It's pretty much legitimate to assume that if someone has not been through a hellish apartment/roommate hunt in New York City, they're either a) so new they practically don't live here, or b) insulated. Anyone who's performed in the inescapable ritualthe time-pressured searchhas likely scoured Craigslist and seen the postings for apartments either too good to be true, or too shitty to seem real (but are.) In a riff off of this, a contributor for the online magazine Bustle created a fake Craigslist ad accompanied by amusing, but nightmarish descriptors ("Airily cozy bathroom (door closes only if you sit on the toilet lengthwise," "Apartment is in trendy area FortHillStuyPark-adjacent." [ed. note for the wary: that's not a thing]), expecting those who responded to be equally nightmarish. But lo, that was not the case.
The stunt turned back only the desperate pleas of the earnestly seeking, despite the ad's B.S. and frankly horrible pictures. The article concludes that New York City real estate these days is "a joke without a punchline." Yup. Even when a Craigslist posting is laughable, what it's soliciting is still a place someone will call home one day.
· I Put a Terrible Craigslist Apartment Ad Up, and Was Shocked By the Responses [Bustle]
· It Came From Craigslist archives [Curbed]
· Way Too Real Estate archives [Curbed]
Loading comments...