Craigslist, that lawless, Wild Western corner of the internet for buying other people's weird shit and renting a dubious apartment, does not benefit from the same staging that a multi-million-dollar apartment might. We hold them to our judgment all the same. Here are three rental listings that made us do a double-take. (See any more? Email us!)
UPPER EAST SIDE—Alcove studio with a Murphy bed on East 79th Street with tons of storage.
Price: $2,250/month
Priceless: If you find the daisies and yellow-and-blue nursery school color scheme too torturous, you can shut yourself up in that Murphy bed.
LOWER EAST SIDE—2BR, 1BA apartment at Allen and Rivington Streets in a pre-war building.
Price: $2,799/month
Priceless: Who's got time for staging when you have to get to work in like ten minutes and you can't find that blouse anywhere, and oh yeah, we never unpacked our kitchen utensils when we moved in.
HARLEM—5BR, four-floor brownstone with hardwood floors, crown molding, clawfoot bathtubs, and so on
Price: $2,400,000
Priceless: Asking more than $2 million (in rent?!) without using a flash or natural daylight in the photos. The dank, dark staging only highlights what exactly needs renovation in a house that is probably otherwise pretty nice. Also, is that watermark really necessary?
Bonus points: describing the tar-paper platform in this East 60s two-bedroom as a "roof deck." Nice try!
· Craigslist Power Hour archive [Curbed]
· All Renters Week coverage [Curbed]