• The apartment was in a doorman building. It was older but nice and in the process of being gut-renovated. So was the apartment in question.
• Sunny
• It was big for a studio – approximately 600 sq feet
• There were beautiful hardwood floors
• Miraculously, the apartment had three big closets, two of them walk-ins.
• Doorman building. Older but nice and being renovated.
• I didn’t think I’d like the neighborhood, but this particular Murray Hill block was charming.
• The rent, $2295, was several hundred dollars less than my current apartment and rent stabilized. The same apartment on the 3rd floor was available for $2700 (non stabilized obviously).
• Good access to transportation, however I could walk to work in 10-15 minutes which would save me ~$100 per month on a MetroCard.

Cons:

• Although the square footage was good, the apartment was a studio, not a one bedroom. Could I live in one room? I last did that in 1997!
• The kitchen in the already-completed third floor apartment was tiny with no counter space and no dishwasher. The broker and I wondered if leaving the kitchen open was part of the owner’s plan and if so, the kitchen would be much better. We could not get an answer from the bureaucratic management company–not atypical for New York. If I wanted the apartment, I’d have to apply without the answer.

• The apartment featured steam heat (a radiator underneath that box by the window) and no air conditioning. I’d have to buy a window unit, which could be OK, but the idea of not being completely in control of the heat worried me. In my current apartment, I never put the heat on.
• The building had a common laundry room in the basement and while we checked it out, the broker and I saw a not-shy mouse. I tried to put that out of my mind, citing the apartment’s high floor and that pests are a fact of life in NYC. But in my lovely, modern Brooklyn apartment, the only pests are the mosquitoes that periodically fly in my open window and the neighbor who likes bass-heavy music.
• It was a broker fee apartment. To secure the apartment, I’d have to put down first month’s rent, one month security plus the fee of 15% of the annual rent ($8721). Some buildings require first, last and security. With the broker’s fee, that would be more than $11,000 to rent a one room apartment.

Somewhat reluctantly, I did put in an application on the apartment but took my time in doing so–about three days which is ages for an apartment search in NYC. As a result, someone beat me to it.

I was relieved.

Long story, not short, I am not moving right now. But I am always looking.

If you have a crazy real estate story, I’d love to hear it. I’m into that sort of thing obviously.