MOVING TO NEW YORK CITY
---------------------
John Pazmino
rrrrrrrrrrrrr
NYkies Astronomy Inc
nyskies@nyskies.org
www.nyskies.org
2012 July 15initial
2020 Jlyy 2 current
THIS ARTICE WAS WRITTEN IN 2012. SINCE THEN HOUSING LAWS, PRACTICES,
REGULATIONS, SIUATION CHANGED SUBSTANTIALLY. INFORMATION IN THIS
ARTICLE IS BY NOW EDIUTANTE. THIS ARTICLE IS TODAY A HISTORICAL
SANNSHOT AND IS NOT CURRENT ADVICE.
Introduction
----------
Altho New York City in 2012 is still in the current Depression,
there was in the late 2-thous a mass influx of new residents. Most
were for the emerging ICE industries, 'Intelect, Culture, Education',
fostered by the City. This influx continues now into the 2010s and
will endure for many years.
I should mention that the book value for the City's population is
ridiculously low. It' 8.3 million by the 2010 census. Every one in
creation here know well that we are something over 9-1/2 million
souls. This includes those who passed up the census.
We are growing at a very low percent each year, about 1%, far
lower than many towns in the mid and far west of the United States.
One percent of 9-1/2 million is 95,000. We must build each and very
single year within the City frontiers the equal of a substantial mid
American town.
More and more industry is cerebral rather than manual. Factories
of the traditional kind are closing all over the United States. The
developing new jobs require mental skills. Some are obvious like
computer science, engineering, and digital media. Others are not as
evident, tho rising rapidly as employment prospects in New York. These
are the ICE industries. Already in New York fully one million people
work in these fields, with thousands more jobs opening every year.
As a bonus of the growth of the ICE economy, astronomy blossomed as
a substantial element in the life of a New Yorker. It is a credible
and rational mental and social pursuit.
Newcomers
-------
As word spread, like thru the contest in late 2011 for a sci/tech
university campus on Roosevelt Island and the runaway success of World
Science Festival, people from litterally the whole planet are eyeing
New York as the one place to live and work and play.
In far too many cases, these folk lose out on proper homes. Many
fall by the wayside after applying mistaken or erroneous strategies in
home-hunting. Some of my associates are in the real estate industry,
one of the FIRE components in the City's economy. In the routine
banter, like after the NYSkies Seminars or at booths for various
astronomy shows, they explained some of the reasons newcomers miss the
chance to secure suitable dwellings in the City.
Here I discuss some of the factors to keep in mind when hunting
for apartments in New York City. They are not exhaustive but I believe
they give the sense of what it means to home-hunt in the City. Some of
the advice may seem harsh, almost to the point of bullying. Welcome to
the Big Apple. If you make it well here, you earned your ticket to any
where else in the solar system.
Buy versus rent
-------------
In this piece I discuss only ordinary rental homes, apartments
typicly. Buying a home like a house or unit in a compound, is just too
complex for me to deal with in this short article. In addition, each
type of purchase has a boatload of rules and regulations that are
simply too arcane for me, outside the real estate business, to
competently discuss.
In most cases a person arriving in the City at first bunks in with
friends and family or takes a hotel room so he can get about seeking
his own residence. Even if he eventually intends to own his new home
chances are he'll rent for a few years to get started.in his new life
in the City.
I consider here only 'market level' apartments. Units under
various subsidies typicly are not easily found and they carry their
own special terms and conditions. In any case, such apartments have a
long waitlist of months or years. If you think you can qualify for a
subsidized unit, discuss the prospects with your real estate broker.
I treat here only of apartments in New York City. You can move
into the suburbs but I know nothing about the regulations in the towns
and other jurisdictions beyond the City frontiers.
Geography
-------
I have to be brief here because New York CIty is a humongous
conurbation with a wide range of geography. The first point to
appreciate is that the City is partitioned into five 'boros' or
urbiculae, with substantial self-governance. They were set up as part
of the consolidation of about two hundred cities, towns, villages in
1898 into the greater city of New York.
The central part of New York, 'the City' to most of us here, is
Manhattan. It is a boro, the smallest in area of all. Almost all of
the City's business, industry, commerce is homed here as measured by
number of workers, dollars of business, volume of shipping, terabytes
of data, kilometers of media tape, and so on.
The other boros are ringed around Manhattan. The Bronx, with the
'the', is on the north. Queens is to the east. Brooklyn is east and
southeast. Staten Island is south. Waters separate the boros from
Manhattan, crossed by bridges and tunnels, except for Staten Island.
That boro is tied to Manhattan only by a ferry that allows no
vehicles. A round-about connection is by express bus thru Brooklyn. It
is also tied to New Jersey on the west and north by bridges.
On the west is New Jersey, a whole other state, connected to
Manhattan by bridges and tunnels. The tunnels in the city are for
wither road or rail, but not both. The bridges have either or both
rail and road.
All tunnels charge a fee to cross thru them. Bridges are a mix of
free and pay crossings. Taxis collect, separately from the metered
fare, any bridge and tunnel fees.
This is only an outline of the arrangement of territory in New
York. You must study guides and maps for details.
The identity of a New Yorker is primarily with his home boro or a
district within a boro, not only to the whole City. I, as example,
routinely ally with Brooklyn, where I live. That's the 'city' I enter
when filling out coupons and forms.
New York was among the first cities in America to suffer fractured
phone area codes. Initially the City was in 212 area. Then 718 was set
up in the 1980s for the four outer boros. Now, in 2012, we got 212,
718, 646. 917, 347. The splitting will continue in the future as ever
more devices, not only telephones, are addressed by phone numbers.
