When to start looking for NYC apartments as an Incoming 2021 Analyst?

Title is self-explanatory.

I'm an NYC resident starting FT summer next year. I wanted to gauge those of you who've recently went through the process of apartment hunting especially in a hot market like NYC. Based on the previous post I made, seems a target of $1,500-$2,000/month is the optimal price for rent as a junior IB analyst in NYC. In order to get that however, I want to be competitive and lock in my price as soon as possible. When did you analysts who started recently, start looking for apartments in your senior year? February? March? April? I'm all ears. Any advice would be helpful.

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3 - 4  months before is more than sufficient. So presuming you start in July, the beginning of April/end of March. But again, it may be WFH for a little bit after you start so even then may be too early.

Just settled on a place a few months ago. I started looking 9-12 months before and that was complete overkill. Realistically, the soonest you're going to lock down a place is 6 weeks before move-in. More likely than not, 3 - 4 weeks. You can spend time now looking at different neighborhoods and buildings and getting a sense of what features you can get (in-unit laundry, nice furnishings, space, location) for different prices. Then when the time comes, you'll be ready to sign the lease without fearing about opportunity costs.

Rents may increase slightly into the summer because NYC will be opening up, but in order to lock down one of those better rates, you would need to start renting prior to your move-in, so the math wouldn't make sense. 

You can definitely negotiate for an extra month free or for $100-$200 off the rent before you sign if you say something of the following ("we really like this place and would absolutely sign on the spot if we got x,y, or z but there are a lot of great places we are looking at as well..."). When negotiating, I recommend giving your landlords options to choose from (1 month free or $200 off or they pay for utilities).  

When you sign, you'll need:

  • 2-3 recent bank statements
  • employment letter from your bank with salary (reach out to HR for this)
  • 1-2 months down payment
  • Prior landlord reviews
  • Income >= 40x rent or a Guarantor 
 

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