Basic Tips For Moving To NYC
While Maz and I are by no means experts on how to move to New York, we have learned a few things already. So here are some tips for the pre-apartment search…
1. Pick a Day – pick the time frame you going to leave and stick to it. Be flexible within that time frame but stick to it.
2. Tell you Friends and Family – tell people that you are moving and when you are moving. The more people you tell the harder it will be for you to change your mind and back out. Do you really want to spend the months after you should have been in New York explaining to all of your family and friends why you are still home?
3. Plan Ahead – (if possible). Unless you are the type of person who can just buy a plane/train/bus ticket and go, start planning ahead of time. At this point I really wish Maz and I had a lot more time to get everything together before we were leaving. We started planning in June, I feel like we should have started planning in December.
4. Start Browsing Apartment Listings - While everthing that I have read says that you should plan on looking for your apartment 4-6 weeks before you plan on moving, start browsing the listings early. This will help you to get a feel for what is available, how much rent is, and whether or not you may want to consider a sub-lease or possibly a roommate.
5. Start Gathering Financial Documents - Brokers are going to want almost everything. Gather you tax returns, save your pay stubs (have at least 4 when you go apartment hunting), run a credit check on your self so you are aware of your credit situation (bad credit doesn’t mean you won’t get a place, but you may need to pre-pay more rent or give a higher security deposit), request letters of recommendation/reference from current landloard.
6. Research Neighborhoods – New York City is made up of hundreds to unique neighborhoods. Research them. Manhattan is expensive! Don’t discount the outer boroughs.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
I found my way here from your comment on Erica Joy’s blog entry on moving to NYC.
I went the alternate route from you guys and prepped my stuff, stored it at a friends, and took a (gulp) one-way flight from Seattle to NYC, intending to find a place and then send for my things.
Since I was looking for only myself (as opposed to a couple), my info/tips are geared more towards the single person…
First, I didn’t HAVE to find a place all to myself. Finding a place with roommates has advantages: no broker fees, no excessive hoops of tax info, credit checks, first born, etc. So you’re thinking: I don’t want to give up the ability to scratch myself wherever, whenever I want. But there are room shares where there’s no living room common area! This really diminishes the roommate dynamic so you can really go on being your badass antisocial self!
Second, my standards and expectations quickly changed to meet, oh I dunno, reality. Spaces are small for high prices. Not a shocker there. Be prepared to get not the total square footage of your prospective apartments, but sad little DIMENSIONS like 10′ x 10′.
Third, when I plunged head first into NYC, I stayed at a hotel with free wi-fi. TREMENDOUS convenience in my opinion. I could search listings in a controlled, stress-free place. Priceless.
Fourth, during my search, I’ve come across plenty of temporary rooms for days or weeks that’ll beat hotel prices. Apparently, New Yorkers go away all the time for whatever reason and space being the commodity it is, often rent out their rooms during their absence– a potentially great way to experience NYC without having to endure hostels. (I’m actually transferring to a temporary place myself after my hotel reservation is done because most apartment availabilities don’t start until Nov. 1st. [It's Oct.19 as I write this.] The calculated price of the place per night? $33/night. It’s a nice, nice place too– although no bed. But hey, no where in NYC will you find a hotel for $33/night with your own bathroom.)
That’s all I can think of for now. Hopefully I’ll have been as helpful to someone as the few blogs out there on the subject of moving to NYC were to me.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Oh! This MTA (NYC subways/buses) trip planner is indispensable: http://tripplanner.mta.info/start.aspx
March 2nd, 2010 at 5:04 pm
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