We’re getting to the end of my moving series with FlatRate Moving, which can only mean one thing YOU DID IT – or you at least know how to if you’re considering a move! You learned how to scope out listings, get approved, and now it’s time to coordinate the exciting part… MOVING! 

How I moved to the city is probably the single most asked question I get from my readers, which means you guys want to hear it from someone who has done it before and I’m your girl! Plus, I have the pros on my side so you guys are in for a wealth of information, aka this is going to be a long (but hopefully helpful) post ;-) I’m going to start with my story and then we’ll go through short and long distance options!

My Story:

When you choose to move to the city long distance you have a few options to start with..

1. Hire long-distance movers

2. Pack up a moving truck and take a long road trip

3. Get rid of your things and pack a few suitcases

There isn’t really a right or wrong answer here, but I decided to bypass the moving truck options and just hop on a plane with 5 suitcases and my pup. Granted, I also only planned on living in the city for a few years, but that was the choice I ended up with . Looking back, I’m not quite sure how I did it considering I have SO much stuff, but somehow I made it happen.

So yeah, I grabbed my bags and arrived in the city with no furniture, no kitchen essentials… and well an empty apartment! My roommate at the time had just moved up here from out of state too so we were like a couple of newbies out of the water trying to figure things out together. Kind of awesome, kind of terrifying, but definitely memorable. I’ll give myself a little credit.. I did manage to bring quite a bit in those 5 suitcases.. space saver bags were my best friends but there was about a week of sleeping on my hardwood floors before my bed was delivered and we didn’t have any furniture in our living room for about a month. It all worked out though and within a few months we were decently stocked on the things we needed and we slowly accumulated more decor options later. 

While it was an eye-opening experience, it was kind of fun to piece things together in my new city and it was much easier to be able to book a plane ticket than have to think about driving across the country or hiring movers. I was only 21 when I made the move and it was 100% self-funded too so that was my best option at the time. Would I suggest it to others? If you can get by on minimal items and don’t mind starting over? Sure! Especially if you don’t plan on staying here a long time, it can definitely be a good option and if the queen of pack-rats can do it, you can too! 

Now onto our other options – local and long-distance moves. I want to start this portion off with some really awesome info that FlatRate Moving shared that I think is pretty useful as a guide from when to schedule your movers to peak and off peak times to move.

They also mentioned that if you move off-peak you might be able to get a better deal so if your moving timeline is flexible that is definitely something that might be worth checking into!

Long-Distance Moves

Where do you even start with this one? At least that’s the way it can seem at first when you start planning. Rent a truck? Pack your essentials in your car or a family car? Hire movers? What’s the best option here? Well, that’s going to depend on a lot of things – timing and cost being two of them. 

If you plan to rent a truck or use your car or a family car you’re going to want to come up with a plan for your route and make estimations for fuel costs. I’ve had a few friends move this way and they did their best to make a trip out of the move and stop and see some top landmarks along the way. If you’re up for it, totally go for it! I mean how often are you driving across the country (or partially)? Better yet if you have someone along for the trip too.

The next option involves hiring moving services. As I mentioned, I don’t personally have experience doing this so I was really interested to connect with the pros on just how this works so I could share with you guys. Basically they broke it down to me with the 3 different options they have.

• Weekly shuttle to popular destinations: If you’re moving to L.A., San Francisco, Miami, or Chicago, just reserve space on one of our shuttles - which leave up to three times a week - and save money.

• Non-stop service in an exclusive truck: Although most long-distance moves use shared trucks that make several stops en route, we can provide non-stop service.

• Long-distance EXPRESS with guaranteed delivery date: For fastest shipment from New York to L.A. - with a guaranteed delivery date - choose our express service. If we’re delayed, FlatRate will give you $100 cash for each day we’re overdue.

So there are definitely some different options available with different pricing to work with you on your budget. Your rate is going to depend upon your items and location but you can easily fill out their quote option or contact them directly to get more information on what their services will run.

Something that is definitely important to do before you request a quote is to do a proper inventory and give an accurate description of the things you have. You don’t want to end up getting misquoted or have to deal any surprises when your movers come for the job and realize you have double the amount of things you said you did. So take the time beforehand.

Local Move

Local moves are certainly less complicated than moving across the country but they still require some planning! Living in 3 apartments over 4.5+ years, I’ve officially moved across the country by airplane, moved to an apartment by renting a truck and using the help of my friends, and hiring movers for my last apartment. So you could say I have a little bit of experience with a couple of different options! 

