Her daughter's 1st apartment. What should they think about?

April 13, 2022 4:35 PM

My friend asked advice on her daughter's moving to her 1st apartment. She (mom) can visit the rentals, explore the neighborhood, meet the landlord/lady. Aside from emotions and new furniture- I mentioned noise. Walk the area at rush hour, Friday nights, when traffic, bars, etc might be at their worst. Locate near a transit stop for work. Laundry room? Google the Owner/address. She is unfamiliar w/ NYC tenant leases. Is there a boilerplate form? Doesn't NYC have strong tenant laws? Has Covid changed things? Security? Ideas?
posted by ebesan to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

Whether it’s a parent or the prospective tenant doing these things, is add to the list: check the noise complaints for adjacent and nearby buildings: Street View and satellite views in Google Maps can help identify these. Noise from a party rooftop across the street or backing onto your building can be more disruptive than noise from the building itself.
posted by lasagnaboy at 5:40 PM on April 13, 2022

In NYC, it helps to know what the walk is like to the nearest train or bus stop. Especially what it's like at night.

Is there laundry in the building or will she be walking to a laundromat?

Is it a walkup? If so will her furniture fit up the stairs?

Other than that, part of the adventure of a first place is learning what you do and don't care about. So long as it's not actually unsafe, the rest is on the daughter to figure out.
posted by emjaybee at 5:56 PM on April 13, 2022 [3 favorites]

I would check first with your friend if her daughter asked for this intense level of assistance. If she doesn't know, I would suggest to her (mom) to ask what help her daughter does and doesn't want, and then to respect her daughter's wishes. Even if help is wanted, mom prioritizing her assistance to a few crucial actions and maybe a list of tips FYI, would be a great way to support her daughter to build capacity and autonomy in this special, once-in-a-lifetime milestone moment of her adulthood.

If the daughter does *not* want a lot of assistance, I would advise your friend that letting her navigate this process on her own, without parental judgment or back-channel feedback, would be an act of love and support the likes of which many people never receive.

If the daughter *does* want advice: From living in NYC many years ago and working in rental real estate a number of years before that, my top tip would be to go to walkthroughs with 3 months' rent in cash, and at least 2 physical copies each (plus ready pdf scans) of her credit report and paystubs in hand, ready to shake hands and make a deal.

This is also a fantastic time for your friend's daughter to practice NEVER signing a document without reading it through completely first and asking questions to understand all clauses. Many landlords all around the country use form leases: many of these form leases contain clauses that are technically illegal and therefore unenforceable, which are good to learn how to spot by reading up on local tenants' rights. (For example, in Washington, DC, landlords must cut grass and take care of grounds - I had an apartment with a lease that stipulated I would cut the grass. I signed, but nonetheless submitted requests for the landlord to have the grass cut, because it was the law that they take care of it. They did.) The official city Tenants' Rights page is a good place for the daughter to start looking up this kind of info, and it would be good for her to practice the skill of Googling to find out answers for herself about what has changed under COVID, etc.

Renter's insurance is cheap and an excellent habit to build right out of the gate.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 6:04 PM on April 13, 2022 [15 favorites]

Renting in NYC is very competitive right now because of people returning to the city, but hopefully this will ease up over the next few months as we get to “peak rental season” and more apartments open up. Either she should do a lot of research ahead of time on the market (Street Easy is the best place to start) and be ready to make decisions on the spot OR she should assume she will look at 10 places to understand the market, then look at 10 more after she’s ready to make a decision.

Brick Underground is a decent source of NYC-specific real estate advice.
posted by A Blue Moon at 7:05 PM on April 13, 2022 [2 favorites]

Either she should do a lot of research ahead of time on the market (Street Easy is the best place to start) and be ready to make decisions on the spot OR she should assume she will look at 10 places to understand the market, then look at 10 more after she’s ready to make a decision.

It feels weird because if you have any training at all, you know that being pressured to make a quick decision is usually a sign of a scam. But it's unfortunately common in the Manhattan rental market to have to do so.

Most landlords require that you make 40x the monthly rent (e.g., if the rent is $2000, you need to show $80K in income). This is not a legal requirement, but it's observed pretty closely, especially in Manhattan and nearby.

What a landlord can ask from you varies by rent stabilization status. The rules for rent-stabilized apartments changed only last year, so be careful in googling them to make sure you're not getting outdated information. Free-market apartments are subject to many fewer restrictions. However, they now may not ask for more than one month's security deposit, and any application fee is limited to $20, unless you are applying directly with the landlord (not a broker, and not an agent for the landlord).

If you have to use a broker, at the moment the law requiring that the owner pay the fee is in limbo, so you should expect to cough up 15% of a year's rent for the broker.

I can't recommend wandering from showing to showing with several thousand dollars in cash in your pocket, but you should be prepared to obtain cashier's checks immediately.
posted by praemunire at 8:31 PM on April 13, 2022 [1 favorite]

"Most landlords require that you make 40x the monthly rent"

Also, if the mom becomes a guarantor, 80x the monthly rent
posted by sandmanwv at 5:07 AM on April 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

Regarding the question of "what is the walk like at night": I recently spoke with a small group of young women who were thinking of renting an apartment in my neighborhood. They were just walking around asking women who didn't look too busy (I was on a walk with my kids) for their impressions - would I feel comfortable walking back from the subway alone at 6pm? at 2am (they were expecting to have occasional late nights at work)? With a friend at 2am? Was there anything else they should know about the neighborhood? I thought that was a great idea, potentially much more informative than just looking at statistics or trying it themselves to get a feel for the area.
posted by cogitron at 5:24 AM on April 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

Also the things you would check out at any potential new home:

-Water pressure through all faucets and the toilet
-drain function at all fixtures
-natural light. Artificial light when no windows are present. (I once rented an apartment without realizing the bedroom was windowless - it was the lower level built into the side of a hill.)
-ask neighbors how bad the roach/ant/rodent problem is
-ask neighbors how responsive the super is
-will it get too hot in the summer? Is there a/c, and if so, can you test it?
-proximity to grocery store, pharmacy, and medical facility and emergency vet, if appropriate
-fire escape/emergency egress
-how many floors will have to be walked up if the elevator is closed for maintenance or just broken?
-enough power outlets in each room?
posted by happy_cat at 6:18 AM on April 14, 2022