Statistical chaos
---------------
This splintered allegiance drives record and statistics keepers
crazy! If they are not aware of the source of their data, they can
scramble whole-city numbers with boro/district numbers to yield
ridiculous results. The book-value population of 'New York' could mean
just Manhattan, 1-1/2 million, or all five boros, 8-1/2 million.
If auto theft statistics for the whole city are in ignorance
divided by the population of Manhattan you may conclude that New
Yorkers must be pretty used to car thefts. Each person had four cars
stolen last year. This corrupt numerology for New York happens every
where and every when.
Districts
-------
If you figure to live in a part of New York City made glamorous by
TV or movies, chances are that you can not afford the rent there. On
Manhattan this means most of the island from the Battery to about
116th Street. That there is immense pressure on dwelling units on
Manhattan is illustrated by the size of the island, a bit smaller than
Nantucket Island in Massachusetts, and population, about equal to
Philadelphia in Pennsylvania
It's a personal matter to live in an area among your social or
national fellows. You may opt for a location with mixed social levels
or near certain destination points. Consider the commute or frequent
travel routes along the transit lines. Explain to the broker your
preferences.
These outer areas in Brooklyn and Queens could be favorable if
your employment is on Long Island or the inner part of these boros
rather than Manhattan. The northern parts of the Bronx may be good for
work in Westchester or Connecticut, where some corporate headquarters
are located. Staten Island is good if you have to travel to and from a
corporate park in New Jersey. For these cases you must have a car.
The choice of district requires some heavy homework! Study
guidebooks about the City. Speak with colleagues, new employer, family
and friends already in New York. If your employer has a 'newcomers
service' use it! It may even have a liaison with suitable brokers.
After settling on a districts, you MUST be fluid in your choice.
In can be that there are no suitable rentals in your favored location
and you have to consider nearby ones.
One serious factor to realize is that under civil rights laws you
must be duly served in which ever district you want to consider. The
broker should not steer you only to te appropriate places and away fro
the vomitigenic ones. If you really, like REALLY, want to look at
apartments where your household members can be pared down in the
streets, your broker has to in good faith show you properties there.
He may vomit at your wish, but he must serve you under the terms of
his licence.
Rent range
--------
Rents are entirely in the free market for 'market level' units.
The landlord sets the amount and the client typicly has no negotiation
effect on it. You pay the stated rent, period.
You may get a lease, an agreement, a contract, presented to you by
the landlord to sign. This is a real business contract that you must
understand and abide by. Breaking any provision can lead to eviction
from your apartment.
Leases in New York are, at the landlord's discretion, one or two
year duration. They may be renewed indefinitely but each renewal can
prompt a rent adjustment. In this present period of world history, the
adjustment is for sure upward.
The renewal can be rejected only for definite and reasonable
cause. As long as you maintain proper decorum and behavior and keep
current with your obligations to the landlord, he'll leave you be in
your apartment.
Certain smaller properties may have no actual lease document. You
live month-to-month at the pleasure of the landlord. He can terminate
you with a far more relaxed level of cause than for lease=holders. He
can also adjust your rent when he wants, tho usually it's at intervals
of one year. Unlike with a lease, you have very little legal recourse
for eviction, except for civil rights violations.
The amount of rent is reckless to cite, even as a rough guide. If
you're coming from mid America you'll plotz at the rent levels in New
York! Unless you are truly well endowed with a high-end career, you
likely will live off of Manhattan. The rents there are well beyond
middle American income levels.
The inner sections, closest to Manhattan, of the outer boros are
experiencing strong growth in rent levels. This is in spite of the
all-points effort to build new housing towers or blocks in former
factory districts. Rents are about 2/3 of Manhattan's.
In the middle of the outer boros the rents are more moderate in
quite pleasant nabes and hoods. The travel to and from Manhattan is
longer, about an hour by transit, and shopping is more localized. You
could take on a significant added living expanse by getting a personal
car for convenience sake.
In the outer parts of the outer boros, farthest from Manhattan,
rents are lowest. Transit routes are thinner and schedules stretch
out. The commute to Manhattan can be up to two hours. You likely will
take on a car for most local travel.
An overall rule-of-thumb is that a person should keep the rent to
under 1/3 of disposable income. Some landlords reject clients with
income too low to meet this rule or a similar one. Disposable income
is what's left for you to spend after taxes and other obligations,
like alimony and reparations.
Exploration
---------
Make every effort to explore your prospective district! Go there
and walk the streets. See what housing, shopping, street life,
amenities, transport it offers. Listen to people in parks and at bus
stops. Do lunch in a local eatery. Do a purchase in a local shop.
Pay attention to odors, air pollution, industrial facilities,
schools and churches, trees and gardens, police and fire barracks,
hospitals and clinics. Are they the kind of facilities and structures
you can live with? Do they seem adequate to serve your needs? Do the
people around you sit well with you? Are the civil works in good
repair and in working order?
Investigate the district by day and by night! It can be truly
amazing how the character of the streets can shift at sunrise and
sunset. Also, if time permits, visit the area under different weather
situations. A park in good order in dry times could be flooded under
in rain. Snow may be left in place for days after its fall. In the end
discuss your concerns with the broker.
In the past decade or so new tools came along to help with your
exploration. Thru Internet play with mapping and walkthru websites for
the district. You'll find regular maps, aerial photos, land use maps.
development plans, address lok-up, travel instructions, dossiers of
specific buildings and stores. Many services have overlays to see
where parks, churches, fire barracks, other facilities of interest are
located.
A powerful tool is the walkthru of streets. The map website
actually drives a truck thru the City with a rooftop camera. Every
couple seconds it takes a panorama picture. You see the street from
about 2-meter elevation as if you really were walking along it.
An other powerful tool is website that fives a profile and
description of the very address of the property. The information is
taken from real estate and tax records and may hint at problems you
may encounter later in your residence there.
