It’s better to look for a rental in the fall and winter, right?
Me, after opening a portal to the Other Side, or people, realizing they’re incorrect
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What do Ouija boards have in common with Candyland, Monopoly and Guess Who?Absolutely nothing – Ouija boards are demonic devices that open portals to the nonliving and were irresponsibly sold at Toys-R-Us during the 90’s to lure in destructively curious children. One Christmas, my cousins unveiled an Ouija Board they had snuck over – your standard Irish Catholic observation of Christ’s birthday. While the adults were drinking in the living room, we set up in the family room. Par usual, I followed my older cousins blindly so there we were, with all of our fingers on the guiding piece…asking if A SPIRIT WAS THERE in my house that my active imagination had already painted as being tragically haunted. Now in hindsight, I’m 90% sure my cousin Tim was the guiding force, but as the marker moved to “YES”, the lights flickered, and I can confidently say I have not slept since that night.
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Some days, I feel like the real estate version of an abused Ouija Board. One used by an older cousin who is manipulating the answers so his little female cousin will have crippling night terrors until she’s 30. Sometimes people ask me questions with no intention of listing to me and even after hearing me out, will believe what they thought initially, harming everyone in the process. “Liz, ‘X’ is true, right?” Cue me being like, “well, no, not really, it’s actually…” and then I realize they’re not listening and are guiding the answer to their own question.
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So we’ll go with the statement I’ve been getting a lot recently that is not necessarily true but everyone is convinced of this entirely: Liz, isn’t it true that late fall and winter are the best times to rent an apartment?
^How I envision I appear when delivering contradictory news during this time of year
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So I’ve taken out people when it’s 110 degrees, 90% humidity and not a touch of sun cover and conversely when it’s an actual blizzard out, with driving 25mph winds, 3 feet of snow, and a wind chill of 5 degrees. And yes, I try to wear dresses that double as evening gowns in both scenarios. The late fall and winter rental markets are very different than those of the spring and summer and all of these factors should be a consideration when you decide to search.
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Supply: So this is probably the biggest issue with the late fall and winter rental markets – supply dwindles quite rapidly. The overwhelming majority of renters in New York City are on April 1 – September 1 lease start dates. This is largely due to landlords trying to keep all lease end dates in this window so it’s easier to rent apartments – clean logic, list apartments when people are looking. Even when a landlord has an apartment open in the winter, they’ll try to do a 14-16 month lease for the initial term in order to get the lease end date back in this busier frame of time. For smaller landlords, any time an apartment is empty is money out of their pocket so the solution is to make sure to shoot when there are fish in the barrel. From a tenant’s perspective, there just aren’t nearly as many lease expirations in the off-season. While prices are a bit more agreeable, terms slightly more flexible, and competition less insane (which we’ll discuss in a few), you’ll have much less to choose from. In June during an appointment, I’ll show between 8-10 apartments and usually my clients genuinely are happy with 5 of those spots. In February, that easily cuts to half, where there are only 4, maybe 5, apartments even worth looking at from a quality landlord perspective, and I cross my fingers that my client likes 2 of them. About 10% of the inventory in your specific search requirements is remotely worth looking at (cutting out bad landlords, apartments that are overpriced, places that are just total garbage), so if you’re hunting in the off-season, be prepared for a lean amount of options and forfeit the luxury of “I want to see a few more to make sure this one is right.” The inventory replenishes itself much slower in the off-season so by the time you see a few more to validate your top contender, you may be too late.
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Competition: So this is definitely a pro to the offseason – finding an apartment it slightly less intimidating than trying to win the Hunger Games against 30 professional ninjas. Because so many leases do end in the Spring and Summer seasons, you will looking at the same time as fewer people…however in reflection of the above, you also will be vying over a markedly smaller pool of properties. So what is true in both busy and slower markets, anything that is truly a gem will move lightening fast and you won’t have the luxury to sit on your thumbs. In the off-season, you can definitely think things through a bit longer than in the haste of summer, but you never know who else is looking at these apartments at the same time…
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Prices: People expect a literal fire sale once we get into November for some reason. I constantly hear, “oh my GOD, rents must be so cheap in February, it must be I-N-S-A-N-E.” So yes, prices may drop slightly, but at the end of the day, landlords have to keep their rent rolls in a good position and there are always people looking for apartments. So while it may not rent in a day like properties move in June and July, as long as it’s priced to market, it will rent even if it takes a bit longer to fill that apartment. Landlords do not like to lower rents as it affects the net-income they declare for the building but would much prefer to offer incentives. You’ll much sooner see strange numbers like $3,483 for a monthly rent. No, no, that’s not the amount you’re paying on a monthly basis, it’s the amortized number with a month free. You’ll be paying $3,800 on the monthly basis and either the last or second-to-last month on your lease will be free. Hold up, here’s the kicker – when you go to renew, your renewal is based off of the $3,800 not the $3,483. Depending on the market, you may be able to snag another month free when you renew to make ends meet but that depends on if your landlord has a soul or not.
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Weather: So this is a toss up. As we are all very well aware, August in New York City is one of the rings in Dante’s Inferno of Hell. The humidity is oppressive, the temperatures show no remorse, and ascending fifth floor walk up after fifth floor walk up in non-air-conditioned building interiors will leave you completely soaked. Flip side, if you need to find an apartment, it’s your only free Saturday in February to get the search done, and you wake up to conditions that look like a Game of Thrones winter scene…throw those Uggs and North Face on, because we’re hunting. Again, those are the extremes, but because the weather is only ideal here for a dozen days of the calendar year, which would you rather?
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Flexibility of move-in date: Continuing off the bit about competition, in the off-season, there will be a bit less competition so landlords will generally be a bit more agreeable to slightly later move-in dates. Now we’re not talking MONTHS, but say you apply for an apartment on December 4th and request a January 1st move in date, most landlords would be stupid not to eat the month in order to secure a solid tenant. In the summer, let’s say you apply on June 2nd for a July 1st apartment…most landlords will be negotiating with the 15th as your move-in date because the 2nd is quite early in the month and chances are if it’s a well-priced spot, they’ll get someone for earlier than the 1st of the following month.
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Lease terms: As I mentioned above, landlords would heavily prefer to be on the April through September and will do everything they can to finagle terms to get them back on that cycle. This is where you see a lot of odd lease terms, like 14, 16, and 18-month leases. The goal behind these is to have your lease expire in the hotter time of the year for leasing. This is not necessarily a ploy to crush you with rental increases, which most honest landlords won’t do, but to make their lives a bit easier if you plan to leave. This being said, many landlords stick with the typical 12-month leases, even for those starting in February, but be wary if you see the longer terms, as they are an incentive to get you back into the spring and summer markets.