Some people spend months searching for the perfect apartment in New York City. It definitely isn’t easy, as Taiwo and Idowu Odufunade found while they were on the hunt for their ideal place. Read their story, featured in the New York Times Real Estate section, after the jump.
After a few years of living on her own, Dr. Taiwo Odufunade (28) decided to leave her one bedroom apartment in the Bronx to get a place together with her younger sister, Idowu Odufunade (23), a nurse, in Manhattan. Their quest to find the perfect spot took a few interesting twists and turns – and if you’ve ever gone apartment hunting anywhere – Lagos, London, NYC or otherwise – you can probably relate to the ups and downs of the hunt. Catch a bit of the sisters’ apartment search journey chronicled by the New York Times, in an article titled, A Manhattan Apartment for Sisters, below:
So, last spring, Dr. Odufunade, 28, broached the subject of sharing an apartment to her sister, Idowu Odufunade, 23, a nurse at a Brooklyn hospital who was living in Staten Island with their mother and brother.
The timing was propitious. Their mother was moving to Queens. Their brother was enlisting in the Army. The sisters decided to join forces to hunt for a cat-friendly two-bedroom in Manhattan renting for up to $3,000 a month.
Finding it tough to navigate the Manhattan market without help, Dr. Odufunade turned to Angel Dominguez, an agent at Citi Habitats, whom she’d met through a listing for a two-bedroom near Lexington Avenue.
EAST 69th STREET
An apartment near Second Avenue was a good fit. But it was at the top of a fifth-floor walk-up. Moving in would be no picnic.CreditMichael Nagle for The New York Times
The sisters sought bedrooms of equal size and a living room spacious enough for entertaining. “I was adamant about rooms on the opposite sides of the apartment,” Ms. Odufunade said. At home on Staten Island, “you could hear if someone is on the phone or someone is coughing. That is too much proximity.”
One place that fit the bill was in a five-story walk-up in the East 60s near Second Avenue. The rent was slightly over budget, in the low $3,000s, but there were two bathrooms.
Both sisters were deterred by the top-floor location, however. “I kept picturing moving in and having to move furniture, even though moving is just one day,” Dr. Odufunade said.
As they searched, they often saw rooms that were unacceptably tiny. Sometimes, “everything was perfect except for one completely huge deal breaker,” Dr. Odufunade said.
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FIRST AVENUE
The potential renters were divided over a place near 96th. One liked it; the other thought it was too close to a gas station.CreditMichael Nagle for The New York Times
That was the case for a place in a walk-up building on First Avenue near 96th Street. The monthly rent was in the high $2,700s. However, the building was next to a gas station. “What if, God forbid, there is a fire and an explosion?” Dr. Odufunade said.
Ms. Odufunade didn’t mind the gas station. And she considered the proximity to the F.D.R. Drive a plus. She drives to work in the wee hours and also attends nursing classes on Staten Island, which “is not the type of place where public transportation is your best friend,” she said.
Nevertheless, Ms. Odufunade said, “How could we stay in a place where one person isn’t happy?”
In a six-story building in the far East 70s, the rooms weren’t too small and the stairs weren’t too many. The sisters thought they had found a home.
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EAST 78th
Here it was: wish-list fulfillment. But the income requirements ruled out the would-be renters.CreditMichael Nagle for The New York Times
But they didn’t meet the management company’s income requirements. “Little did I know, but the building didn’t allow shares,” Ms. Dominguez said. Two unmarried renters fell into that category, with each alone needing to earn 40 times the monthly rent of around $2,800.
“It was like a blow to the gut — we got our hopes up,” Ms. Odufunade said.