There’s a couple things that make moving from one New York apartment to another that you’ll want to consider when deciding if you want to move yourself or hire movers. 

• Stairs: A big reason to hire movers is for the sole reason of all of the stairs involved in your move. Moving is tough work and stairs make the process a little more complicated! My first move in the city was from a 4th floor to another 4th floor walk-up – that I did with friends and then my second move was from a 4th floor to a 5th floor walk-up. I just can’t escape those stairs! Not only are stairs kind of a pain running up and down but it can make carrying furniture a little trickier so keep that in mind.

• Parking and driving a moving truck in the city: My last move, I had to rent a truck to finish up my move and let’s just say I NEVER want to drive in the city again after that experience. Driving in the city is tough enough and if you aren’t familiar with driving here (which most people don’t have cars here) then the idea of driving a moving truck is terrifying! Another good reason to hire movers or put one of your experienced NY driving friends in charge of the truck.

• Building requirements for moving: I have only lived in walk-ups so I haven’t personally experienced this, but some of my friends who have lived in doorman buildings have dealt with pretty strict rules on moving requirements. Some buildings only allow moving during certain hours for use of the freight elevators and some buildings actually require you to have movers. Make sure you find out about your circumstance before you make any plans!

Personally, after moving a couple of times here I think movers are 100% worth it. It’s definitely more expensive than hiring your own truck but you’re hiring professionals who move people for a living and know how to get a project done in a few hours flat. I swear my last movers were the Hulk’s brothers.. I watched one of the guys carry my mattress up 4 flights of stairs with one hand! Crazy. Anyways, hiring movers can really help ease your stress with the process too. Moving is stressful enough and thinking about parallel parking a moving truck is giving me nightmares just thinking about it. If you do decide to go that route, here’s some advice I have:

• Have water for the crew: This tip might seem a little obvious but if you’re heading to your new place you probably don’t have your fridge stocked yet and chances are your cups are still going to be packed! Bonus if you get your crew some snacks – hey everyone deserves some treats right?

• Take out cash to tip your crew: Make sure you hit the ATM before your move so that you have some money on-hand to tip your crew after they do a great job for you.

No matter how you decide to move though, some things remain the same. You’re going to have to pack! Well actually, you can hire a crew to do the packing for you too but chances are most of you will probably be packing yourselves so I wanted to wrap up this post with some tips to make your move go a lot smoother!

As you might expect, organization is key when you pack. Try and pack items by room and put detailed descriptions on the boxes so that it’s easier to unpack as well as know what is packed within your boxes. Definitely make sure to write fragile on all of your breakables as well and make sure they are packed tightly so that things don’t break in transit. 

The FlatRate Moving team also had some advice when it comes to packing your boxes, “When packing the boxes keep in mind that they should be packed tight, filled all the way to the top and also tightly sealed. It’s very important to stick to the guidance of what to pack in which box so they don’t get too heavy or easily breakable.” They also had some tips on what to do with your fragile items, “Breakable items should be packed in layers. It’s highly recommended to use a lot of cushioning around and in between the items and layers, as well as on the bottom of the box, using the news print. All the breakable items should be packed in standing vertical position with few sheets of paper wrapped around them.”

And there you have it! Tips and tricks on the whole moving process! I hope my tips as well as those from FlatRate Moving were useful to you guys! If you have any further questions feel free to reach out or check out their website for more detailed service information.

See you next week!

You guys are seriously trooping along in the moving process! Onto this week’s topic of my moving series with FlatRate Moving, getting approved and signing your lease. 

Of all the steps in the moving to NYC process, this step is generally the fastest! The same way the market goes fast, brokers and landlords want to get you approved fast. That’s good news! Because when you find your perfect little place, you want to know if it’s going to be yours, and you want to know fast! At least I do.. I’m impatient!

If you’re applying for a co-op or condo building there might be a few more steps that will draw this process out, but for the most part as a renter you’re dealing with just normal rental listings. 

I also say that this step is fast because at this point you won’t be tracking down all of your paperwork because you took my advice and have everything ready to go ;-)

The way this process generally works is you will submit your renter’s packet and application to your broker as well as your application fee and deposit – amount varies by apartment/landlord.  Once you turn in your paperwork your broker then does some behind-the-scenes magic by getting in touch with the landlord and making your case to be a good tenant as well as helps with the required credit check. In my experience, if your paperwork looks good and you have good credit you can find out that you’ve been approved as soon as a few hours later. YIPPEE! Sometimes you’ll hit a few bumps in the road, or they’ll want to call your references or have a doggie interview (yes, that really happened to me). Even then though, the process usually doesn’t take more than 24 hours if it’s during the week. 

