Over the years, New York City has gained a reputation for being a place where dreams come true. For musicians, it’s a place where you can play whatever music you want and have a chance at being discovered. For actors, it’s a place where you can perform with the biggest names on Broadway. For landlords, it’s a place where you can charge tenants a small fortune for a single month’s rent.
Wait… that doesn’t sound like a dream come true for a renter; it sounds more like a nightmare! Sad though it may be, this has become more and more true for accommodation seekers in the Big Apple over the past couple of years. As the city grows at an prodigious rate and investors buy up more and more of the city’s heavily limited housing, rent prices aren’t likely to go anywhere but up.
Don’t worry though; rents here are generally pretty expensive, but we’ve got a few tips and tricks up our sleeve that will save you hundreds or possibly even thousands of hard earned rent money. With the small fortune you’ll save by following our advice, you might even be able to afford an appetizer at one of New York’s better restaurants!
Jokes aside, disposable income is a luxury that not everyone in New York has the benefit of. If you can save money on rent, you’ll have more stability and expanded resources when it comes to chasing those dreams of yours. So how are you going to save money on rent in New York, more exactly? Let’s take a look!
Step 1: reassess your needs
Now, the first thing you’re going to want to keep in mind when searching for a rental in New York is the fact that this is not your mom and pop’s rental market. In most cities, you can reasonably expect to find a living space that more or less aligns with what you’d like to have in terms of a home. In the Big Apple on the other hand, you’re going to have to reassess what you want out of a living space.
Sure, you might want a room bigger than the Harry Potter’s closet from the first movie, but do you really need something that big? Maybe you do, maybe you don’t, but if you’re willing to make do with something smaller you’ll save on rent. Sure, it might be nice to not live next to a noisy train line, but is it necessary?
Jokes aside, the brutal truth of the matter is that most folks who move to New York have to start somewhere. In this city, a large, comfortable and well furnished apartment is less of a necessity and more of a luxury. Take a long, hard look at your list of must-haves and pare it down to the things that are absolutely non-negotiable. Do this and you’re already well on your way to finding a much more affordable living space!
Step 2: make some compromises
Now that you’ve abandoned some of your initial demands, it’s time to do a little bit more of the same. If you followed our advice, you’ll have a list of what you simply can’t live without. You don’t have to get rid of these entries on your list, but we think there’s a decent chance you can make some compromises with at least a few of them!
Let’s say that your list contains the following two entries: must have hot and cold running water, and must have central heating. A pretty short list, sure, but perhaps not short enough for a limited budget in the city of New York! With these two demands in mind, you go apartment hunting and find a modest place in Queens for a reasonable price. The only problem? It’s heated by a single rattling radiator in the bedroom.
So, what do you do in this situation? Do you: (A) move on immediately in search of something more expensive with better heating or (B) start getting comfortable with the prospect of being wrapped up in a blanket for half the year? If you said A, then you might want to start looking for a different city besides New York!
Step 3: consider cohabitation
We know, we know. For many people, the mere idea of sharing a living space outside of an intimate relationship is pure anathema. And, yeah; it can present some thoroughly irritating problems on a day-to-day basis, as anyone who’s ever lived in a college dorm can attest to. From difficulties sharing food to deliberations on how to split the bills, few who are familiar with the topic would say the experience is easy.
Nevertheless, the simple fact of the matter is that you can get a whole lot more living space for a lot less money if you’re willing to share an apartment or home with one or more roommates. Fortunately, there are few problems that can’t be overcome with maturity and cooperation, so living with a roommate or roommates doesn’t have to be as difficult as you might think.
Of course, it goes without saying that you should be very, very careful who you choose to share an apartment with. You can’t know everything about a potential roommate before you move in with them, but it helps to have at least a few meetings with any and all potential roommates before you take any further steps towards cohabitation.
Step 4: choose the right people to help
As with anything else in life, your search for affordable housing in the city of New York will be rendered far easier if you’re able to choose the right people for the job. Many hands make light work, as the saying goes, and the more people you have on your side in this fight the better. You might not immediately get the results you’re looking for, but you’ll raise your chances significantly all the same.
Undoubtedly the best human asset you can have in your hunt for housing is a friend or two who already lives in New York, preferably for quite some time. A friend in the area will be able to provide you with valuable information about the real estate market, the rental scene and any hot offers that they come across, all at no cost to you.
If you don’t have any friends in the area, your next best bet is the local real estate agents in New York City. These skilled, experienced professionals will do everything in their power to find you a place to live that suits your needs and your budget in no time at all. What’s more, they’re far more active in real estate than your friends are likely to be, so it doesn’t hurt to have one in your corner even if you have a friend or two scanning the market for you.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, no amount of scrimping and cost-cutting is going to change the fact that living space in the city of New York is exorbitantly, unreasonably expensive. Even with the tips on this list, you still might not be able to afford an apartment in New York, but hopefully that won’t be the case. We wish you the best of luck on your search!
