What I Learned
Preparing
Housing
Intro
I really struggled a lot to find a housing.
As of January 2024, the average rent in NYC, is $3,055 per month for a studio according to Apartment.com
Average rent in Brooklyn is $2,478 per month.
It was really hard for me to find a place to live while I was in Korea.
I had to find a place to live just by searching internet and New York is the city where I've never been.
However, I really learned a lot from this process, so I wanted to document it.
Step 1. Prioritizing
Prioritize the things you consider and narrow it down because there are so many apartments and so many hoods. For me it was,
- Price - under $1,800/month
- Location - not far away from NYU Tandon Campus (Less than 15min in subway)
- Safety - doesn't have to be super safe, but not sketchy.
- Reliability - try my best to avoid scams.
But the problem was I had to find a place while I'm in Korea.
How do I know the neighborhood is safe?
How can I rely on someone that I never met?
Actually, I could have been scammed by some random email. Luckily, I found that the passport of the landlord was edited, so I wasn't scammed.
So I decided to stay in Airbnb for a month and then find a place to live.
Ways to avoid scams
- Be careful to contact with someone who emailed you at the first place instead of using websites or platforms.
Because they will not be tracked if they use email.
This is from my experience. - Try to take an in-person tour.
I don't recommend virtual tour, because there's a chance that the apartment might be the one that never existed.
Also, you can check a lot of things by looking with your two eyes;if the apartment smells bad or not, if it is clean, etc.
Renting a house without taking a tour is like getting into relationship with someone who you never met. - Check the personal status of the landlord
If you can find the information of the landlord in facebook, linkedin or instagram and if the landlord has normal job, there's a low chance that you will be scammed.
But this isn't necessary. - After you have the key or the passcode of the apartment, you're safe,
Eventhough you signed the contract with the landlord, you still have chance to be scammed bc landlord might had made
Thing to look at when taking a house tour
Agreement
date, name, conditions,
Legal stuffs
sending money - tax / reporting IRS
I used spareroom.com, roomies.com, facebook groups.
pest,location, subway, saftey, AC, gaurantor, heating, furnished, platform, deposit, deposit getting returned
Surviving By Myself
dd
Important things
money people food health