From there, hopefully you’ll get the green light from your broker and the next step will be scheduling to sign the lease. For all three of my apartments, I was approved and signed my lease within 3 days. Brokers and landlords want to lock you in and seal the deal. Plus, they’d like to get paid as well for putting their work in! 

Once you’re approved, your broker will let you know the rest of the amounts that you’ll need to get certified checks for at your lease signing. You can generally plan on the following:

1. First month’s rent

2. Security deposit

3. Broker’s fee

Depending on how much you put down for your application deposit, the amount might be credited toward one of your payments, whereas other landlords will return your initial deposit and request a separate check. No matter the details, your broker should let you know the rest of the details. 

In terms of signing your lease, I’ve had some brokers who have walked me through the lease line-by-line and others who have simply given me the basics and had me sign. I’m certainly not a lawyer so I can’t advise you on things to look out for in your lease, but I can certainly suggest that you actually read the contract you’re signing. To be honest, I’ve mostly been on the lookout to see if I was allowed to paint the walls or not, lol… If you have a pet though make sure that you are given a pet rider if your lease requires one.

Other things worth asking for when you sign your lease are

1. Landlord contact information: This might sound silly but my second apartment Inever received my landlord’s contact info.

2. Super’s information: Does the building’s Super live-in or have a schedule for when they’ll be on the premises? Also find out the protocol for requesting repairs.

3. Rent procedures: How will you be paying rent? Mailing? Dropping off with the Super? Some buildings’ processes vary so it’s worth asking about.

4. Picking up keys: If your lease begins at a later date than when you sign your lease make a plan for when and where you will be receiving your keys.

And now you are officially a renter in New York City! AHHHH! Now onto the next part of the process, planning and actually moving! See you next week :-)

Welcome back for another week of my “So You Want to Move to NYC” series withFlatRate Moving. I hope you’re enjoying the series so far and if you’re just jumping in you can catch up here, here and here ;-)

So onto this week’s topic. Open house and appointments! We’re getting into the exciting stuff. You’re officially one step closer to finding your perfect little (possibly figuratively) apartment! You’ve done your research, your rental packet is ready to go, and you’ve picked out some good listings online. Now it’s time to see some of these places!

Before you head out the door just yet though, here are some things I suggest you bring along once you set up some appointments.

More important than anything is your rental packet! As I discussed in past posts, having your paperwork ready to go is going to make the process so much smoother and faster once you’re ready to put an application in. Time is of the essence in NYC’s rental market too. Now that we have that out of the way let’s talk about actually meeting with brokers.

In my experience, there’s a couple of different ways of how you can see apartment here. 

Open House: You’re probably familiar with the term open houses. You might find a listing on StreetEasy (that often lists open houses) with a time and date. The process is as simple as showing up at the time and checking out the apartment. Open houses are a little more common for sales listings than rentals in the city since the rental market is so fast-paced but you do occasionally see them – especially during off-peak season or on higher priced apartments. 

It’s common practice to have a sign-in form at open houses for brokers to have the contact info of those who came to see the apartment. Chances are if you saw one of their listings they may have another listing similar and it’s all about the hustle with brokers. 

Personally I think open houses are a lot less pressure because there are a lot of people seeing the apartment – There were 20 people in this probably 250 sq ft studio I saw once – so if you aren’t interested it’s totally okay and you won’t feel like you wasted anyone’s time. On the flip side, they are generally crowded so if you do like an apartment it is even more important that you have your renter’s packet ready to go so you can get the ball rolling before one of the other people walking through jumps on it as well.  

Meeting at Broker’s Office: This option goes two ways. Often times, when you find a listing for an apartment online you will notice that the full address is not listed. I’ve been told this is for a couple of reasons, to make sure potential tenants don’t try to go straight to the landlord to avoid a broker’s fee and also for privacy of both the landlord and current tenant. Landlords generally hire brokers to help screen tenants so they generally don’t want to be contacted directly anyways. 

