August 16, 2004

Lofts

Unfortunately Jenn didn't like the loft on 22nd street as much as I did. The major complaint was bad feng shui (fair criticism). Also the entire lower floor was really a finished basement with little light. I was swayed by the no-brokerness of it all. Jenn was not. It would have been cool to have Soderbergh as a neighbor, we might have seen George more that way. Oh well. Next.

So today we saw lofts.

The best of the bunch was probably this one:

The views over Canal and Broadway are out of a movie, and the light is unbeatable. As for negatives this loft had a completely unfinished kitchen (which didn't scare us too much) and an unfixable (without lots of $$$) bathroom. Also the space was significantly smaller than the 2000 square feet advertised. Jenn ixnayed the project on the spot.

Trying to get into this loft was a prime example of how looking for places in Manhattan is a huge hassle. The loft was listed on craigslist as a no fee apartment, but only a few hours after it was posted the owner said she was so harassed by brokers that she didn't want to show it to individuals any more. So she recommended a broker. That broker, James, didn't actually have the keys so he had to find the proper person to co-broke. James tracked down someone at the agency which supposedly had the keys (a guy named Jan), but when we showed up Jan didn't actually have the keys to the front door, so we sat there waiting for 20 minutes for someone to exit. Nobody did so we left. Later James found out that another broker named Karen actually had the key to the front door. Karen had called us the day before about this place but we already had the appointment with James so we passed. Also Karen had been a bit shady about some other places she was pushing often stretching the truth or fudging on details. An hour earlier Karen had tried to show us another apartment which we had already seen (she had claimed it was an exclusive and this was the first time she was showing it). Anyway so when we showed up with Robert, and Karen was there it was all somewhat awkward. There has to be a better way. This is like bad hight school and I hate it.

Jenn liked another loft over on Howard (great windows) but I hated the way it was finished and the entire building was shaking due to an improperly secured AC unit.

Perhaps by the end of the day our standards were impossibly low, but we are excited about this place in Brooklyn:

No we're not joking. The place has a parking spot, a garden, and the owners will let us have a say in how it is finished. Also no brokers fee. We're meeting with the owner tomorrow to see if we can work out something that is cool with both of us.

posted at 12:03 AM by raul

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