sorry to hear about rental challenges...i have not lived in ny since 98, but even then things were crazy. and since it has been that long i have little contacts...but i am sending good thoughts east for you and your apt hunting. houston prices look amazing compared to ny and california...if it is any consolation things are just about as crazy out west.

If that little image is a map of where you live then we are neighbors! Don't look at craigslist in other cities and just keep searching here in Brooklyn - my last three apartments were great craigslist finds... You will find a place - it will be good. I looked for three months before I found my current place but I am very happy with it now!

As a wannabee home-owner in the Silicon Valley, I share your pain. My friend is building a 1600 sq feet dream home in Georgia for less per month than we pay for our teeny little apartment! Isn't it great/doesn't it suck to live where everyone else wants to live?

I live in L.A. - and I *totally* feel you!!! The post-college, 1920's, funky/charming single with no natural light, the comparing cities on craigslist (for me it's L.A. and Pittsburgh... makes me want to throw up)... everything! You will totally find the perfect place... seriously. You will. Sending good thoughts your way!

Yup, apt hunting in NY sucks. I feel for you - I just moved two months ago. It's like having a second job when you're interviewing for places. The only advice I have is to keep and eagle eye on Craigslist. If you can, go non-broker (duh.) Honestly, I ran into a lot more competition with the brokered apts. Once, the owner told me flat-out that I was one of 32 people looking at the apt. 32!! It makes no sense - shouldn't you pick the first person who has good credit and seems like they won't wreck your place?

It's totally a popularity contest, but don't let it get to you. Just keep your head up - that perfect apartment will eventually fall into your lap. Good luck!

I'm sorry that the apartment hunt is so stressful for you two. I feel your pain. If I hear or see anything, I'll let you know. Good luck!

Oh, I'm sorry to hear Brooklyn is as bad as Sydney when it comes to the real estate game, I can totally empathise. It will come through for you; the right set of circumstances. It's just the amount of time and effort and disappointment that goes into it before those circumstances come together that's the killer.

ugh, i had heard that the market was pretty saturated. now i totally believe it. supposedly the vacancy rate for rentals is at an all time low in the city. lots of people got scared to buy over the past three or four years because of the supposed bubble and rented instead. i agree that you've either just gotta be diligent about searching craigslist or stay where you are. i'm thinking that we will either stay where we are or move abroad ;)

This sounds like a nightmare. But wait until you try to buy - it gets worse! I agree that they should just take the first eligible people that fit the criteria - are these all small buildings? Maybe a bigger complex would be less "hands on?" You are the 4th nightmare housing story I've heard in NY this week. Good luck.

Wow. I've also had brokers never call me back... But I just kept on calling so many people that it all worked out in the end! You'll get there :)

There was some competition for my current place (at least a dozen folks, apparently). The only reason I can think of that she picked me, other than my charming personality and good credit of course, is that one of my references called her first and raved about how responsible and conscientious I am. Granted I'm in DC and not NYC, but things can be pretty fierce here, too. Good luck! I'm sure the right place will fall into your lap eventually.

It's just like that here in the Boston area too. And now that the Big Dig has made Southern NH a coomuter area for Boston, my area is terrible to rent in. Aren't we tenants supposed to be the customers? Shouldn't they be trying to sell their apartment to us? When did it turn upside down so now we have to sell ourselves to landlords! Why do we have to grovel for the privelege of giving them a few thousand dollars a month? And why are they allowed to make so many demands on their tenants?

Okay, I have to stop now, this renting thing gets me so worked up.

Oh, I feel your pain. We just moved from one Jersey City apartment to another, and it was a terrible shock to see how few rentals there were. The rental market is just awful right now; see this: http://nymag.com/realestate/realestatecolumn/35523/

We finally landed a nice place after I pushed the broker to show it to me the very next morning after our evening conversation (it hadn't even been listed yet). We grabbed it on the spot. It sucks that it has come to this.