Sometimes brokers will ask you to meet at their office before going to a listing and have you fill out some paperwork as well as sign a form saying if you decide to rent an apartment you see with them that you will pay the broker’s fee. If a broker asks you to sign anything before you see a place make sure you know what you’re signing up for. Sometimes brokers fees are negotiable so make sure you don’t sign up for a solid 15% fee by signing a piece of paper. Most of the info that you’ll be asked is general info for them to add you into their system and have record of what type of listings you are looking for. This allows them to search their system and see if there are also any other listings that you might be interested in. Sometimes the process is as easy as that and then they will take you to the listing you inquired about, but make sure you are time conscious because there are brokers who will lure you in with one listing and then tell you it’s unavailable but they have other listings they can show you.

I had a broker that requested I met him at his office before seeing a listing and he told me he also had 3 other listings he wanted to show me that were just what I was looking for. The next day when I arrived at his office and gave him my info he then told me that he actually only had one apartment to show me and that he was still waiting for the keys. I sat there for another hour before he pawned me off on one of his associates who couldn’t get the door unlocked just to find out that it was a basement apartment I would have never been interested in. Total bait and switch. I left upset because it had wasted my whole afternoon before I needed to leave the state for the week and then the broker called to follow up and didn’t understand why I was upset. Um, hello NOT the apartment I wanted to see and you wasted my whole afternoon of which I could have been looking at actual apartments. Moral of the story, if you get to a broker’s office and you start to get the feeling that they’re trying to pull one on you, trust your intuition and get out of there. There are so many brokers in the city (a lot of them really great) so find someone who is honest and happy to help you. 

Another circumstance when you might find yourself in a broker’s office is if you moving long distance and are just going to be in town for a few days. Because listings have such a fast turnover rate sometimes it is best to talk with a few brokers beforehand, tell them what types of listings you are interested in, and then make an appointment when your visit draws close. Then when you’re in town you’ll meet at their office and fill out the simple paperwork I discussed above and then generally the broker will try and show you several listings throughout the day. This way you aren’t stuck trying to make appointments for apartments that will probably not be available when you’re in the city and instead just focus on what is actively available. This is often one of the most efficient ways to move when it’s not as easy to hop on the subway and meet your broker. And don’t worry, while the market is tough you will certainly have at least a handful of apartments that will fit your needs to pick from.     

Private Appointments: And then sometimes making apartment appointments is as easy as meeting your broker at the apartment or around the corner – again they are a little cautious in giving the addresses sometimes. One-on-one meetings are generally pretty quick and painless. Walk in, check out the apartment, decide if you like it, either start the application process or move on. It will generally take you a lot longer to actually get to the apartment than to see it. Even if you open every cabinet and closet don’t expect it to take more than 5-10 mins. One perk to the places being small!

Other than deciding if the apartment is going to work for you just on the basis of size and storage, here are some other things I suggest looking for or asking about.

• Fuse Box: This seems like a weird thing to look or ask about but make sure the apartment has a fuse box in it. My second apartment didn’t have one and if I had more than my bathroom light on with my hairdryer it turned off all the lights off in my whole apartment. Oh, and I came to find out that the breaker box was locked in the basement and only the Super had access to it. Let’s just say it was a rough few months figuring out where I could dry my hair without busting the breaker. So look for this!

• Check the Buzzer: If you’re meeting a broker at the apartment you will probably get to try out the buzzer first hand, but if not it’s worth inquiring about or testing it out. It might make you rethink living on the 5th floor of a walk-up if the buzzer doesn’t work. I learned this the hard way at my last place too – see, you guys get to benefit from all of my mistakes!

• Laundry Room: If the building has laundry in it, it’s worth stopping by the basement to check it out as well as finding out the pricing.

• Packages: Do you see package deliveries in the lobby or by the mailboxes? Getting packages in some non doorman buildings can be tough so if you’re someone who orders online this might be important for you to find out.

• Slanted floors: This is more of a visual thing but try and pay attention if the floors of an apartment are slanted. Because the buildings are old for the most part you might see varying degrees of slanting but pay attention to the degree. Sometimes it’s not as easy to tell when an apartment is empty so the old marble test is a good one. Or prepare to become really good friends with cardboard.

Finally, if you are working with one broker be sure to give them feedback on the apartment on what you liked or what you’d like to see in other listings. The fastest way to find an apartment you like is to be upfront. It’s the New York way ;-) Seeing apartments really is the fun part of the process though so as stressful as moving can be, try and enjoy this step! It’s certainly my favorite!