Landlord
------
The earliest citation of a term like this, as I found, reaches
back to Pharaonic Egypt, some four millennia ago. The hieroglyph
translates something like 'ruler of the property' or 'ruler of the
facility', in modern English, erm, 'landlord'. Among the enormous
trove of texts unearthed along the Nile Valley are stories of disputes
between tenants and their landlords. In translation they read almost
like modern news accounts. Only the place and time are different.
An other curious fact is that the term remained the same. Other
titles an businesses shift name to roll with the times. 'Landlord'
endured. One concession to modern times is that there is no longer a
'landlady'. She's a landlord. Get over it, already.
The landlord runs his property as a commercial business. The res
publica leaves him more or less alone, except for gross abuses, the
stuff of scandals exposed by the news media.
The condition of apartment you visit may be, by the standards of
your previous town, putrid and fetid. The pet rabbits in your old
backyard lived in hutches far more pleasant than what you're visiting.
All landlords do have to offer residences that meet a core set of
habitability regulations. Your broker will show you only those that do
so, to the best of his knowledge and belief. For him to show out-of-
code properties puts him in the chain of liability in case of court
intervention. The condition of the property is part of the legal
concept of 'material fact' that the broker must be aware of.
You'll likely get no offer of concessions to move into a property.
In former eras, when supply exceded demand, landlords offered new
kitchen and bath fixtures, new finishing, one or two month free rent,
sports tickets, free hook-up to cable TV. These offers are in 2012
good and gone.
What you see in the apartment is what you get, with rent starting
by the first of the very next month. You'll have to accept without
question the stipulated rent, unless the landlord indicates he'll
negotiate it.
Broker
---
Get the services of a licenced real estate broker! Don't THINK of
trying to home-hunt on your own. The broker may have sellers working
with him. A real estate seller in New York State works under the
supervision of a broker. Both are licenced for essentially the same
level of service for renting apartments. You may work with either one.
Usually you call on a broker at his office and he assigns your case to
a seller. It really doesn't matter.
One cruel feature in New York City that surprises newcomers is
that YOU, the client, pay the broker's fee. In most parts of the
country the landlord picks up this fee. You MUST be ready and able to
pay the broker's fee, amounting to one to two month's rent for the
apartment.
One other peculiarity is that the fee is almost always paid in
cash, not check! You hand the broker a couple thousand dollars in
large bills. There are protocols about this practice that really
shouldn't be challenged. On the other hand, if the broker allows
payment by check, that's what you do.
And yet another feature is that in New York City the broker is the
agent of the landlord, NOT the client. The landlord applies at the
broker to market his apartments. The broker then finds clients
suitable for them. The clients are evaluated by the landlord, who has
the ultimate say-so for your future residence in his property.
Your broker, while licenced for the entire state of New York, will
work a territory of certain districts around his office. Your choice
of broker is governed by the general area of the City where you want,
or will endure, to live.
Preparation
---------
Before setting out for the meeting at the broker's office or the
apartment, have WITH YOU certain paperwork. Either the broker or the
landlord will ask to see this, so you BETTER have them to hand. By
'with you' I mean on your person, in your shoulder bag, in your nearby
car. It can not be papers you left at your temporary residence, in
custody of family, not yet obtained.
The set of papers you need is stipulated by the broker. Ask him
long enough before your meeting to assemble the papers. Landlords and
brokers are very unforgiving about lack of preparation. Even if it's
accidental,they may figure you'll be forgetful or negligent about your
residency in the property. Or perhaps you're trying to conceal some
adverse status about yourself.
Application
---------
The broker will give you an application form to complete and
return to him. This collects background information about you and is
considered a deposition in the legal sense. Please do honest and
complete in filling out this form! SIgn and date it, then make a copy
for yourself. Only one form is needed for all the work you have with
the broker. An other real estate firm will ask for its own
application.
The form will trigger you to run down missing or faulty details.
Please make every effort to fill in all the blanks. If an item does
not apply, mark it 'does not apply' or 'not applicable'. Don't leave
it empty. The broker WILL inquire about skipped fields.
Each landlord will ask for his own application. Do the fill-in as
carefully and honestly as for the broker's form. Make sure the entries
on both are consistent! Sign, date, and keep your copy.
The broker's form will confirm to the current housing and civil
rights laws and is revised to keep up with these laws. The landlord's
form may be a holdover from an ancient era with nasty questions in it.
Point these out to the broker. He will discuss them with the landlord.
In most cases it's merely the use of an ediurnate form with no ill
intent. The landlord after speaking with the broker may let you skip
the improper questions.
The landlord WILL spot check your entries! Any irregularities he
finds may cost you the apartment.
Appointments
----------
When your broker has a prospective apartment for you to inspect,
he makes an appointment to visit it. One of the most crippling
mistakes you can make is to treat the appointment as a discretional
date or social meeting. It is a genuine business meeting! As such you
BETTER keep the appointment, show up on time, have all your papers in
order, have all the payments in hand.
The days are long gone when the broker picked you up in his car at
a central location, like a bus terminal. You must get to the meeting
on your own. You may ask for travel directions when making the
appointment. For a visit to several properties in one meeting, the
broker may take you around in his car. He returns you to his office,
from where you go home.
This self-mobility is important because if you end up living in
the instant apartment you have to travel to and from it on your own.
Having trouble making the meeting due to travel impediments is one
factor to consider in choosing the district to live in.
If there is ANY difficulty or delay, CALL THE BROKER!! If you just
skip the meeting or show up unduly late, you lost the apartment.
Neither broker nor landlord will give you a second chance.
Contact
-----
Give the broker current correct contact for yourself. An ediurnate
or dead contact can be fatal to your home-hunt. The contact is for YOU
and not a friend or family who must then fetch you.
