.

I now reside in Bushwick (or far East Williamsburg if you are speaking to someone trying to fool themselves) for the next two months until I sign a new lease with a friend in Manhattan. Supposedly an “up and coming” section of Brooklyn, Bushwick has piqued my interest more than I could have anticipated. There is a version of Costco with products that are unrecognizable, a JFK Fried Chicken that serves seafood 24 hours a day and gunshots are simply the crickets of the neighborhood. The commute to work is the same, eating out is cheaper, groceries are basically free, oh and my rent is less than half…why didn’t I try this sooner?

Goals Accomplished:
1) First time I have had to apartment hunt, when I moved down I was offered a spot
2) More uncomfortable with fried chicken and fish than with the crickets
3) Learned the cost saving lifestyle attainable in Brooklyn