The worst are the open houses with a dozen or so couples all clamoring for rental applications and trying to schmooze the owner. Argh.

will put in a good word for your any time :)

I'm so sorry! I hope you have better luck really soon!

We had the exact same experience. It makes you weary (and leery) of humankind.

We just went through the reverse problem with our old place, which we had to find new tenants for since we broke our lease to move out (into a townhouse we could have been crazy not to take). People are just flaky and rude, period. We'd have freakin' GROWN-UPS tell us they'd be by tomorrow to look at the place and then not show AND stop answering our phone calls after we took time off to be at the apartment. Then we also had people who would say they loved the place and were sending in the application the very next morning but then fail to do so. Multiple times we thought, "this is it! We've found a tenant! No paying rent at two places for us, thank god." We shook hands, we smiled, we made jokes with these people. And then nothing would happen and the not answering of phone calls would begin.

What we learned from this experience is that people suck. At least, they do when they're involved with real estate in any way. Most of them (but not you and me, of course).

i just went through a similar thing, finding a 1BR apartment in park slope. one broker even set up a tentative appointment and got all our information, then never called back. ended up finding a place by stalking craigslist and calling the broker multiple times. its crazy. but you'll find something. good luck!

Hang in there. The real estate market sucks, but there are still decent places to be had/rented. Don't take it personally. When we lived in NY and were looking for a new place, there were a few places (seriously three places did the exact same thing to us) we interviewed for where the landlord seemed to like us and at the end of the interview would tell us we got the place. Then, when we called to arrange a meeting for us to hand in our deposit and first month's rent, we were told that they had ended up renting the place to "family." We pretty much figured that someone else had offered them more money for the place. It always comes down to money. It doesn't have all that much to do with personality or anything like that.

god, what a nightmare. makes me want to rent a uhaul and drive very very far away.

My Brooklyn connections are now mostly gone (and moved), but could you try closer to Gowanus? I know it is kinda inconvenient..and it is Gowanus, but still - there might be something more affordable. I won't suggest moving to Queens.

When I was in the Slope in 97 I lived not too far from you - on Prospect Park west between first and second - quite the slum building then.

I actually ended up moving to Yorkville in Manhattan because it was cheaper (!!?) than Brooklyn. But it wasn't as fun.

my husband and I just relocated back to california (where we lived for 3 years previously to Ohio). We sold our 3000 sqft house and now are looking at max 1500sqft for about 3 times the price. It can be totally daunting but remember that there are reasons why you haven't gotten those apartments. Maybe they were 3am loud polka players? (which I have had btw) Keep your chin up, hard as it is the right place is out there, maybe it hasn't been listed yet, but it will totally come.

Ugh, I feel your pain. It's the same here in Dublin. Interviewing, work references, rental references, some people even want a copy of your bank statement - but then you're often one of more than 20 people who applies!

We lucked out by spending more than the market rent on a 1-brm, which made it unpopular with everyone else who was too dumb to come and see how all the space made it completely worth it.

Sending good apartment-hunting vibes your way!

I can't offer any advice, but am sending good real-estate thoughts your way... good luck!

Ugh! Yeah, don't even get me started! I live in LA and if it makes you feel better (maybe at least in the "misery loves company" way), it's the same here, too. It's so frustrating! Hang in there, though- the right place will come along! Promise!

You can use me as a reference if you like. That's pretty silly that it's a personality contest for a rental. I mean, I can see it for a share (because it TOTALLY is) but it's not like you're a maniac with a chainsaw and a hampster on your application. Keep trucking. Have you tried prayer?

Bring knitted goods, they could never deny you armed with wooly goodness.

so sorry to hear it. new york real estate can be crazy demoralizing. we had a good experience with our last broker - if you want her contact info, feel free to email me.

