NYC real estate expert Michele Kleier, star of ‘Selling New York,’ shares 5 tips with HollywoodLife.com to help Ashley & J.P. find their dream apartment!
Finding the perfect NYC apartment is never easy to do — especially as a renter. You have to take into consideration location and budget. Bachelorette Ashley Hebert is in the process of planning her big move from Philadelphia to NYC so that she can live with her fiance J.P. Rosenbaum. But J.P. himself reportedly doesn’t reside in the city either — so they will me most likely have to seek out a new place that they both can call their own. Here are HollywoodLife.com‘s tips for Ashley and J.P. on how to find their future love nest!
Michele Kleier, President and Chairman of Gumley Haft Kleier and star of HGTV’s Selling New York shares her top five tips on finding the perfect NYC apartment with HollywoodLife.com exclusively!
- “Plan ahead!,” advises Michele. “An extra bedroom is ideal, not only to accommodate visitors, but new additions to the family!”
- “Enjoy the company of the broker you keep,” she says. “Really, your broker is your eyes and ears to the market and communication and understanding is key to successfully navigating the city.”
- “Not all square footage is created equal,” Michele warns. “The reality of how much such limited space commands can be unsettling but since layouts from apartment to apartment differ tremendously, be sure not to dismiss or reject an apartment on its square footage alone!”
- “Take the time,” Michele shares. “Though your broker will uncover viable listings, you must be readily available to accommodate as many showings as is needed, especially as many buildings have day and time restrictions on when apartments can be viewed, and rental inventory moves so quickly!”
- “Trust your instincts,” says Michele. “If a shoe pinches, it just doesn’t fit, so, do not be deterred, the next apartment you view could be ‘the one.’”
Michele also suggests some wonderful areas in the city where Ashley and J.P. should plan on looking. “The most affordable areas for rentals now are on the east side of the city, in midtown locations Murray Hill and Gramercy or the Upper East Side,” she notes. “However, I’d suggest taking advantage of affordable rates in the Upper West Side, in the high 60′s to 80′s, on CPW (Central Park West) or WEA (West End Avenue), where we are seeing new shopping, dining and nightlife catering to a lively resurgence of young professionals and families.”
In my opinion, Ashley should be checking three sites to find what listings are on the market in the city.
- New York Times Real Estate: This site offers an amazing search tool that allows great user interaction. Ashley and J.P. can do a search speficifying their needs such as minimum and maximum rent prices, specific areas they want to look in like the Upper East Side or the West Village, and what type of building they want to be in (condo, co-op, door-man building). They can use the advanced search preset to add even more amenities like outdoor space, a dishwasher and/or a washer and dryer. The only downside about this tool is that listings don’t get updated regularly. The search may return listings from over six months ago, which may no longer be on the market.
- StreetEasy is another popular real estate search engine. This tool has up to date listings and can be used in basically the same fashion as NYT engine. The downfall of this is that it has less comprehensive search options based on amenities. Also, a lot of the listings don’t include images.
- Craigslist used to be the most popular search tool, but over the past few years, searches return tons of spam. What’s good about this site is that you can search listings in each of the five boroughs, or in all of NYC. The major problem is that small brokers are now trashing the system with listings for apartments and when you show up to see the place, it’s not the exact location or unit that was advertised. Ashley and J.P. — be careful of this hoax!
BFFs — if you have any suggestions to help Ashley and J.P. with their search, please share them below!
- Lindsey DiMattina
More Bachelorette Stories:
meemsss
Posted at 3:32 AM on August 5, 2011
Something unexpected surprise fashion
hello everyone,im wholesale supplier online
Believe you will love it.
very good shopping web.
-
-
our website: { w w w – ( happyshopping100 ) – c o m }