The Apartment Search, Catching the Wave

A friend of mine just asked for some housing advice. Ive lived off campus for the past two years. Next year he will be a senior, he and some of his friends want to find a place nearby to live in together. Ive learned so much living off campus, and although I think I'm ready for the next stage of my life, I know I'm way more prepared to spend that stage in Manhattan than I would have been had I stayed in Columbia housing. After I wrote to him I realized its a topic relevant to us seniors, especially those who are planning to stay in or move to a large city like New York. Entering this new stage of our lives is stressful enough! Let's get what stresses we can out of the way.

GRAD GUIDE:

As with most things in life, starting early will save you a lot of headache. So much of finding your dream apartment in your dream location is about timing. We'll talk about that. The rest of it is about thorough research, being clear about what you want(both to yourself and your realtor), and being realistic about what you can afford. When i moved off campus, I did so because I had been placed in a living situation that made me uncomfortable. My heart was totally in the process because i wanted to get the hell out of there. And I assume your heart will be in it, as well, because presumably you've chosen to move to a city you either like or have found a job in. Regardless, its exciting! New stage, new crazy stories, no homework on weekends... And most of wll, so many opportunities! but before we get ahead of ourselves, lets think about timing. I started looking the week after columbia's housing selection process (February) for an en-of-summer move in. By the end of the semester I had it all signed and sealed.
If you're just graduating and want to move after the summer, that's the timeline you're looking at. The sooner the better because the closer to the summer you get, the more the rent prices hike up. On the other hand if you were to try start looking this early (December) for August 2012, you'd have a hard time finding apartments. Rental cycles happen in waves; there is a start-of-the-year wave, a summer rental only wave, an end of summer wave, then a november/december wave. Of course you've got a year after your rent starts. So the most popular times are the Jan/feb and Aug/sept. waves (sometimes it starts in July) because normal people (which we will soon be!) tend to do the beginning of the year, students do the end of summer. November is a great time to find cheap places- a few years down the road and e don't have the kind of time restrictions we have as students, that's when we should look. The point is, you kind of have to catch the wave early but not so early that you're on a different wave altogether.

Next, think about what you want:
Roommates or solo? For some people, this one is easy. For others, both have their pluses and minuses, so it's hard to pick. I fall into this category. What I'd do is accept the fact that no living situation is perfect until you can make your way into the Trump Towers, so think of what negatives you can handle at this stage of your life. Think about what positives you're not willing to compromise, but keep that list short! Even the people who think they only like x or y end up discovering things about themselves and their preferences/lifestyle when they accept the challenge of trying new things, or at the very least disregard one of the non-negotiables on their list. As an exercise try that. Write three things you absolutely can't live without, and three you absolutely can't live with. Cross one of the thins off on your "can't live without" list. Just think, it wasn't on your "can't live with" list, so if it's there it won't kill ya. Maybe the guy who always flies solo will end up moving into an apartment full of other dudes, and picked up with a soccer league he otherwise wouldn't have found.
Safe, super safe, or practically is a safe? As I said in reference to making the decision to live with or without roommates, think not about what you might want ten or twenty years down the road or what you think you'd like to be able to deal with, but what you can handle at this point in your life. If safety is a top priority (maybe you had a bad experience, often walk home alone late at night...) ask around if you don't already know, and be sure to visit the location both day AND night before you commit. Even places that are considered totally safe might not feel that way to you. Not everyone feels comfortable in the same kinds of environments! A doorman is another really nice and sad thing to have if possible. They're often really friendly, but most importantly they deter people who are potentially threatening to your safety. They keep an eye out for you like a big brother. Make sure all of the wiring in these tent is safe, the appliances are up to snuff, etc.
Separate bedrooms/baths/living spaces?
A den or a glass house? How much lit do you need?
Do you need an elevator? Maybe you're restricted by your health, or food shop everyday and carry hundred pound grocery bags, or really miss awkward elevator conversations... Who knows. If you live above the fourth floor, either start working out now. Sense people don't care and will climb 11 sets of stairs. Me, i love my elevator, but something to consider,
Do you need to be close to anything? Grocery stores, a hospital or pharmacy, a certain type of restaurant, a park, your job, a certain subway stop...
Do you prefer modern over per-war or vice-versa...
Do you need an in-building laundry room or gym...

