Lost In Transition
How I tried to rent an apartment in Manhattan as an international student: a 3-day task that turned into a 2-months journey with occasional moments of desperation and unexpected insights.
Every year thousands of international students move to New York to make a change and pursue their dreams. This number is always increasing, and fluctuates around peak times of the academic year, making it especially difficult for a prospective student to find an apartment in the early part of the fall.
Being just one of these students, I was fortunate enough to be going to school in a city that promised nothing but endless opportunity, and just enough romantic flair to satisfy Kerouac. Now I just needed to find an apartment.
Manhattan is a housing market determined by the cruel reign of landlords. Demand for New York City real estate is so high, that potential tenants find themselves in a highly competitive environment, fighting against one another, all while hunting for a place to live.
The search for an apartment requires showing off an impressive set of documents: those that show a solid credit history, and those that prove an ability to pay the rent for up to a year. On average, the landlord asks prospective tenant to show a yearly income of 40 times the amount of rent.
For example, if the price of a studio was between $1,800 and $2,700 a month, the landlord would require the prospective tenant to hold a job that pays over $100,000 a year. Meanwhile, for international students, generally unemployed, the landlord requires a United States based guarantor with earnings twice that amount to co-sign the lease.
Thus started my journey. My natural, bubbling optimism would hold me over as I began on my unsheltered odyssey to find a temporary home. Combining the search with classes and assignments, I found out quickly the astronomical costs I would be required to pay, both financially and emotionally, to see this through.
The one-time cost of moving in to a studio in Manhattan can come up to astronomic $14500. We reach this absurd number by factoring in the insurance company, who charges couple of months of rent to act as a guarantor, one month’s rent to act as a security deposit, first month’s rent paid to the landlord, and the killer: a 15% broker fee on the yearly amount of the studio.
Relatively shocked and not willing to pay a quarter of average tuition cost of a top university, I turned to the next best available option: websites and mobile applications trying to revolutionize the real estate space and solve the housing problem, namely Craigslist, Roomorama, Trulia, Zillow, TripleMint, AirBnB and others. These double-sided platforms were built to connect people like me with those who were willing to rent out their property. Usually using them allows to cut the fees and potentially simplify the process with documents.
The downside, of course, was the potential for fraud. Going digital meant more of a risk of being taken advantage of, or being swindled, and the liability of these websites ranged all over the map in terms of security. For example, AirBnb contains a provision guaranteeing total loss compensation in a case of fraud, whereas Craigslist leaves the determination of risk up to the user’s judgment.
I decided I would try them all. I made my way to the doorstep of the worldwide web, armed to the teeth with tips on how to avoid fraud, and began to browse.
AirBnB was surprisingly expensive. For example, monthly rent for studios anywhere from Financial District up to Upper West and East side around October 2015 was 3500 to 6000 dollars, excluding AirBnB service charge. It turned out it is actually cheaper to daily track the discounts and special offers on hotels in the city and vicinity and move from place to place every few days.
Though being terribly uncomfortable, the experience allowed me to explore various neighborhoods around New York and did leave me with a few observations:
· The cheapest hotels in New York on weekends are on Wall Street
· The highest prices everywhere except in the airports are from Tuesday to Friday
Trulia, Zillow and StreetEasy provide an excellent basis to search for apartment buildings without a real estate agent. The websites have very intuitive search options, but once you found a building you like, nothing prevents you from contacting the management company directly. This is probably the safest option for a user, but is not good news for customer retention specialists in these companies.
Finally there is Craigslist and this is how I met Chris. Craigslist is widely known as an open platform for connecting people who want to buy or sell anything, from books and bicycles to apartments and houses. It is also widely known for the amount of fraud people encounter while using it which still never stops anyone, including myself. After close to a hundred messages and several viewings one Saturday morning I received a call from Christopher Figueroa, who introduced himself as a president of a company called New York City Apartments and mentioned he had couple of variants I would like.
On our second encounter, Mr Figueroa mentioned visiting a listing at the intersection of Lexington and 69th street that he himself had not had an opportunity to look at yet. Walking in, I knew I was in love. It was a bright beautiful studio with a view to a garden. I was happy and agreed to take it right away. On the way out Chris exchanged couple of jokes with the doorman and we left.
We agreed to meet the following day in the office, located in a high-rise building on 54th and Lexington, to fill in the application and sign all the necessary documents. After a few questions I submitted the documents. By then, it had already been two weeks since my adventure of moving through hotels started and I did not really enjoy it much.
One day later, I received a message from Chris saying that if I really want the apartment I’d have to make an advance good-faith deposit. I really wanted the apartment. So I withdrew cash and headed towards the office at 7pm. There I met Chris and another person named Peter, who cheerfully greeted me and mentioned he was happy I found a place. I left the money, received a receipt from Chris and headed to the airport where I was staying that night.
For the next two days there was no news. On Thursday I texted Chris asking if he had an answer for me. He said he would tell me on Friday morning. On Friday afternoon, I called and to my amusement discovered that the phone was no longer in service. I called the office where I received an information that Chris hasn’t been seen for the last couple of days. These were all the classic signs of a “bad smelling fish”.
On Saturday morning I called again and spoke to Peter, who told me that he hadn’t seen Chris in the office yet. When I asked him if he actually knows Chris and met him, Peter answered “Not personally”. I also called the building management inquiring about the apartment and discovered that the unit was last up for rent several years ago. I went to the police.
When I arrived at the police station to file a police report, a cheerful officer shared her opinion with me: that fraud via Craigslist is the most common housing problems they hear of across. In fact, a day before, a woman from Japan came to the same police station to report she’d lost $4000 “apartment owner” she met through Craigslist.
To my disappointment though, even after giving a detailed explanation of my situation, the officer claimed there wasn’t enough evidence to file a police report. Since New York City Apartments’ office was close by, I went back again on Saturday morning to gather evidence. In the lobby I met Jack Glass, who appeared to be the real president of New York City apartments. Jack told me that my application was denied the same day I submitted it (before I paid the money to Chris) and that he was genuinely surprised to see me. I asked if he knew Chris, and he said he lets him use New York City Apartments’ office from time to time. He mentioned that Chris is not an employee, but brings him clients and shares the commission. He also seemed surprised to find out that Chris called himself a president of the company and gave me a receipt without the right to do so.
Puzzled I returned to the police station where I had a two-hour conversation with an officer which led nowhere. Although the officer actually called Jack Glass and confirmed everything he told me, she said there was still not enough evidence to file a police report and refused to open a case for me.
Exhausted, I gave up, headed to class and continued the search for an apartment — lacking the time or energy to pursue my own investigation.
After almost two months I happily landed in New Jersey. The saga was over. I am still wondering, though, how many more foreigners fall into the same trap I did: struggling to settle down in New York, all the while losing money until we give up on pursuing the matter.
