If you missed it, Ben and I are moving to NYC. WHAT!? We’re so excited! If you missed the “why” behind our move, click here to check it out.
We learned really quickly that one of the hardest things to do when you’re living 1,800 miles from NYC is to find an apartment there. Ben and I spent hours and hours scrolling through StreetEasy and Rent Hop, looking at property owner websites and asking friends for suggestions on where to live. Even with all the resources and advice, we felt like every time we found an apartment we liked, it was gone instantly – that or it stayed on the market for a hot minute and we found ourselves wondering what was wrong with it lol.
For a few months there, it seemed like finding the perfect apartment from Austin wouldn’t be possible – we starting to think that maybe we should just move, stay with family or friends for a few days, and try to find a place once we arrived. While it sounded like a good Plan B, it was a stressful Plan B, and I was really hoping something would magically work out for us! Spoiler Alert: It did 😉
The Location
Real estate in New York is expensive and you really don’t get a lot of bang for your buck. Initially, I was looking at the Upper East for West side – I heard those areas were more residential and you could get a larger apartment with more amenities. While I was searching, Ben kept mentioning the West Village. I’m not sure if he knew what the West Village was lol but I think he read something about it and liked the idea of living there. I saw it was filled with cute shops and restaurants and was home to the Friends apartment and Sarah Jessica Parker’s Sex and The City apartment…and Sarah Jessica Parker herself 🙂 so I added it to the search area.
One day, we were scrolling through and saw the cutest 1 bedroom in the heart of the West Village. It was the funkiest little 400 square foot apartment in a brownstone and was recently renovated by the owner to make the most of the space. As we swiped through the photos, we saw a beautiful pre-war fireplace, a ton of natural light, original wood flooring, exposed brick walls and large closets.
We also saw that a few things were missing/different – it had no oven or washer/dryer, the shower was behind a large sliding glass mirror in the kitchen and the toilet was a toilet/sink – literally a combo lol. Even though some of those items may have been deal breakers to others, Ben and I loved them. It made the place unique and it just felt very…us.
The apartment also overlooked a courtyard, so it was quite (rare in such a busy part of the city) and had the most beautiful rooftop deck with endless views of the skyline. I pictured us drinking wine up there on a warm summer night, watching the sunset and just knew it was our spot.
The Owner
I emailed the owner the second we finished scrolling through the listing (this was back in late March) to introduce myself and asked if he had any flexibility with the move-in date. We weren’t looking to move in until June, but we were willing to sign starting in May if it was a place we loved.
The owner was quick to get back to us, was SO nice and had very candid and honest responses to our questions. No other owner/agent that we reached out had that level of rapport and so we instantly felt comfortable with him. He said he was hoping to have someone in their by April 1st at the latest and had an open house coming up at the end of the month. He figured someone would lease it after that.
So that was it, I thanked him for his time and told him to let me know if anything changed with the move-in date. He responded back with “maybe the stars will align and it will work out!” There was just something about his response that made me think this wasn’t the end.
About a month later, I was scrolling back through StreetEasy and saw that cute little apartment pop-up again – it hadn’t been leased yet! I figured the toilet/sink combo and kitchen shower may have something to do with it, but again, those were things we loved! I fired up the laptop and emailed the owner again. I told him I saw the listing was still active and was curious if anything changed with the move-in date. He was super sweet and said he didn’t have much luck at the open house, but that he was showing the apartment to someone that night that seemed promising. He said if we could get there, he would show it to us as well. If we wanted it, we could do a May 1st move-in date.
I called up my friend Lindsay up who lives in Brooklyn around 2pm and asked if she could check it out that night for us. Thankfully she said yes, because we scheduled a tour for 7pm (right before that other guy 🙂 ) and anxiously awaited for Lindsay’s FaceTime.
The Apartment
A few hours later, Lindsay called us up and walked us through the apartment. While it was small (helllooo 400 square feet) and quirky – we both couldn’t stop smiling as we went room by room and then finally up to the rooftop.
The sun was setting over the towering buildings, there were couples up there drinking wine and it was peaceful and quite – it was everything. So fast forward a few hours and a quick conversation later and we submitted an application for the apartment and crossed our fingers.
The Lease
If you’ve ever leased an apartment in New York, then you know that’s it’s not an easy process! You typically have to make 40x the monthly rent and then you owe the landlord a ton of additional information. Our apartment is in a co-op building, meaning it’s even more of a process to get accepted.
We had to send the owner paystubs, a letter of employment, bank statements, a letter of recommendation from our current complex, a personal letter of recommendation, both of our credit scores, background checks, and first/last/security deposit. That’s a lot to hand over to another person lol. And then on top of that, we needed to go through a board interview as well.
We were super thankful that they were conducting board interviews via Zoom so that we could do it from the comfort of our living room. We both put on our best tops (partnered with pajama bottoms because #zoom) and anxiously waited for the call. After about 30 minutes of chatting with a few very sweet board members and answering their questions, we found out that we were approved and the apartment was officially ours!
We technically leased the apartment sight unseen since we didn’t go up there before finalizing, but we 100% trusted Lindsay to tell us if the apartment was a good deal and in a good location. We actually went up this past weekend to see it for ourselves and we LOVE it. It just feels like the last piece of the puzzle is finally in place and we’re ready to hit the road!
