1) This week's huntress, Rachel, is renting an apartment with her younger brother, Scott, and they have two requirements: 1) Nothing over $2,000/month (total), and 2) They get to have parties and make lots of noise. Okay. Honestly, it's kind of difficult to get upset at anyone after last week's couple. "It seems no matter how hard we try not to be incredibly noisy, we end up making more noise than our neighbors like," Rachel says. On one hand, it doesn't sound like she really tries all that hard, but on the other hand, at least she sort of admits it. She sets out looking for a place with thick walls. Scott is basically along for the ride. "She had gotten apartments in New York many times before, and I sort of trusted her judgment," he says of his sister, who has previously lived with five people in a 2BR, next to the entrance ramp to the BQE, and in Red Hook. They find a very small place in Crown Heights for $1,700 and are delighted, claiming, "a layout never even occurred to us as something that could be weird about an apartment." Realistically, this one worked out as well as it could have. [The Hunt/'Have Guitars, Will Party']
2) With all the billionaires emerging from China, New York's big time brokers are engaged in a heated debate about how to properly woo the Chinese buyer. Some, like Sotheby's Nikki Field are actually flying to China to seek out potential clients. (Dolly Lenz maintains that this strategy won't work because she already did it a decade ago.) Field is also taking classes to learn Mandarin and Chinese culture. She is finding both extremely challenging. She's especially mystified by the concept of "feng-shui," for which she has hired a tutor. [Big Deal/'Why Brokers Study Chinese']
3) The Times profiled four recent college grads searching for New York City apartments and turned their experiences into a handy chart, in which the youngsters relate their ordeals and impart some hard-earned pearls of wisdom (things like: have your parents pay for the apartment, have your parents pay for the broker, and make sure your parents have all their paperwork in order so that they can be guarantors.) One of them had this to say: "Don't settle. When you find a place you like, keep looking for a better one." That guy ended up renting a 3BR (with two friends) for $7,000/month. So, yeah, sounds like everybody learned some really valuable life lessons. [The Launching Pad]
Loading comments...