You BETTER have mobile phone! If you do not have a regular cell
phone, you may try a pay-as-you-go phone that you fill with call-time.
These are sold in convenience and variety stores. To this you add a
purchased code for a few hours of call-time.
The phone number is assigned when activating the unit. You must
make a deliberate note of it to give to the broker. The phone is good
for other use, so you can keep it and add call-time as it runs low.
When you get a missed call from the broker, CALL BACK SOONEST! He
has to speak with you, kind of like right now. If you get an anserfone
greeting, leave your first and last names, case or property name, and
pertinent message. Do NOT let a missed call go by for days. When the
broker finds you're not responding, he may discard your case and take
a new client for the apartment.
Competition
---------
It may blow your mind to learn that the vacancy rate, the percent
of apartments freed up for new residents, is about the lowest in the
country. In early 2012 it declined to barely ONE PERCENT. There is too
little supply of apartments for the rising demand for them. For each
apartment there can be twenty applicants! That's why if you screw up
on your preparation or deportment you'll fall by the wayside. The
other clients will come forward in, yes, n hour.
You must dress neatly, tho casual is fine. Keep clean personal
hygiene. Speak clearly and calmly. Think on your feet. Be forward with
intent to accept the unit, even if you are seeing others during your
visit. Answer all questions completely. Offer to fill in missing data
quickly. Be ready to visit units beyond your favored district.
Money
---
You may gag at the amount of money you'll bring to the broker's
meeting. You need two blank checks from a US bank in US dollars. One
you'll fill out for the first month's rent payable to the landlord.
He'll instruct you on the items to enter.
The second one is also for the landlord as the security deposit.
This is equal to one month's rent. In theory you get this money back
when you leave your apartment, provided there are no encumbrances
against you.
It's a nasty trick that tenants will skip paying the final month's
rent and let the landlord keep the security money. This is in spite of
probable increase in rent along the way.
The third chunk of money is cash for the broker's fee, ranging
from one to two months rent. Unless the broker lets the fee be paid by
check, you BETTER have cold cash to hand over.
Be VERY SURE the checks are backed by enough funds in your bank.
Don't THINK of asking the landlord to wait for such-&-such days before
banking the checks. The landlord WILL, regardless of what you suggest,
visit his bank later in the day.
A bounced check will bounce you out of the apartment. That's it.
Do pay by ordinary bank check. NOT money orders, script, postage
stamps, promissary letters, traveler's checks, coupons, vouchers,
foreign currency, other funny finance instruments. Any thing that
makes life tougher for the landlord will move him to reject you from
his property.
Be able to pay the rent by yourself or within the household that
will live in the apartment. Offering a cosigner will fail you big
time. Just don't offer a cosigned rent payment.
Tip: don't ever BE a cosigner for an other tenant! You accept
legal liability for the entire rent if the tenant skips payment. There
is NO way, which the tenant may try on you. to get out of this
obligation, You could spontaneously find a rent bill in your mail,
plus a summons to show yp in court. And, no kidding, now you can't
find your cosigned friend!
Identification
-------------
Have positive identification! For just about all newcomers this is
your driving licence, being that in virtually every other place in the
country you must drive a car to survive.
If by your fate you do not have a driving licence, please have to
hand a state-issued ID. This is commonly handled thru your home
state's vehicle licence office and may be called a 'non-driving ID'.
It's issued on the same terms and conditions as a driving licence but
has no privilege to operate a motor vehicle.
You may use your current and valid passport and an employment card
or badge with photo on it and sufficient info to vouch for you.
Income and credit
---------------
You need proof of stable income, like recent paystub, statement
for pension or annuity. Because so much banking is done digitally you
may have to get these by request from your employer. For a new job
that brings you to the City, have proof of this new job plus example
material from your previous one.
If you come to the City with a scratchy job history, you'll have a
hell of a hard time obtaining an apartment thru a broker. You may have
to take your chances with the self-hunt.
You probably don't have your latest rating report from credit
companies. Most of us discard them if there's nothing adverse in it.
For your own sake you BETTER, BEFORE home-hunting, fix up bad
credit. Pay off as very much of unpaid balance as you possibly can. Do
this even if you must forgo current spending.
Landlords WILL get a credit report on you. Don't hope he won't. He
WILL. If it's in any way adverse, you lost the apartment.
Residence a
-------
Have proof of previous residence. Have addiurnate contact for your
previous landlord. Have to hand sample recent rent statements showing
that you did pay rent in full and on time,
Current or recent utility statements, bank statements, other
financial papers sent to you at your former address are also good
evidence. Your voter registration notice is also good.
If you're coming from a purchased home, have similar statements
for the maintenance fees, mortgage, real estate taxes, assessments.
Landlords will reject clients with spotty or erratic payment of
previous rent or other obligated fees. He wants you to be punctual and
compliant with his own payments.
Household
-------
Be honest with the number, ages, relations of all persons for your
new home! Trying to hide extra people to sneak them into your home
once you settle in is one good reason to get you evicted.
There are ordinances for the maximum number of persons allowed for
each size of apartment. Stay within the limit, or else.
Leave children at home. Having kids along for a broker's meeting
will distract you and present a very untidy view of you as a potential
resident. Get sitting service for young children. Have the older ones
mind the younger ones.
Be prepared to make the yes/no choice for yourself. Don't hazard
that you must discuss the apartment with far-away or absent persons.
For a family household, just two principal people are enough for the
apartment meeting.
LIfestyle
-------
The civil rights laws in New York State prohibit rejection solely
on lifestyle considerations. Cohabitants, of any mix of human
characteristic, are equally eligible for apartments. On the other
hand, it is not at all necessary to elaborate on your lifestyle at the
meeting. It's enough to note that your accompanying person will live
with you in the unit.