Then about what you're willing to/able to spend:
Let's face it, manhattan is overpriced no matter what great "deal" you find. But you can definitely find something that won't make you starve to pay for it, even if it means you have to move to a different borough or Hoboken/Weehawken (gasp!). So figure out what that price is, taking account your salary, whether or not your parents are loaning you money until you've been working long enough to pay, how much you need for food, clothes and luxury shopping, and utilities bills such as water, gas, electric, cable, internet, etc. Gas and electric bill policies differ from one apartment building to the next. Make sure to check! Lastly and often forgotten, don't forget about realtor's fees! These can be a real bugger. Sometimes realtors gloss over the topic until you're signing paperwork, in love with your place and ready to jump in front of a moving van to save it. Convenient. Fees range, though. Some don't have fees! Others definitely do. So come up with a number you'd be only slightly uncomfortable paying per month, a price you think you could pull off, but not really easily. Lets say its $1400. Then tack off $200. Keep this figure ($1200) as your target price. You'll be amazed by how much more you end up spending than you thought you would, and none of us want to get ourselves into sticky situations. Bankruptcies for baby boomers only, thank you!
Then there are timing things that are rent related to keep in mind, like whether or not you're willing to start paying rent a month or two early, or if you only want a place whose rent starts within a few days of your arrival time. (See this article about rental commissions going down!; http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/cutting-back-on-rental-commissions--3)


How do you go about it?:
I started by looking at online apartment search websites, started narrowing down on the types of places that interested me, ruling out the locations that were too far from school, taking note of the real estate companies I saw pop up most often in my searches. I picked out about ten different places and called the real estate agents. I never heard back from some, but in the end about three got back to me. I asked to see the apartment I'd seen online, and scheduled an appointment to go see it with them. Sometimes the apartments id chosen weren't available anymore, but the realtors had put together a list of other similar places. That was helpful. The place I chose in the end was actually bought out from under us before we could complete the paperwork (of which there is a lot), but my realtor was very helpful and actually found me a place within the same week and offered me the same rent for my first year. 

My best advice is to make sure you work with a reliable, well known company and that you have and even more reliable landlord. Right after you ask your realtor about the rent price and the specs, you should ask what the landlord is like. It can make the difference between a pain-in-the-ass year and a pleasant one, just as far as submitting rent, getting appliances fixed, issuing complaints etc is concerned. My realtor worked for Gala Realty located on 110th. The owner, Sandy, is approaching 80 and is sort of annoying, but shes pretty old school which means she is abrupt and calculating, but also not part of our generation's annoying "go by the book" working mentality. When it comes to negotiating it feels more like haggling, which is fun and although you don't come back with a discounted diamond ring, you do benefit from her reasonable and accommodating attitude. Once you've settled on a place, your realtor will run you through the paperwork smoothly.



This is a great first step into the real world, a way to get used to dealing with rent and landlords etc, but most of all an opportunity to live the way YOU want, invite whomever you want over, or become a total hermit when you really need to. Enjoy the rest of your break and good luck!

All the best.

Final Year Finals

Good luck, seniors, with your second to last set of finals. As I'm sitting in Butler trying to study for my Russian exams, I cannot help but wonder how I got here. First of all, how I got literally here, to the library this morning, because like all good college students I've become deathly ill during the most important time of the year. But also how I got here, to my fourth year of college, and here, to the age of twenty-two. I am more than ready for school to be over. I feel as if I've been a student my whole life and now it's time for something different. But... a college graduate? A twenty-two year old young woman? A Manhattanite? These are all identities that seem foreign to me. I still feel so young inside, so naive. Perhaps it's because I don't know who I am or what I am without school. There's always been that structure, and in the case of a lot of students, there hasn't been much time for anything else. Certainly not soul-searching! Sometimes I feel like I should have been accomplishing that during the summers. Two and a half months to find myself!

 I am excited about the endless opportunities out there, excited because I could do almost anything, go anywhere, hang out with anyone... but most of all, I'm excited to get to know myself. Not as any of the things I said I was before. Not as someone who can be understood by reading the categories- academic background, work experience, skills and interests-  that you will find on her resume. I hope I'll find someone who can live according to her own structure, who creates and invents, who loves, who laughs. If not, that's okay, too. I really have no idea. I do hope, however, that I won't lose the friends I've made here. I'm looking forward to going through this together, and to seeing who we all become, who we all truly are without the constant stresses of school. For now, though, let's push through these exams, and enjoy every second we've got left here on this beautiful campus.

PLEASE read this article, Columbia Students especially

This is absolutely a must-read article. Astute, sensitive and inspiring, I commend Wilfred Chan and Sarah Ngu for writing something so sincere. It's about time we open up this kind of dialogue at Columbia.

"There is simply no sense in continuing a Columbia culture that condones misery as a harmless fact of life. Though we can never get rid of stress, we can change the way we think about it." ~ Chan

http://eye.columbiaspectator.com/?q=article%2F2011%2F12%2F01%2Fhow-were-doing

Unique Job Search Site

I stumbled upon this site recently. It's got everything from rodeo clown to stuntman, sniper to voice actor. Even if none of these crazy jobs are for you it's a great way to get you thinking in new directions.

http://www.jobmonkey.com/uniquejobs/

Interesting Article in the NY TIMES about Shrinking Wages

http://community.nytimes.com/comments/economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/for-graduates-a-shrinking-payoff/?sort=newest

Most of this is stuff we already know. It's interesting, though, because of the comments. There are all sort of opinions, including one that says college is a scam altogether!

