Checking Out New Apartment Search Resources
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller.
Ferris was right. Case in point? That movie turned 20-frigging-five earlier this week. Of course, one might presume that Ferris was talking about big picture stuff. The kind of gravitas that’d make your head spin if you thought about it too long or too hard.
We at MFA see everything through the lens of first apartment living so. . . I’m taking it as a sign to check out some new apartment resources, including a new column from the New York Times called “Getting Started.”
This week the column tackled high tech helpers for new apt seekers. They write, “To become a savvier renter, and to avoid deals that are too good to be true, it’s essential to get a good handle on the city’s real estate picture.”
We couldn’t agree more, which is why a few months ago we profiled some of New York’s best neighborhood blogs such as CurbedNY and Gothamist. The Times article also includes BrickNY, a neighborhood news site), but mainly focuses on sites to help your apartment search such as:
- Hot Pads: a map-based real estate search engine, listing homes for sale, apartments, condos, and rental houses nationwide, not only in NYC.
- Naked Apartments: connects renters with multiple brokers…keeping brokers honest and helping customers get the best apts out there.
- Rent Hop: lets you search listings by location (alternative to Craigslist)
We’d also add Padmapper to the list, which lets you view Craigslist postings via Google Maps nationwide.
We’re looking forward to seeing what else the Getting Started column covers because even though we’ve been in the first apt biz for some time now, there’s always something more to learn!