It's a personal matter, perhaps with prior legal advice, to
include several of your new household on the lease. While this gives
protection to all, it also obligates all to carry the full rent and
other residence liabilities.
Pets
--
The general rule is 'NO PETS!'. This applies particularly to dogs
because the landlord very likely had miserable experience with unruly
dogs in his property. It's no use saying that YOUR dog is well-behaved
and all that. If the property does not allow pets, pass it over.
You could show your responsibility for harboring a dog with your
dog-liability insurance, dog training certificate, other paperwork
demonstrating your competence in petmanship.
In New York City dogs must carry a licence and should wear the
licence tag on its collar. A vet's tag is also a wise item to wear.
For a dog required for medical or mental reasons, like a guide or
companion dog, have papers proving this. No verbal assurance ia valid.
Also have proof of fix/neuter if requested.
The property may have facilities, like a dog run or kennel, for
dogs. Offer to work with the facility as part of your residency and to
pay any fees for its use. Pet facilities commonly need volunteer work
from the tenants.
Cats, in small numbers!, are generally allowed, but they better be
fixed/neutered. Birds, hamsters, turtles, fish, other small animals
maintained in cages are also generally allowed. Be mindful that there
are many specific animals banned as pets in New York City.
What ever you do, do not hide pets! You will not have them with
you at the landlord meeting but don't THINK of sneaking them in when
you take up residence. Even if pets are allowed the landlord must know
about them up front.
Decision
------
Be ready to make a firm choice after the meeting. The broker
showed you a couple units and now wants to have your word. Each unit
has plus and minus points. It may sound cruel to force a choice on the
spot but with the housing market so bone-crushing tight in New York
you BETTER be ready to say 'I'll take this one'.
A common fatal error is to offer to discuss the choice with other
family, absent at the time, and think it over for a few days. As
reasonable as this is in other towns, where the landlord will bank the
unit for you while you mull it over, this does not work in New York.
This pressure to declare your choice is NOT a push to make you pay
up but one that's imposed by the sheer imbalance of clients versus
apartments. There are just too few units for the upswelling call for
them. If you dilly-dally, the next client, coming later in the day!,
may take the unit from behind your back.
This is why it is crucial to have on you at the meeting the
financial ability to cut the checks and hand over the cash. Saying
that you'll come back next week with the money really means you are
forfeiting the unit to the next client.
Self-hunt
--------
Can't you simply walk around your future nabe and spot 'for rent'
signs on apartment buildings? Yes, you can. Lots of apartments are
advertised by such signs or notices in the newspapers. One obvious,
and stupendous, benefit of getting your apartment thru a self-hunt is
that you save the broker's fee. This can be a couple thousand dollars,
which I believe you have some other good use for.
Walking the streets is a chore that demands time and effort and
discipline. It also requires the street smarts to deal with landlords
of all persuasion and demeanor. You have to shoehorn a self-hunt into
your schedule of work or school.
Assuming you see a 'for rent' sign, you inquire in the building
lobby. An agent of the landlord, usually the building superintendent,
handles your quest. In New York this fellow is routinely called just
the 'super'. He often, not always, lives in the property. When the
landlord owns several properties the super may circulate among them.
You're told the super comes around on certain days. You come back when
he's there.
Dealing directly with the landlord robs you of all the legal and
business protection of a broker. Because the law governing rental
units in New York is so byzantine you just will not know them. You
could negotiate your protections out from under you.
There can be a good reason why the landlord bypassed the services
of a state-licenced broker. His apartments could be out of code. The
property could have unruly tenants. The property may have violations
or claims against it, He may disregard assorted legal factors.
Here's a very good reason for a landlord to do his own rental.
After agreeing to the apartment and paying the first-month and
security-deposit to the landlord or his on-premises agent, you get
about moving in. You stop at the property to pick up the keys. The
agent says you missed the final step in the renting process.
He tells you to pay in cash one or two months of rent for some
finagle cause, like in aid of upgrading. Until you pay up he holds
back your keys.
The super is quite nice about your case. You can come back an
other time, because you for sure do not have that much cash on you at
the instant. Take your time, a week or more. In the meantime you're
paying rent into a unit you can't move into!
This is a fair-housing violation but it is common in self-hunt
situations. It is glatt graft called 'key money'.
The use of the broker is the wisest strategy. He knows the
property and checks for gross defects in the apartment. He also knows
the rules and regulations to protect your interests. And he did the
legwork to assemble a roster of actually available units. His fee may
seem a horrible expense, but in the long run it's the sanest and
safest payment in your hunt for an apartment.
Undisreables
----------
The landlord's agent sizes you up and slants his dealing
accordingly. There are many, I mean MANY, tricks he can play with you
to weed out what he considers undesireable. I note only a few here.
The agent claims the apartment is already taken but he didn't yet
take the sign down. You have utterly no way to know if this is true.
You accept that the apartment is no longer available.
He quotes a rent he thinks you likely can not afford. You leave.
If by queer chance you agree to the inflated rent, he'll probably take
you in for the increased income.
He notes some character about you like pets or children or large
household. He explains that the landlord doesn't accept that feature
from new tenants.
He can screen for people of a desired social or national sector,
like Inuits or Cherokees. The agent speaks to you in that language,
expecting you to dialog fluently with him. If you can't, he explains
that he doesn't understand you and waves you away.
Accommodations
------------
New York State and particularly New York City are tough on looking
after persons with disabilities. We enforce ADA to the max. Please
discuss with the broker special needs for your disabilities. He'll
then select apartments most accommodating for them.