Columbia's Career Development Center

Today I visited Columbia's Career Development Center for a scheduled thirty-minute meeting with one of the undergraduate counselors. I stopped in last week for a "walk-in" meeting and was advised to schedule a longer meeting with Devon Pryor, a handsome, friendly guy not much older than I with a likable little lisp. I sent him an email the day before telling him a little bit about myself, what kinds of jobs I thought might be of interest to me, what I hope to accomplish in the upcoming year, etc. What I realized while walking back to his little office in the labyrinth of what is the career center, though, was that I wasn't really sure what I wanted to accomplish during this meeting. I knew I couldn't expect him to find me a job right then and there, or look into my soul and determine my true calling, so I decided to start with realistic, modest goals; to come up with some sort of game plan. With this, Devon could certainly help me. I was surprised, however, by what this first step entailed.

Basically, he said to call on my connections. He said this could mean professors at Columbia or former bosses, but I don't know of the connections my professors have  outside of the academic realm, and I can't imagine my former employers, like my boss at the boutique financial management firm I interned for last summer, being willing to vauge for me in a field that was not financial. The rest of my jobs have been fairly ordinary, babysitting, horse groom, library employee, landscaping... none of which hold a whole lot of promise for a young professional. So, what I automatically thought and what I'm pretty sure he was implying, was connections as in family connections. The sad truth of it is that I'm just not connected with a whole lot of heavy hitters. So, my mind jumped to people who at least know some... my parents.

Isn't it funny that after four years of independent thinking, living, struggling, studying... basically, with the exception of total financial independence (which is no doubt significant), being an independent adult, it boils down to relying on our parents all over again? Should I really have to think about who they know? If I'm just going to rely on their connections anyway, why did I even bother with college? I'm already pretty sure that my Core Curriculum courses and my Russian Major will be of minimal help to me in the professional world, and since it seems that a degree from Columbia, internship experience, a great GPA and a personable character make me unqualified for just about everything, why even bother? Of course,  these are just playful musings. College has changed my life for all of the obvious reasons. It's amazingly important, and Devon was not implying that it wasn't in the slightest. What he meant, I think, was that in today's market, looking online and applying online for jobs isn't enough. Whether you're using Lionshare, or Idealist.org, or Monster.com, the companies that receive your cover letter and resume see you as little more than an unexperienced college grad. That's pretty much it. If that's what they're looking for, great, but with all of the people with actual experience looking for jobs out there, most of these companies can fill slots they once filled with inexperienced college students with adults who have 5+ years of experience in that industry. We just can't compete with that, at least not on a black and white sheet of paper.

Relying on connections allows us to bypass this unfortunate step, where our resume is placed in the "inexperienced" pile and barely given a second look. It also allows people who know us to vouch for our work ethic and character, maybe even set up a coffee date with someone in our desired field for us. "Making connections"is an endeavor that sounds an awful lot like what is to some of us a dirty and frightening word; networking. When we think of Networking, we imagine a greasy-haired business-man who would sell his child for a meeting with Goldman's CEO. Don't worry, I don't think this is that kind of networking. It doesn't involve going to career fairs or company events, schmoozing and trying to make a good impression, it just means thinking of people whom you actually know and like who are successful and work in a field that might be of interest to you. Maybe your dad's best friend is an attorney, or maybe your high school soccer coach's daughter works for Nike. Perhaps your mom is a kindergarten art teacher, and you've always wanted to work with kids. Whatever. There's bound to be someone you know who would be glad to hook you up with someone who can help you. As sad as this may sound to those of us who avoid handouts like the plague and pride ourselves on the fact that we've succeeded based upon our own merit, I'm afraid this is the way the cookie crumbles these days.
So I left the meeting, mission accomplished. I had a first step. Tomorrow, I'm calling Mommy and Daddy.


-MS

Starting this blog...

I'm a senior at Columbia University, Columbia College majoring in Russian Language and Culture. I couldn't be happier with my life here in NYC, and senior year is proving to be the best year yet. As you can see, however, I define myself by my life as a student. This blog is about helping me and other seniors to discover what else defines us before we... dum dum dum... enter the real world! Whether you've got a plan or are like me and had a last-minute change of heart, I hope you use this as a forum to share experiences, give suggestions, express concerns, and most of all, celebrate the exciting future we have ahead of us!