Manhattan Apartment Hunt

All the rumors you've heard are true: finding an apartment in Manhattan is a ridiculous, frustrating, and complicated process. It is my personal belief that the Secret Service and CIA are somehow involved. Why else would my landlord have needed a blood sample? And the question regarding whether any of my relations had a surname of "bin Laden" seemed a bit suspect.

Anyway, I arrived in the city last Thursday and immediately started looking for a place. Of course you can't just browse Craigslist here like you can in the rest of the country. Oh no, you have to work through a licensed broker who charges you a few thousand dollars so that they can take you around and show you absolutely crappy apartments that you would never, ever want to live in. One place I looked at had the shower in the kitchen. You could literally get trapped in the shower if someone opened the oven door. That has to violate some sort of health or safety code. I had visions of being found dead in the shower - starved, naked, and pruned up - all because the latch on the oven door failed to work one day. I shudder to think about it.

After looking at apartments with holes in the floor, pink bathtubs, peeled paint, and god awful smells, I did eventually find a place that I absolutely love, and at a fantastic price. That's when the real fun began. The paperwork - oh my lord the paperwork. It was easier to buy in Seattle than to rent this apartment. I had to provide bank statements, tax returns, paystubs, my most recent power bill, and a letter stating why I wanted to live in the unit (you know, because I need a place to live!). Then I had to wait to see if they would "approve" me. I swear, the anticipation was worse than waiting to find out whether I had made the high school cheerleading squad.

The good news is that I was approved, and I signed the lease yesterday (after jumping through a number of hoops to find a notary). I move in on Sunday, at which point I will be an official Manhattan resident. It's pretty exciting stuff. I can't wait for visitors!

You can view the unit here: http://www.citi-habitats.com/viewlisting.php?adID=917857&scroll=1