The landlord does not have to rebuild an apartment just to fit you
into it. He should make simple reasonable changes but you are moving
into the unit as a free-standing independent person.
If you really need extensive features and services for your
handicap, do consider housing built and managed for that purpose. The
broker will send you to a public agency that deals with this housing.
There are more and more apartment buildings with entrance ramps.
While intended for wheelchairs and other mobility devices, you may use
them for shopping carts and furniture delivery.
An apartment recently repaired may have ADA-compliant fixtures.
These include sinks with open underbelly, lever-style door handles,
handholds in the bathroom, level door sills, spring-loaded faucets.
If you have children in your unit up to, I think, six years old,
every window must have a gate to prevent falls. Ask about this! During
the occasional fire inspection, the fire agent WILL look for these
gates and cite the landlord if they are missing or broken.
Be SURE you know how to operate the gate in emergency. Have the
key or tool nearby out of sight but within ready reach. The fire agent
may ask you to operate the gate in his presence to be sure it works.
You absolutely need a safety or security gate, with no children,
on windows fronting a street, fire escape, patio, other area where an
intruder can break into your unit. Discouraging a burglar by a locked
gate is essential for peaceful living.
Where the property is in one of the City's 'lead belts' ask the
broker to get the landlord to remove lead-filled paint from the unit.
Special concerns are areas where children can chew on, like window
sills, baseboards, door frames.
Water conservation is a major effort in New York. The unit should
have moderated flow in showers and toilets. For tank toilets, there
should be a low-volume flusher or, yes!, a couple bricks laid inside
the tank to reduce its capacity.
Utilities
-------
Every dwelling unit provides water at all times as part of the
rent. This is the age-old mandate that the City's supply of water is
available to every one as a human right.
All other utilities are provided within the rent only according as
the construction and operation of the property. Utilities fitted in
the apartment may have individual billing. You MUST ask which
utilities come with the rent in order to properly budget for housing
expenses.
When hot water and heat is included in the rent, hot water must be
available at all times and heating at least in the heating season. The
heating season is, roughly as at mid 2012, October thru March each
year. Outside of these months heat comes from the landlord's heart.
Individual heating is usually thru gas or electric meters attached
to the apartment. You can have heat any time you need but it's on your
nickel. You could suffer amazingly high utility bills for excessive
use, like it may be for medical reasons.
Some properties may advertise 'all utilities included'. This means
there is no individual metering for gas and electric. The landlord
pays a consolidated bill for the property and assesses a rent that
covers it. As far as I know, steam utility is offered only on
Manhattan, altho some boiler houses are in Brooklyn and Queens.
Larger properties were required decades ago to configure electric
for individual metering. The meters are typicly on a panel in the
cellar. You should know where they are to do a spot check on your
electric bill. Nasty tenants can jumper their wires onto your meter.
The property may be 'ready' for certain other services, like cable
TV or Internet hotspots. The landlord may pick up the hook-up or
initiation cost but this is increasingly rare in 2012. You call for
the hook-up and pay the service company directly.
Utility costs in New York are, uh, high. You can govern the
expense by prudent use of the energy. Change incandescent light bulbs
to the newer high-efficiency bulbs. Look for the 'energy star' label
on new electric devices. Put room AC units and television on timers.
Over the last generation the cost of energy shifted more to the
consumer to better clue him to the true social and nature impact of
providing the energy to him. 5-cent/kwh is good and gone for ever.
In New York City the local electric company, Consolidated Edison
Company, no longer produces its own electric. It buys electric from
other producers and delivers it to you. Your bill has one portion for
Con Edison's purchased energy and one for its delivery service.
You may choose your producer of electric such as renewable sources
or a source near your old hometown. Con Edison's customer office will
explain how to do this.
Air condition may be centrally provided thru gratings in the floor
or wall. The service is built into your rent and is available at all
times. AC from window or rolling units are on your nickel thru the
electric bill.
With the rise in weather temperature due to global warming trend,
winters in New York City are increasingly milder and summers more
torrid. There may be in the coming decades a mass shift of energy use
from winter heating to summer cooling. This will show up in your
utility costs.
Some properties promote WiFi service. This may be free or billed
as an extra option. Altho wireless Internet works fabulously, when it
does work!, there will be times when the signal fades or distorts. You
lose connection for periods of seconds to hours. It depends on factors
like where in the circuit cabinet the squirrel is sleeping, where
around the celestial pole Polaris sits, currents and tides, texture of
solar halos, size and density of snowflakes, to name just a few..
Laundry service
-------------
One really handy utility is a hook-up for dish/clothes washer.
That makes it vastly easier to attach your machine than to have new
plumbing installed. The apartment could already have the machines. Ask
if they are landlord property or left behind by the previous tenant.
This is important to assign repair or replace costs. Same inquiry
applies to other devices in the apartment.
Many properties have clothes washers in a common section like the
cellar. Almost all are coin-op. You must stay in attendance during the
washing to avoid silly disputes about machine use and clothes mixups.
The busier districts have commercial laundry stores. They are
either coin-op self-service or drop-off service. The latter is by far
the preferred service for time-squeezed tenants. 'Wash-&-fold' is
quite adequate for routine laundry, reserving deeper cleaning for
special instances.
Pricing is by the weight of your laundry according to the store's
scale. These are not calibrated as far as I ever knew. After a while
you'll learn that such-&-such a sack for your laundry holds clothes to
fit within the weight for one full load.
By the way, we no longer call the laundry store the 'chink's'.
They are now run by people of many nationalities..
