Affordable 1 Bedrooms?

i feel your pain. I too am 26 and a graphic artist. I live on 7th ave and just adore the neighborhood and park. I live with one other person, but each year I need to find a new roomie for one reason or another and it's definitely a challenge. i would love to live alone and have a stable situation.

Each year my rent increases and each time I renew the lease I tell myself: " i live in a great neighborhood, great apartment, if I were to get my own place I would be paying a LOT more and would not be able to live where I am now."

you're not alone in this plight. At least while sharing it allows for you to save a bit on bills/rent etc for when you do find your very own place. Good Luck!

armchair_warrior wrote: well if you pay on time etc.. you should talk to the ll and tell them its better than having a new tenant who might not pay on time or at all!! see if this would stop them from raising rents.

Oh, I tried and got nowhere with my landlord. I'm stuck dealing with the kind of person who does not care about the tenant at ALL, I've hard he is the Godfather of PS landlords. he raised my rent $300 this past year (I researched the increase and found out it may have been a "preferential increase" and when I called and spoke to him in my nicest voice, he kept talking over me, "justifying" the increase due to "oil this and oil that" and then he very quicly said, "If you do not want to pay, I will find someone very quickly to replace you".

Mind you, I have paid ontime every month for almost 3 years now, and I keep the place in top notch condition. I felt so defeated.

sarajean8 wrote: [quote=armchair_warrior]well if you pay on time etc.. you should talk to the ll and tell them its better than having a new tenant who might not pay on time or at all!! see if this would stop them from raising rents.

Oh, I tried and got nowhere with my landlord. I'm stuck dealing with the kind of person who does not care about the tenant at ALL, I've hard he is the Godfather of PS landlords. he raised my rent $300 this past year (I researched the increase and found out it may have been a "preferential increase" and when I called and spoke to him in my nicest voice, he kept talking over me, "justifying" the increase due to "oil this and oil that" and then he very quicly said, "If you do not want to pay, I will find someone very quickly to replace you".

Mind you, I have paid ontime every month for almost 3 years now, and I keep the place in top notch condition. I felt so defeated.

find a better place screw him next time!

sarajean8 wrote: I tried and got nowhere with my landlord. I'm stuck dealing with the kind of person who does not care about the tenant at ALL, I've hard he is the Godfather of PS landlords. he raised my rent $300 this past year (I researched the increase and found out it may have been a "preferential increase" and when I called and spoke to him in my nicest voice, he kept talking over me, "justifying" the increase due to "oil this and oil that" and then he very quicly said, "If you do not want to pay, I will find someone very quickly to replace you".

Mind you, I have paid ontime every month for almost 3 years now, and I keep the place in top notch condition. I felt so defeated.

OK, call me a heartless SOB, but this falls under the heading of what Mr. Chris Rock calls wanting credit for doing s__t you're supposed to do. You're not entitled to a rent cut for keeping your place in shape and paying on time. Just as you are not obligated to tip your landlord at the end of they year for giving you heat and following the tenant laws. You have a business relationship and while there's nothing wrong with asking, there's also nothing wrong with your landlord--like your grocer or anyone else--asking a market rate for you. That does not count as "not caring about the tenant at all." It amazes me how many people think that landlords, unlike any other business, have a moral responsibility to make less money than they can.

That said... a landlord will give you a break for being a good tenant IF it is especially worth his/her while to do it. That is more likely to happen in a small-landlord situation where you rent from the family that lives in the building. (This may be the case with the poster who pays $1500 on 7th Street, which believe me IS a steal--my friends on the block get about $300 more for their floorthrough.)

You may not get a steal initially, but speaking from experience, if the landlord lives in the house and is not a full-time professional landlord, he just wants a good, reliable tenant and no headaches--so once you prove yourself trustworthy, you'll probably get lower-than-market rent increases over time. I haven't raised my own tenants rents in 3 years, because I like them and want them to stay. A professional landlord who doesn't live in the building has no such incentive.

Now, renting in a 2-family house has its own risks if the LL ends up being a jerk (there have been several threads about this situation in this forum). But it's your best route to a deal.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I see alot of 2 bedrooms going for 1600-1800 down here....i pass by about 5 real estate agencies on the way home and i see lots of cheap apts....

Gowanus seems a bit isloated and deserted to me, not near any of the park slope amenities.

As a (small) woman, I wouldnt feel safe walking around there alone, but thats me....

Cabaki, I agree with you. I just moved to Park Slope after three years in Bay Ridge (I LOVE BAY RIDGE and miss is alot, but left due to the over 1 hour commute at night). I pay 1650 for a TEENY one bedroom in the North Slope. I have to say, in a few years, after i slightly forget how much moving suck, I want to move more to the south slope. For one reason and one reason only.....THE PEOPLE ARE NICER.

the area around sheep station is a little sketchy
--give it a couple of years tho'

south slope 10 years -- $10 million?
maybe realllllly south, like over by the cemetery gates

probs more like $100 gatrillion dollars in 10 years....

Back in November, I moved into a decent one bedroom on Garfield between Sixth and Seventh Aves. and I got it for under $1300. Found it on Craigslist, just pays to keep looking!

quijibo wrote: south slope 10 years -- $10 million?
maybe realllllly south, like over by the cemetery gates

probs more like $100 gatrillion dollars in 10 years....

Cycles, people, cycles. These things go in cycles. Don't worry, Park Slope will be cheap and uncool again. Just wait it out.

Of course, this may take 10+ years and a major economic crash...

caaahyoko wrote:
Cycles, people, cycles. These things go in cycles. Don't worry, Park Slope will be cheap and uncool again. Just wait it out.

It's a pity we're more likely to go through expensive and uncool than cheap and cool to get there though.

My suggestion is to be friendly and get to know old-timers on block. If they are like me - don't really care about getting top rent - just want clean, quiet, responsible, non-complaining tenant. Rarely is there vacancy but you might luck out. (My tenants pay $950 and $1300 for floor throughs
but won't be moving at that rent).

As has been mentioned above, it all depends on how far from the North Slope you are willing to go. There are deals to be had south of 9th St: 3 friends of mine are, respectively, paying $1100--with a 4% annual increase--for their own individual 1 BR apts on a safe, quiet block (15th btwn 3rd & 4th) close to the F and the R. And the landlord--not the best, but certainly quite far from the worst--does NOT live on the premises. (Always a plus in my book.)

Meanwhile, in the North Slope: my old roommate and his wife landed a HUGE 1BR w/tiny outdoor patio earlier this year for $1600. (Their bedroom alone is the size of the average studio apt. Or slightly bigger. Seriously.) Of course they moved from a matchbox in Brooklyn Heights where they paid $1400, so they had learned their lesson.

Basically, it comes down to deciding what's most important to you and doing the legwork. You'd be surprised what's out there.