Apartment Hunting

If you're about to go apartment hunting, here are some helpful hints:

1. Know your credit score
2. Know your total income from last year and the year before
3. Have $500 cash readily available
4. If you have bad credit, have your guarantor lined up
5. Be ready to negotiate


1. KNOW your credit score!

If you're dealing with a broker, one of the first questions they'll ask is "how is your credit?"

If you haven't checked it lately, or ever, you should. Refer to the post on getting your credit score.

And if you're not dealing with a broker and you work directly with the owner of the apartment, they will want to know if you have good credit as well. Chances are, anyone who rents to you will run your credit report. So you should run it yourself before you even go look at places just to make sure all is well and that there aren't any mistakes or blemishes on it.

2. You HAVE to know your total income from the past two years. Better yet, you should have a copy of your tax returns for the past two years with you when you go apartment hunting. When you have all of you paperwork ready, it makes the broker, apartment manager, or owner take a much more serious look at you and will motivate them to get you the apartment.

3. Have $500 cash available. You might even want to have it on you when you shop. If you find an apartment you like, chances are other people will like it too. And in Manhattan, apartments go fast. I mean FAST. I looked at a place last year. I liked it. I told the broker I wanted to go look at another place just to make sure. I took a half an hour to go do that. By the time I got back to the broker about the first place I wanted, it was gone. Another broker had shown up and his client took it. His client had cash and all his paperwork ready to go and his application was taken right away.

4. If you have bad credit, have your guarantor's paperwork ready to go. What does that entail? Have copies of their taxes from the last two years, including W2's. Have copies of their last two month's worth of paystubs. Have their social security number. Their drivers license number. And ALL of their contact info.

5. Be ready to negotiate. Being a real estate agent, I can tell you that EVERY company out there is willing to negotiate down on their price by $50 to $200. There was a recent article in the NY Times about how rents are starting to slowly creep back up. But landlords are still willing to negotiate. And if you're shopping in Astoria/queens for an apartment, you can negotiate the broker's fee. Lots of times they'll take 80% of a month's fee or even 50%.

In Manhattan and Brooklyn lots of brokers have access to "NO-FEE" apartments. Just ask ahead of time. If you know for sure that you don't want to pay a fee, tell them on the phone so they don't waist your time showing you places that collect a fee.