Brooklyn, NY: moving advice/realtors

she signed the lease yesterday

your mom?

Brooklyn, NY: flying roaches/mice

hay guys before ilx dies tell me ur favorite things in brooklyn that i can do this weekend, restaurants, parks, stores, bonus points if they are in 'stuyvesant heights' aka south-central bed-stuy or if they are a quick bike ride or walk away from there (intersection of stuyvesant and hancock), but its cool if i have to take a bus or train

ok so like 6 years after i last posted to this thread i'ma move for real. my wife is nyc born and raised and all her family and friends are in brooklyn but finding a place is still a massive drag.

the major problem is that we have a big old dog with whom i am unwilling to part as she's like 15. (and another small dog and 2 small cats.) any ideas for finding pet-friendly landlords? maybe you or someone you know has an amazing place to rent us? we're in the $2k/month range which seems absurd to my small town yokel eyes but whatever.

i will admit to being in the early stages of a meltdown as i feel like the long-distance search for both housing and employment is maybe not working out so well

g'luck (i can predictably be of no help)

What neighborhoods are you looking in? In that price range for a 1BR I'm guessing you'd probably be talking about Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, Sunset Park, Ditmas Park, some of the southern prospect park neighborhoods, depending on your standards in terms of space (if you have a big dog I assume you don't want a little tiny cramped place). Agents make things easier but can add a lot to the cost. Get a couple apps for your phone (trulia, streeteasy, idk are there better ones now?) and check frequently, call right away, and be prepared to sign quickly. Have a folder with all the docs you need and just bring it to every showing along with a check to make out. As far as pet friendly, I guess you just have to ask or see what the ad says. If you see a place you really like, take it immediately.

2k will be fine in the places that hurting mentions above. Also Kensington a p nice place.

Just don't rent a place above a coffee shop, bodega, or restaurant and you'll be fine.

I pay waaay less than 2k for a studio here, but there's nothing to do in Kensington

kensington has a pleasant vibe. what's the train situation like there?

hurting, those are basically exactly the neighborhoods we are looking at. my wife is really into ft greene at the moment for whatever reason. i feel you on the bring everything and make an offer on the spot tactics. unfortunately we're still in new orleans and basically deploying my mother-in-law to go look at places for us. this is not a good way to look for apartments if you were wondering.

there are like two different kinds of pet friendly afaict--a reluctant "pet-friendly" that makes getting a place a total hassle (no dogs over 7lbs! $10000 pet deposit) and landlords that don't g a f abt pets. apt listings should make this distinction.

I can't imagine why your wife likes Fort Greene, although it might be the same reason Bjork likes Fort Greene, which is also the reason you guys probably won't find an apartment you can afford in Fort Greene.

Yeah, finding an apt through your MIL is not a good way to go, unless she's tech savvy and can give you a live Skype tour or something and can hand over a check on your behalf if you like it. I would recommend just coming up here for maybe 3-7 days and setting up as many showings as you can and committing to signing on a place.

My guide to Brooklyn is that any neighborhood with the word "Green" or "Greene" in its name is a good neighborhood

i will admit to being in the early stages of a meltdown as i feel like the long-distance search for both housing and employment is maybe not working out so well

i am in the same boat right now. even down to looking for a pet friendly place (i don't have a dog and a cat now but would like to)
we're making a trip up in a few weeks, i think, with the plan of having all the relevant documents and being ready to sign on the spot.

If you have the cash to do it, you could offer a larger deposit to compensate for potential pet damage. My friends recently did this looking for a place.

finding an apt through your MIL

this sounds like a direct to dvd film where 40 minutes in the young couple find themselves living in the spare bedroom of a superfundamentalist family and all of their neighbors call the cops on them if they play the hi-fi after 6pm

fort greene is nice why is it hard to imagine why someone would like a neighborhood w/ brownstones, restaurants and a nice park

why is it hard for you to understand verbal irony

sometimes it's hard via the internet, that's why you should use smiley faces

dude. we almost signed a lease on a place above one old italian lady (the owner) and below another old italian lady (her daughter). we still might.

my MIL is cool and takes iphone videos and narrates them sarcastically. still not ideal.

yeah ft greene seems fuckin expensive. i think where we're at is: my wife hasn't lived in new york for like 10 years so the meteoric rental price increases don't seem quite real to her, so she thinks there is some perfect huge cheap place in a dope neighborhood and we just have to find it. she is returning today from a weeklong trip where she was unable to find a place she was into.

i appreciate yalls advice. i might supply my MIL with like a dossier of docs and a blank check. there's no way that could go horribly wrong.

