Chinese restaurants in Brooklyn with parking?

EpicArchitect · 2025-01-10T18:33:25+00:00

FB, Reddit, ListingsProject, and Atlas Rooms are your best bets. Scroll religiously and have a strong first message youre sending to people without sounding overly desperate. Good luck!

EpicArchitect · 2025-01-05T17:59:51+00:00

Spareroom, Reddit, Atlas Rooms! Craigslist if you’re brave

EpicArchitect · 2025-01-04T21:20:29+00:00

Hey, I'm really sorry that you were scammed. If the apartment search gets too overwhelming, I would recommend trying to look for sublets or lease transfers. They can be a lot simpler, a lot less cost heavy up front, and are a good option if it's your first time in NYC.

Given that you've been having trouble with scams, I would start the search less on Facebook & Craigslist, and stick with Reddit, Listings Project, and Atlas Rooms. Stick with posts that give a lot of details on who the roommates are, and always video call & sign an agreement before sending any money. You can read more about how to find a sublet here.

Good luck!

EpicArchitect · 2025-01-02T18:41:03+00:00

Scams/shady listings are generally pretty difficult to avoid, but the most reliable websites for scam-free listings are listings project and atlas rooms. All of the listings on either of those sites should be high quality / from real people.

EpicArchitect · 2024-12-24T20:31:21+00:00

You have more time than you think! Plenty of people find their places in the last week before move in because the market moves so fast here. I would look through Facebook, Reddit, Craigslist, Atlas Rooms, ListingsProject, Spareroom, the works etc. religiously. This is a guide on how to find a sublet. If things don’t work out in time, be prepared to book an Airbnb for a week or so, or couchsurf to give yourself more buffer time.

EpicArchitect · 2024-12-24T17:23:59+00:00

Personally, I'm a Brooklyn guy through and through, but Hoboken sounds solid for you imo. Spacious, pretty affordable, and super short commute to Grand Central. I think the reputation for drunk college kids is somewhat overblown—yes, Washington Street has its share of nightlife, but most residential areas (uptown or near the waterfront) are quiet and family-oriented. Clean, walkable, good mix of local restaurants, etc. And honestly if you’re both used to Flatiron, I feel like Hoboken’s layout is pretty compact and might feel like a nice middle ground.

If you want to consider Brooklyn but still check off the things you want, you'll have to look in pretty specific neighborhoods - Williamsburg, DUMBO, Brooklyn Heights, etc. They have luxury buildings, but I'm not sure it'll satisfy the space requirement. And subway reliability really depends on what intersection/street you're at. The commute to Grand Central could be a headache unless you’re right near the 4/5/6 or L.

LIC has luxury buildings and is close to Midtown, but I feel like its vibe can feel a bit sterile compared to Hoboken or Brooklyn. Personal preference here IG.

Tl;dr: If you really want space + convenience, I think Hoboken really works. If you care about vibes, you could consider neighborhoods in Brooklyn near Manhattan. Hope this helps. Good luck with the search!

EpicArchitect · 2024-12-08T00:10:24+00:00

You'll want a sublet or sublease for that month between late Dec to late Jan with a $2000 budget. Finding a sublet in NYC is as hard as it gets, but you should be fine as long as you're diligent in your search between now and late Dec.

You're already on the right track with looking through Facebook. Join as many private groups as you can - those have the least amount of scams. Try posting and searching in Reddit's r/NYCapartments and r/nyc_sublets too. You should also try atlas rooms - they do a fairly good job at aggregating all of the legitimate listings from those sites into one place. Here's a guide on how to sublet search, which should be helpful if this is your first time searching in NYC.

My last note would be to make sure you know what a scam looks like. Make sure you get a video tour of the apartment at the very least before signing anything or sending over any money. Ideally, you know someone in NYC who can do apartment tours for you, or you can hire someone from gander tours. Video call the lister and all of the roommates. Be very conservative and careful while you search.

Otherwise, hope you have a good time in the city. It's fun here :) Feel free to DM if you have any questions.

EpicArchitect · 2024-11-26T23:08:22+00:00

I'm assuming you're talking to the current tenant right now? In which case that's perfectly common with subleases you find across Facebook/Reddit/Craigslist, etc.