House rules
---------
Because you are occupying the property of the landlord, the
landlord may impose house rules. These may startle you if in tour
former town you lived in a private house. Examples of rules, some
banking of municipal ordinance, are:
* No open fires, such as barbecues, on the patio or terrace
* Keep stairway doors closed, not propped open for convenience
* Have rubber or other non-scratching wheels on wagons, strollers,
shopping cart
* Wrap discarded holiday plants, like Christmas trees, to prevent
shedding leaves in the halls and lobby
* Remove outdoor furniture when not in actual use
* Keep children under direct supervision within the property
* Set up a bond for certain kinds of pet dog
* Put down rugs or carpets on bare floors
* No decorations on the unit's door
* Keep music and other noise to moderated level
* Make no holes in walls, like to hang pictures or shelfs
These are only examples. The lease may have house rules but there
could be others not listed. The landlord may post them in a public
area of give you a separate flyer about them.
Mail service
----------
Smaller properties have mailboxes for each unit, usually in an
alcove on the ground floor. Others have a service desk to collect
mail, which is then alerted to you on inquiry. For a big package, it's
well to give the service agent a small tip for carrying it to your
apartment or minding it for you.
The mailboxes are likely only large enough for a few letter
envelopes. Magazines, catalogs, other larger items could be squished
into the box, where they get mutilated. There may be a table or shelf
for these, mixed up with material for other tenants. Please respect
the privacy of other people's mail!
It can happen that the mailboxes are compromised by theft or
tampering. This may force you to have mail sent to an off-site
address, like your workplace or a postal service store.
Recyclables
---------
New York City has the nation's largest and most successful
recycling program. We reclaim about 40% of our daily refuse, which is
sold for a healthy income to the City. For this program to work
properly you must mind the rules for packaging your refuse. There
should be posters near the tip showing the items to recycle. Please
study them. Also speak with the agent on premises, usually the super.
Regular refuse, not recyclables, go into the tip, where in the
cellar it is compacted and bagged for collection. You may discard your
refuse continuously and it is held until the weekly collection day for
the whole property.
In general, altho the rules change every so often, you must
package your recyclables in clear or blue bags. The bags are placed in
designated spots in the hall. It may not be at the tip itself.
Bulk recyclables like newspapers and cardboard may be tied with
string -- not rubber or other elastic bands -- and placed at the place
designated for them.
The landlord advises which is the recycle collection day. You may
place the recyclables out on the previous evening. Some buildings
allow continuous placement of recyclablee. They are cleared away on
the collection day once per week.
The landlord may take pictures of your recycle bags! He does this
in case he, as property owner, gets a violation for wrong packaging of
recyclablees. He'll send The Boys to discuss the matter with you and
perhaps get a reimbursement for the violation fine. In newer leases,
failure to adhaere to the recycling program is grounds for eviction.
Fire safety
---------
One extremely peculiar omission from the usual slate of house
rules relates to fire safety. Unlike commercial properties, housing
properties in New York City are not required to practice for incidence
of fire. There are NO fire exercises, instructions for evacuation, on-
site fire brigade, sprinklers, alarm boxes.
You BETTER on your own practice fire safety before a fire hits.
Some factors to consider are:
* Know the location of the stairs, alarm box, fire escapes
* Practice walking to them with eyes closed to simulate smoke in
the air
* Install smoke detectors in the apartment if there are none
provided
* Have at ready simple clothes for evacuation during sleep
* Have at ready a winter coat for cold weather escape
* Keep firearms locked in cabinets accessible only to those
licenced to handle them
* Discuss with local fire barracks how to handle invalids in your
household
* Dispose of excess flammables like cleaning fluids, hobby
chemicals, oils and grease, paint, newspapers
* Keep a mobile phone to hand, well charged and loaded with call-
time
* Learn to operate the window gate with eyes closed to mimic
smoky ai
* Designate a place at least 50 meters away from the property for
your household to gather after evacuation
* Teach your children safety for electric devices, stove, wires,
open flames
When a fire hits, engage your own street smarts in absence of
training from the landlord. Call '911' from your mobile phone and
speak clearly and calmly. Answer the agent's questions completely.
Trip the fire alarm. Turn off gas to stove and oven. Turn off
water at all faucets. Electric may cut out and wired phones may die.
Do not try to protect yourself in the shower! The water will
quickly heat up and scald you.
Do not hide in a closet! Smoke will quickly suffocate you.
Open windows to vent heat and smoke and to let rescuers see you.
Take with you only your household and maybe a small pet, leaving
all else behind.
Close your apartment door when every one is safely out. Walk, not
run!, down the stairs to the street.
Do not ride the elevator! They may be sent to the ground floor and
locked for fire department use.
In smoke, crawl on the floor. Descend stairs by crawling
backwards.
Stay out of the building after leaving it! Obey orders from fire
and police agents. Stay clear of fire respondent's work.
Older buildings can be hideously incinerable, spreading a small
fire thruout its volume within minutes.
Older properties have exterior fire escapes with decks at each
apartment. NEVER obstruct the deck with furniture, planters, fences!
Tenants must have a free and clear passage to the street.
Newer structures are fire-resistant, allowing a relaxed exit. The
landlord or fire department may instruct you to shift only a couple
floors away from the fire, not go all the way to the street. You wait
in the hallway there for the all-clear sign.
You may be told to stay in your apartment with irs door closed for
a fire on an other floor. The concrete and steel around you may hold
off the fire until you are rescued of the fire is abated. In such case
keep the exterior door closed and then stay by open windows for air
and visibility to the fire respondents.
Escape rope
---------
If you are four floors or less from the street, consider having an
'escape rope', a strong rope tied to a radiator or large heavy
furniture near a street-facing window. Marine quality rope for mooring
boats is good.
Tie knots in it every half meter or so. It must reach to the
street. The last knot at the end is larger one.
To escape, climb out of the window and chuck your feet on the
knots. Ratchet down, knot bu knot, until you feel the larger one at
the end. Then step to the street. Only ONE person must be on the rope
at a time.