Try Philly

a direct to dvd film where 40 minutes in the young couple find themselves living in the spare bedroom of a superfundamentalist family

quite possible if you landed in Boro Park.

Kensington is served by the F (a line on which entirely too many people now live) and the G unless you live beyond Church Ave, in which case its presence is gen a pain in the ass. But if you're iatee, the fact that you never get a seat is a stirring sign of MTA efficiency.

yes, i love living near nice restaurants while I'm frying up a turkey burger at home.

my wife hasn't lived in new york for like 10 years so the meteoric rental price increases don't seem quite real to her, so she thinks there is some perfect huge cheap place in a dope neighborhood and we just have to find it.

Everyone thinks this for a while and maybe like 1/100 find it, and it's usually through a connection

To be fair, the rise has been so fast that it's disorienting -- a neighborhood can go from "seems a little sketchy" to out of your price range in like 3 years.

greenford stuyvesant is nice. so is prospect greenforts and greenspect heights. clinton greene too but I think it's prob too pricey now.

have you considered fort ditmas?

You mean Fort Greenmas?

sorry yes

xxxpost man I hope we can keep our current apartment for some number of years, because I just don't know what our neighborhood will cost in that time (bed stuy, to be serious)

xp you might also consider Fort Island City, Greens

a lot of the to-be-gentrified parts of brooklyn (sunset park, bed stuy) are so enormous that it's hard to imagine then completely done over in 10 years

Man, an unlimited Amtrak pass between Philly and NY costs $1350

I bet you could find a big 2 bedroom near 30th street station for around $1000

You'd have a 3 hour commute each day tho

some people do it

incidentally there are people who have nyc -> nyc commutes that are worse than philly -> nyc. like I had a friend who had to do astoria to staten island.

3 hours on a train with seats and a power outlet vs. 2 hours standing on the F

The MTA should build an underwater line to Staten Island

They already have plenty of experience from dealing with the G

Thank you, thank you

we should just trade hoboken and jersey city to nj for staten island, that way we don't have to build anything

unlimited Amtrak pass between Philly and NY costs $1350

for a year? that's almost exactly the same as an unlimited NYC MetroCard

No per month

lol amtrak

i suggested just buying a farmhouse in rural vermont and spending the saved money on ATVs and liquor but no dice. i also suggested living in any other city in the entire country but no dice.

i like sunset park but ppl are like oh, the r train or whatever, it takes forever, like i'd be way out in the provinces riding a mulecart into the city, but i think maybe some of that is new yorkish subway snobbery? idk

incidentally there are people who have nyc -> nyc commutes that are worse than philly -> nyc. like I had a friend who had to do astoria to staten island.

― iatee, Monday, June 23, 2014 10:11 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol there are like 5 people fitting that description and your friend is crazy

sunset park is basically queens but a much worse commute than queens

Sunset Park has dope mexican and chinese food

unless you're used to drinking in Park Slope xp

xxxp R train does take forever. You can transfer to an express N train which is a little faster, though service in that part of Brooklyn can get pretty janky. I used to work on the border of Boro Park/Bensonhurst and it's a long haul.

a lot of the to-be-gentrified parts of brooklyn (sunset park, bed stuy) are so enormous that it's hard to imagine then completely done over in 10 years

eeeehhhhhh 10 years? I can imagine it.

yer forgetting there will be another market crash and possibly two more Sandy-level flood disasters in the interim.

just keepin' it real

the 1% are building those 90-story needle condos in Manhattan for a reason y'know