New York Apartments 2012: East Village

Time Out New York does a great feature package on apartment hunting every year, and this time around I got to profile three East Village hunter/renters. (Each profile also has a slideshow of the apartment.)

2 Cooper, luxury 2BR apartment, East Village

Mid-Range 3BR apartment, East Village

Bargain 2BR apartment, East Village

I also got to hear (and retell) this crazy story about a major setback that occurred during one apartment search:

THE SEARCH: After looking on sites like Naked Apartments (nakedapartments.com), StreetEasy (streeteasy.com) and Craigslist (craigslist.org)—the latter of which can be “very misleading,” notes Hull—the three roommates found an apartment and signed the papers. “On our move-in day, [the broker] called and told us there was one guy still in the apartment,” says Van Brunt. “John and Tony went to talk to him. He opened the door with the chain on and said, ‘This is my apartment, and that’s why I’m in here and you’re out there.’ We were basically homeless for two weeks. We found another apartment managed by the same company on 9300 Realty [9300realty.com]. It was a nicer place, with a balcony, a dishwasher and washer-dryer, [in] a better location. We said, ‘Give us that apartment at the agreed-upon rent, even though it should be a little more, and prorate us [this month], and we’ll be fine.’ ”

 

Photograph: Jakob N. Layman