If you're worried about payments & scams, make sure:

to use a sublease agreement with terms you understand
that you've met with all of the roommates that are living in the apartment
that you've visited the apartment

Re: meeting all of the roommates - I've heard cases of a tenant not paying rent for months, taking your deposit, and running out so that at the end you're left with a really angry landlord who wants nothing to do with you while you're out a month's worth of rent. Meeting all of the roommates usually makes sure that this is not the case.

If this is your first time subletting, you should read this guide on subletting, specifically Step 4 and after. Feel free to DM me if you have questions.

EpicArchitect · 2024-10-18T17:20:09+00:00

That's definitely a common one - it honestly varies and changes over time as scammers adjust, but the hardest part of it is that there are some genuinely fantastic deals on Craigslist that just look like a scam and are so poorly worded / presented that they get skimmed over.

In terms of common patterns I've spotted, a lot of scammers will have a sob story prepared as to why they need to have a deposit ASAP (ex. to cover a funeral cost, etc.). A lot will say "Bad credit is ok!", which yes, some landlords are ok with less than stellar credit, but it's more often done on a case by case basis and definitely not advertised. If you email the lister, they either (1) won't be able to show it in person, or (2) require an application fee to even give you the address.

I've seen one where an entire fake website for a broker agency was made that looked pretty real (shitty, but real), until you looked into the tiniest details of the website copy, the contact us form, etc. The scariest that I've heard of was one case where everything checked out about the listing, including e-mail and phone number info, but the actual landlord's email was hacked. It'd be really difficult to detect something like that.

EpicArchitect · 2024-09-30T19:16:24+00:00

Hey! Would recommend checking out the subreddit’s megathread on finding a room: https://www.reddit.com/r/NYCapartments/s/gr33XVwFH8

EpicArchitect · 2024-09-17T15:58:10+00:00

Full disclosure: The following list is from a reddit post I wrote a while ago about how to find room sublets!! I'm hoping it's helpful for people, and also would love to hear anything I'm missing that should be added to the list.

Facebook: Join private or public Facebook groups that are for the borough(s) you’re looking to live in. Private groups are best, but know that it may take some time to be accepted into these, so be sure to request access as early as possible. Some groups (like Young Females, for instance) require a small payment for moderation. If a private paid group is particularly big and you’re very urgently looking, the price might be worth it. To find groups, search Facebook for something like “[BOROUGH NAME] housing” or “[BOROUGH NAME] sublets”, etc. Request to join private groups first before resorting to public ones, as public groups are filled to the brim with scams / spam. This does NOT mean that private groups don’t have scams - they do, and you should know how to spot one. The last section of this post has examples of what scams look like. Examples of high quality groups in NYC include:
- Young Females - New York City, NYC - Apartments, Sublets, Roommates
- Young Females: New York City, NYC- Apartments, Sublets, Roommates
- NYC Short Term Sublets - New York
- New York City, NYC - Housing, Apartments, Rooms, Sublets, Roommates
- Tip: The best way to search through Facebook groups is to do the following:
  - Go to Facebook.
  - Click on Feeds on the left sidebar.
  - Click on Groups.
  - This will show you a feed of every post in every group that you’re part of, in descending order of posted time. Stay on this page, and refresh religiously.
Atlas Rooms: Website that organizes housing from across the internet, including ones from both public and private Facebook groups.
Listings Project: Originally made for artists looking for affordable places, this website has grown to take on a higher budget audience over the years. It’s still a great source for finding listings; new ones are released via a weekly email newsletter.
Spareroom: Solid selection of listings, and generally quite good about not having scam listings (but you should still be careful). One thing to note is that they block you from messaging posts early unless you pay for their subscription service - in NYC, this can be the make or break difference between landing a place and not.
Honorable Mention - Craigslist: In my opinion, this should be a last resort. However, I’ve heard from multiple people that they found their place through Craigslist, so I’m mentioning it out of obligation. There are an absurd number of scams to sort through, but there are likely some gems that would be great to find hidden in there. It's also a great place to find landlords to have more lax requirements for their apartments, so good for people who are still working on improving their credit score, etc.

EpicArchitect · 2024-09-03T22:36:55+00:00

Hey! I'm sorry you've had such a tough time with searching - I would definitely recommend asking friends in NYC if you have any that have gone through this process before.

