How do I find an apartment in NYC without going thru a real estate agency?
I realize you don’t want to pay a broker. But if you think about this as an hours saved/value for money proposition, you may reconsider. I’ve done two searches for new apartments via the Craigslist/ bulletin board/ knocking on door route, and the process both times was massively time-consuming and emotionally frustrating. The quality of the apartments I saw was mediocre, and there was generally something a little off-putting about the setup, e.g., the owner stores her art supplies in a closet in the apartment bedroom, and “occasionally” will need to have access. More than 50% of the time, you arrive at the address to realize it’s the wrong neighborhood (too far from transportation, no place nearby to get groceries, on a noisy corner, or just plain sketchy). If you add up all the time you will spend doing a search yourself (including internet searches, phone calls, planning the subway stops, killing a couple of hours in between appointments only a couple of blocks apart — not to mentio