Having been through this recently in the city, I totally feel your pain. And, sadly, it's not getting any better (esp. in Bk, since it's now the uber-hip borough). And I don't know any trade secrets (heaven knows I deal with a ton of desperate housing calls at work). All I can do is wish you much luck.

as a resident of new york for approximately 5 weeks now, i read this with great interest and horror... i'm in fordham's student housing and i must. get. out. dorm + visiting husband = just not a good situation, especially since it's not a great deal $-wise... i'm hoping to move to a studio or 1BR in the spring and had NO idea how crazy, expensive, and competitive it all is. sigh. that said, if you wanted to move to manhattan, i did just hear about a 1BR in soho through a classmate... out of my price range on law school loans, but may very well be in yours... let me know if you are interested.

Amen, amen, amen. The real estate issue was right up there on my "Reasons To Leave NYC" list. I was a New Yorker for thirteen years, and finally threw in the towel about a month ago. Smooth walls? Ha! No contractor in New York has heard of sandpaper, I swear. Painting our kitchen matte black helped to mask the decades of flawed work done on the walls. But being surrounded by black isn't the most uplifting thing. Outdoor space? Dishwasher? I always thought that I'd know that I was a grown up when I had those things. Then it dawned on me - I had an advanced degree, a stable career in a great profession - I was an adult who couldn't live like one. Oh, the NYC love/hate!

Sorry that it is so difficult. I have some fabulous stories of nightmarish apartments when I was a poor stage manager in New York 14 years ago, but I can't even imagine what it's like these days. Good luck!

well, having at one time worked as a rental broker in NYC, i can tell you that you have 2 things working against you

yes, one of them is that you are a lawyer. ny is a very pro tenant city (that's not necessarily bad at all) but landlords all think that lawyers are or will be very very difficult tenants.

plus, you have cats - i love cats and have cats, so don't get me wrong. but in a hyper competitive rental market, most landlords will prefer a tenant with NO pets over a tenant with a cat, or god forbid, a dog.

i don't know what else to tell you except, keep looking every day and maybe expand the number of neighborhoods in which you are looking.

oh, and don't get too upset at the brokers, in hyper competitive market, they get 50 calls for every decent apartment. there are not enough hours in the day to call back all the people who call, and by the time you could call them, the apt is gone anyway.

the whole process is a nightmare. i am convinced that if we ever had to move we would never get an apartment (we've been in ours a long time). will it help if i tell you that all the outdoor space in park slope is riddled with mosquitos?

Apartment renting can be such a nightmare in NYC! While we were looking for our last place, we found one that was PERFECT for us. We put in the application. Never got a call back. But every week it was listed as available, and they even had an open house so I know it wasn't rented yet. And the kicker was, the landlord kept LOWERING the rent by $100 every week it was listed. We must have been so bad that they wanted someone to pay them less than we would have! Talk about personal rejection...

bring your knitting...it should counteract the negative lawyer fears. They'll think, "but she knits, that's hip and mean people don't knit"

OK, this comment may come off as excessively cranky, so apologies in advance. But MichelleNYC's comment just basically reiterates how screwed up New York City housing is. For instance:

"Renting to a lawyer is a strike." Only here. In most cities in the world, lawyer means wealthy, for starters, and also means "responsible enough to be a professional with advanced degree." At worst, it means "alcoholic." But only in New York, land of lazy, cut-all-corners-as-much-as-possible landlords and hyper-litigious tenants would someone being a lawyer be bad in the way its bad here. Honestly, most people in most places don't live in constant fear of being sued.

"Having cats is a strike." Ummmm ... then don't say "cats are ok" on the damn Craigslist ad. Only in NYC, land of lets-get-as-many-people-as-possible in the door before we do anything would one feel the need to stretch the truth like this on a Craigslist posting. And god forbid a dog indeed. The dog has been domesticated for thousands of years. My next door neighbors of my apt. in Dover, NJ had a giant stupid dog that used to crash into the walls. Somehow, the house stayed standing and the rental market did not collapse.

"oh, and don't get too upset at the brokers, in hyper competitive market, they get 50 calls for every decent apartment. there are not enough hours in the day to call back all the people who call, and by the time you could call them, the apt is gone anyway."