Need less to say this tactic is for the able-bodied household.
Transport
-------
The closer you are to a subway station the better off you are for
general getting around. A reasonable alternative is a place near
strong bus service that goes to the City or to the subways. In certain
outlying areas, the bus service falls off drasticly in the midnight to
owl hours and may be off-duty on weekends.
The outer sections of the city may have interboro or express buses
that run to Manhattan. They are usually rush-hour services with extra
buses in early night. They cost about twice the base transit fare.
Note well that 'subway' refers to ANY part of the rapid transit
network, regardless of structure. About 150 kilometers of route are
open-air or above ground on trestles or overpasses. These are the
'els' of song and story. Living close to one of these sections can
fill your apartment with noise, flashes (electric sparking), vibration
(trains are massive).
Subways run 24/7, but the specific service at your station may
shift over the hours. Often an express route is off-duty at night,
leaving only local service. Trains come at least every twenty minutes,
even in the deep depths of night.
Some subway lines are taken off-duty at night for maintenance from
time to time. Keep up with service changes by Internet or posters and
flyers at stations and on trains. There are programs for mobile phones
that alert you to station closures and service disruptions.
A major transport facility in New York is 'car service'. This
operates much like a taxi service else where. You call an office and
request a pickup for a date and hour. If you're returning from the
dropoff location by a round trip, arrange that with the pickup. Some
car service have such frequent runs that you may be advised to call
for a new pickup for the return trip.
Fares are by zones mapped out by each service and range from $8 to
$20. This range is for local travel in your or adjacent district.
Longer rides between boros can be many tens of dollars. These rates
are about what a taxi would charge but in the outer boros there are NO
REGULATION YELLOW MEDALLION TAXIS! They huddle at the airports or
cruise Manhattan streets.
Personal car
----------
On the whole the closer to Manhattan you live the worse it is for
you to maintain your own car. Transit is really far better for getting
around and there are institutional impediments against cars. Expect
absence of free and convenient parking, expensive and remote garaging
service, chance of vandalism and theft on street, traffic congestion
and disruptions, high fuel costs, high insurance rates, abusive car
repair shops.
In the middle of the other boros a car is a welcome accessory.
Running costs are a bit lower, traffic is looser, parking is in or
near the property. In the outer sections you probably better have a
car since transit is thinner out there and your travel patterns may
not align with the transit corridors.
If keeping your car is really necessary, ask the broker to show
you properties with safe garaging. You may have to pay a supplement
above your rent, which can be hundred dollars per month. The garaging
may be within the premises or at a nearby facility.
A bizarre practice in New York actually forces you to drive your
car almost every day! This is 'alternate side parking', ASP, It clears
one side of the street each day for sweeping. You MUST get your car
out of that side before early morning, else get ticketed. The days and
hours are posted on signs along the curb.
ASP works, sort of, for multiperson households. One person tends
to the car while others sets up breakfast and other activities of the
day. A single-person household may become overwhelmed by ASP and
suffer many parking violations.
If you dispose of your car you better keep your driving licence.
Transfer it to New York State at a motor vehicle buro. It is valid
personal ID and it's required when renting a car.
Shopping
------
The dispersal of residences thruout the City allowed for shopping,
home support services, businesses to be spread out. They cluster
around the centers of the legacy towns and along busier streets.
The dispersion of shopping lets you walk to stores for your local
needs within a half kilometer. Going to a shopping district is
reserved for special needs.
An common arrangement is to reserve the lower floors of apartment
houses for stores with the dwellings in the higher floors. In this
case you should note what kinds of store are under your prospective
apartment.
Some businesses generate noise, odor, fumes, dust, other
irritation. Examples include a discoteque, car repair, paint and
varnish shop, rug cleaning, chicken farm, saloon, kiddie camp, wood
and metal working, grease reclamation, truck stop, fast-food dump.
Shopping carts and baby strollers are permitted on buses and
trains, as long as you keep them under control and out of way of other
riders. The larger subway stations have elevators or escalators and
the new fleet of buses have low-level floors. You can shop at a remote
store and return by transit.
You may have to do this because most stores have NO facility for
cars! Only in the outlying sections are there parking lots, often
shared by several stores. The lack of car facility may cause you to do
'radial shopping', going to one set of stores along a bus route on one
day and to an other set on other routes on other days.
Eating
----
Regardless of how well equipped your kitchen is, you'll find your
self eating on the go frequently. At first this may sound terribly
expensive, but with care and horse-trading among eateries you can keep
within a sensible food budget. You should be familiar with eating
places around you, like near the transit stop when coming home and
when stepping out for a walk on weekends.
You'll stock up with easily prepared foods and definitely have a
microwave unit. Cooking on stove or in oven makes no economic or
social sense for routine self-made meals for a one- or two- person
household. You'll fritter away huge numbers of hours per week in the
preparation, cooking, cleanup. .
Check in the property's mail room or lobby for packs of shopping
advertisements. They commonly include coupons for many fast-food
outlets and grocery stores. Horse-trading among the coupons can save
you a fabulous amount of money.
You may eat and drink on transit, a common practice in commutes.
Please be neat, avoid spills and mess, leave other riders alone,
dispose of trash in designation bins. The transit agencies do impose
severe penalties for abusing the eat/drink rules.
Conclusion
--------
Welcome to New York! It is GOING to be a rugged row to hoe in
getting your apartment here, orders tougher than in your former town.
Supply is scarce, rents are, ahem, astronomical, conditions may be
cruddy, landlords can be miserable ilk.
Stick it out, eat and sleep sensibly, push naivity out the window,
engage a competent broker, think on your feet, you will do very well
here. And when you do, you can write your ticket to any where
else/87/.