How our apartment came to be

Our Apartment When it became obvious that we would be moving to New York we started looking into getting an apartment. One of my old roommates I knew had a sister that was a real-estate broker in NY, so I got her number and gave her a call. She was way exited about helping us out and informed us that she would charge us only 15% of the first years rent for her services. Now we were expecting to pay somewhere between $1,500 and $2,000 for rent, so that means that she would be charging us $2,700 to $3,600 for only finding us an apartment! I could not believe it! I thought there had to be some way around it. Julee and I started to look through Craig’s list and other listings for an apartment that would not require a broker’s fee. Time wound down and we didn’t find anything and we didn’t want to travel to NY just to set up an apartment, (although now I think that might have been a good idea).







We ended up finding an apartment to sublet for 21 days while we looked for our own (the first picture is of that apartment). The apartment we subleted was in the Lower East Side and that is all we knew. Looking back I think it was weird that we didn’t even ask to see a picture of it before we paid, Julee and I both felt good about it and so we did it. I am sure it was the Holy Ghost leading us. Once we were in NY the apartment we subleted was dirty, old, and not in the best neighborhood. Most, if not all of the apartments that I stayed in while on a mission in Venezuela were better than that place.




I started going to school and Julee went to work on finding us a place to stay. We finally realized that we would probably have to use a broker and went to see some apartments with one. While Angie and Cyrie (Julee’s sisters) were here visiting us we went to go see some apartments in the Bronx. The whole time we were there we were there I was afraid for our lives. One old man stopped and asked us if we were lost; when it is that obvious that you don’t belong there, it is not a good sign. Luckily we were not robed or shot and we made it back to Manhattan safely.






Down to a week before we would be kicked out of the place we were staying in we still didn’t have anything set up. Then Julee found one that she like, it was in our price range and in a good neighborhood. Before taking it though, we decided to go view some apartments the next day with a Broker that we already had set up. We went and the first place she took us to we loved! After walking in and seeing the place for thirty seconds Julee and I looked at each other and we know it was for us.

Now that we had the place picked out we only had to complete the slightly less difficult process of getting the lease signed. To save you from the boredom of that process I will just say that I don’t think that they could have made it any more difficult to get an apartment in this city. Our place is a studio apartment, one all purpose room with a bathroom. It came furnished with a Murphy bed, couch, desk, and TV. It is on the fourth floor of a five story walk up and is located on the Upper East Side in Manhattan.

I hope we never have to move within the next four years…..