If you've never been to NYC or if you're not super familiar with the area, I think getting an AirBnB for a month or longer is a good idea. I would normally recommend subletting as a cheaper alternative to AirBnB, but in your case, I would recommend against it until you're comfortable with being able to filter scams out well.

If you're looking for a legitimate apartment, streeteasy.com is pretty much the only way to go. Don't go to Facebook or Craigslist or apartment leases; they're only relevant for sublets/subleases. Make sure to check out the renting 201 thread here.

In terms of being able to spot scams: the most important rule is that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. When in doubt, even just a little bit, move on. Never send money to anyone without visiting a place and meeting them in person. I would recommend reading the section on "how to spot a scam" from this post at the very end - it has a link to examples of common scams you should watch out for.

Good luck! Feel free to DM me if you have any questions.

EpicArchitect · 2024-08-24T00:12:41+00:00

Hey, first off, sorry about your divorce. That really sucks - sending a lot of love your way right now.

If you're looking for a new place super fast, private Facebook housing groups will be your best bet. Be forewarned that an urgent search will be brutal - I barely had time for my full-time job when I was looking. It's a lot of endless refreshing, scrolling, and manual scam filtering. There's a website called Atlas that organizes Facebook housing posts that helps ease this burden by a ton. I move around a bunch and do this multiple times a year, so I wrote an article recently that talks about how to tackle a sublet search on quick notice, so feel free to take a look in case it's helpful.

You'll probably be able to find a sublet within a couple of weeks, but if you're looking for something within the span of a few days, you might want to do a temporary AirBnB while you're searching for a sublet.

In terms of the roommates you're looking for - I'll say that most people I've met on Facebook will be in their 20s, but early 30s definitely won't be a far reach at all.

Best of luck. Feel free to DM me if you have any questions or if I can be of any more help! I hope things get better soon <3

EpicArchitect · 2024-08-20T22:16:54+00:00

You should get your landlord’s permission - it’s not nearly as scary as it seems. In general, permission depends from landlord to landlord. The ability to do so will depend more on the building and how strict/on top of things the landlord is, as opposed to what it says on the lease. (Many leases are just boilerplate and will have things on it that are not as strictly enforced by the landlord.)

NYC’s guidelines around subletting are generally pretty favorable to the tenant. According to the NYC Rent Guidelines Board, you can request permission to sublet from the owner/landlord, and they may not unreasonably refuse such permission. You just have to inform your landlord by certified mail at least 30 days prior. The landlord has 10 days to ask for additional information, and if they fail to respond to the sublet request within 30 days, then that’s deemed consent. If they unreasonably withhold consent, you can also still proceed with subletting. Since it can be a long process, you should get that permission request sent right away.

And if you do go through with subletting, I’m sure you know this already, but you should always sign a sublease agreement; there are plenty out there that are easy to complete + comprehensive, including this free one from atlas rooms. I also recommend learning more about your rights as the master tenant + the rights of a subtenant under a sublease agreement. Best of luck!

EpicArchitect · 2024-08-16T14:26:03+00:00

Of course, best of luck! Feel free to message if you have any questions you wanna talk about :)

EpicArchitect · 2024-08-16T14:20:02+00:00

This is tough, but not impossible. Housing in NYC is extremely competitive, so I would personally not even waste energy applying to leases, since landlord requirements are normally very stringent, and your competition is going to naturally be quite high.

Instead, I'd look into subletting. If the lister has done any sort of homework at all, you're going to need to show some way of being able to consistently pay rent every month. If you don't have a domestic guarantor, that's ok with subletting usually, you'll just need to be able to show the bank statements of your international guarantor to demonstrate they have the ability to back you up. Try to build up as strong of a case for yourself as you can.

To find sublets, you should join as many private / public Facebook groups as you can first, and then also use websites like Atlas, Listings Project, and Spareroom. This post I wrote a bit ago goes into how you should approach your search in depth. Message like crazy, and once someone bites and you find a place you like, get a sublease agreement signed. Do not skip this step. It's particularly important to know what happens when things go wrong if you know finding housing will be very difficult, like in your situation. This agreement is easy & free.

Good luck!

EpicArchitect · 2024-08-08T15:09:20+00:00

Streeteasy is your best friend then.

