Why are New York apartments furnished?
Is there any particular reason?
I’ve been looking around and every one I’ve looked at seems to have furniture already in it.
Why so?
Either you are looking at sublets, or you are looking at corporate apartments meant for people who won’t be there long enough to buy their own furniture, OR…
You might just be seeing apartments that are currently being lived in, but the furniture will leave when the people leave. Could that possibly by the case?
Even with all the recent building here, there are more older buildings than newer ones. And most of the apartments up for rent are currently being lived in. Ask if the furniture stays. Did the real estate agent SAY it came furnished?
My personal experience is that relatively few apartments actually come furnished, except for the two examples I gave at the beginning.
cuz its too damn hard to get people to get off the side walk and out of ur way to get ur couch to the 5th floor… they are doing you a favor… plus you leave something outside in ur moving vehicle… it might not be there when u get back… even if it is a refrigerator…ha ha….
References :
You must be looking either at sublets or at one of those agencies that specializes in corporate short-term apartment rentals.
As other posters, moving in NYC is a huge pain in the *** (and expensive), so leaving furniture where it fits nicely makes sense…but in reality it is *not* the norm for apartments to be rented out furnished.
Try looking on Craigslist for a truer sense of the rental market around here.
References :
Either you are looking at sublets, or you are looking at corporate apartments meant for people who won’t be there long enough to buy their own furniture, OR…
You might just be seeing apartments that are currently being lived in, but the furniture will leave when the people leave. Could that possibly by the case?
Even with all the recent building here, there are more older buildings than newer ones. And most of the apartments up for rent are currently being lived in. Ask if the furniture stays. Did the real estate agent SAY it came furnished?
My personal experience is that relatively few apartments actually come furnished, except for the two examples I gave at the beginning.
References :
You’ve hit upon a fundamental truth of New York City: As home to over 8 million people, every conceivable form of diversity is present, and this applies to the kinds of apartments available for rent or purchase. In essence, the reason you’re seeing lots of furnished apartments comes down to nothing more than the "luck of the draw."
As the previous respondents have indicated, it could be that you’ve inadvertently fallen into a "furnished" category; but it could just be random: Over the years, I’ve rented two furnished apartments, and both were completely luck — in the first one, the owner was selling off furniture from the previous tenant; in the second, the landlord had put some of his own furniture in the place and offered to leave it for me.
If you need an unfurnished apartment, there are a thousand ways to go about it. The old-fashioned way is to go through a realtor and tell him/her exactly what you want. Alternatively, I recommend you check out Craigslist, and watch the postings over several days. If you do this, you’ll see what I mean by diversity of what’s available — there will be dozens and dozens of new postings daily of every imagineable stripe. . . furnished, unfurnished, long-term, short-term, shared, solo, etc.
Good luck!
Kango Traveler
References :
http://newyork.craigslist.org/
http://www.kango.com/new_york/new_york