Oh, boo-hoo-hoo. They can't keep up! Can't keep up in a job that requires little skill other than sitting around and waiting people to hand you a huge pile of money for doing absolutely zero work at all. In a RENTAL MARKET. Sorry. I fail to find much sympathy here for what must be the most lecherous and lazy "profession" I've ever encountered.

I moved last summer from Ft. Greene to Kensington and it was frustrating at first, but then I got a good broker who actually negotiated down my rent. If you're interested in the kensington/ditmas/flatbush neighborhoods, shoot me an email and I will give you his info. I think the key is not looking in the trendy neighborhoods. Sunset Park is nice too!

Sorry to hear that you're having such a hard time. Paris is the same. You have to interview and build this stellar dossier with letters of recommendations and letters from your bank saying you have money, etc... it's such a pain. This is why we are trying to stay in our apt as long as possible. But soon we'll have to look and the battle will begin.

I hope you find something great soon. And then you'll apartment therapy your new place and I look forward to seeing what you'll do! :)

i didn't realize that you'd had so many disappointments recently. i found our place on the village voice online - it was never on craigslist. i think some brokers avoid craigslist. we saw a lot of places in our neighborhood just by walking into the offices of the brokers nearby us, but sounds like you did this already, too. i also worried that maybe two journalists would make people nervous, but i guess that didn't happen. or maybe in some places it did and that's why they didn't work out? honestly, our place was a fluke, and i feel like that's how it happens in nyc. here's our brokers address -- not sure if they still do brooklyn or not:
http://www.picturerealty.com/index_rentals.asp

Good luck! I feel your pain. Here in Vancouver, in desirable areas it's now become common for people to offer extra money on the side per month (100 - 200) on top of the listed rent, to "bribe" the owner into leasing to them. Completely ridiculous.

Then there's another whole weird element to the NYC real estate market:

When my husband and I were looking in Washington Heights, he made all the first calls...and got not one single call back. He has a Russian name and a slight accent, and having lived in (US) Georgia for a long time instantly assumed that was why they didn't call back. I was skeptical, but I called all the same people again with my extremely WASPy maiden name and midwestern "non-accent"....and got call backs from every single broker within a couple of hours! And the irony is that I was a grad student with nuthin' and hubby was a working attorney, entirely responsible for getting us the apt once the paperwork was actually gone over. For the next apartment, the one we're still in and the only one in NYC we've been happy with, we happened upon a Russian-speaking broker, and ended up with a place on a "Russian street," since those were the only kind this guy had listed. Hubby did all the talking in Russian, everything was incredibly smooth, and the broker even told us how to get deals on utilities and cable by calling the 1-800 numbers but asking for Tanyas and Mishas and Sashas....

But as I recall from my college years, Chicago was *much* worse in these respects, though a lot cheaper and less competitive.

Jess, I agree that apartment hunting is a personality contest. My hubby and I seem to be somewhat more desireable once the people find out where he works and that we have kids (not saying you should have kids, but helped us) I think sometimes when people see the tattoo's on us it's a bit of a whoa factor. We are two well educated individuals. He works, I do not (I'm a stay at home mom...I don't work.. HA! Ok whatever!) Anyway, when we moved here to NH last year we looked at 22 places in 3 days. OK THAT I do not suggest you do! LOL...The other day I was out walking in our neighborhood and saw a place for rent. We're not looking, we're happy where we are. So I keep walking. Then my brain starts thinking. OH that's a first floor place, oh it has a yard, that's good for the kids. I turned around and walked back! Long story short, the lady was there, let me look around, once she found out where my hubby worked we were pretty much instantly top runners for the place. I wasn't even looking for a new place! I was just being nosey! LOL SO anyway.... we're moving now. So..my advice. walk around and be nosey :) Good Luck!

Yikes! What a gap in pricing.

Hope it's going better.

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