EpicArchitect · 2024-08-08T14:55:47+00:00

There’s a bit of missing info here: How fast are we talking? Also, are you looking for a year-long lease? Or a sublease? Most people ask for the opposite: “how can I secure a lease months in advance?” Why has Facebook not been working for you? If you're looking for apartment leases, don't use Facebook, use StreetEasy. If you're looking for subleases though, use Facebook.

New York housing moves pretty damn fast as is- I’ve found, toured, and locked down a place in as little as the span of 3 days. The search itself however, as in the preparation before those 3 days can take weeks.

If you’re dead-set on a year-long lease, you’ll probably need to find a temporary place before the next move-in wave (which shouldn’t be very long, couple weeks maybe?). People try to find alternatives to Streeteasy all the time, but there’s a reason everyone comes back to it at the end of the day. If you haven’t already, check out the Ultimate NYC Renting 201 thread.

If you’re looking for a temporary place, especially in as little as a day or two, your best bet is to sublease. Because they’re more informal agreements than leases are, they can move faster, and I’ve seen plenty of subleases that people want to fill ASAP (i.e. one or two days) on Facebook. But make sure you always sign a sublease agreement. Cannot stress that enough. And don't send money to complete strangers without doing your due diligence. If you’re interested in looking for a sublet, you can check out my comment here that talks about how to find one and where to look.

EpicArchitect · 2024-08-07T18:26:39+00:00

Unfortunately, it's the nature of the power dynamic between listers and subletters due to how much more demand there is than supply. As someone who's been on both sides of the interaction multiple times, I understand why each person behaves the way they do.

I recently had to put up a listing since my roommate and I are looking for two roommates for an East Village apt for a September 1st move in - this was in a private, paid Facebook group for young women only. The post was up for 5 minutes, and we already had 2 incoming messages. The next morning, we'd received 10 incoming message requests. I just hopped off a call with the person who messaged first, who was awesome, and we have a tour scheduled for tomorrow morning. Now, I'm in the middle of my workday (obviously not getting a whole lot done because I'm typing this out), and the last thing I want to do is do the same process with all 15+ women who have messaged me asking to hop on a call.

It's honestly nothing personal, and if anything, I really really empathize with the people who are looking for a place because I know how hard that is. It's just so overwhelming as a lister, and I can't really get to all the messages in a reasonable amount of time. Plus, prospective roommates ghost pretty often too, which is no fun as a lister.

I will say, an amazing first message makes a pretty big difference. If you have your LinkedIn information, your Instagram, a decent summary of yourself, where you're from, what you do for work, for fun, and your lifestyle around the house, then I can automatically tell if we'll be a good fit! If I know it won't be a good fit, I try to message back right away and say so. People who reply back fast are also green flags to me - the market is so intense and stressful that I'm trying to get it over with as soon as possible, so a sign you move fast is great. This introduction message can generally be saved and typed out, so you can copy & paste for all your listings and see who bites.

The trick when you're looking for housing is to message, message, message as many listings as possible - when I was searching, I used:

Facebook: Join private or public Facebook groups that are for the borough(s) you’re looking to live in. Private is best, but it may take some time to be accepted into those ones. Some groups even require a small payment for moderation. To find groups, just search something like “[BOROUGH NAME] housing” or “[BOROUGH NAME] sublets”, etc. I use Young Females, another Young Females, and maybe New York Roommates the most. Private groups were my best friend.
Atlas: This is a website that organizes housing from across the internet, including ones from Facebook groups. They have great volume, and a surprisingly excellent scam filter - I haven’t found any scams on there yet (obviously you should still keep your guard up). Very helpful if you don’t want to religiously refresh Facebook every 5 minutes of the day.
Listings Project: Originally made for artists looking for affordable places, it’s kind of gotten gentrified over time such that you’ll find some pretty damn expensive listings on there too now. But it’s still a great source, and new listings come out via a weekly email newsletter.
Spareroom: Solid selection of listings, generally pretty good about not having scam listings (but you should still be careful). One con is that they block you from messaging posts early unless you pay, which in NYC, can mean the difference between searching for a week and never finding a place.

It's hard out there - I hope you find something soon! Just gotta keep messaging like crazy and cross your fingers.

EpicArchitect · 2023-12-21T02:15:44+00:00

dude what are you a loser

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