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    Get The Apartment You Want With Insurent Lease Guaranty

    7/28/14 - 1:59 PM

    New York City landlords don't exactly like taking chances, and if you don't happen to earn an annual salary that's 40 to 50 times more than your monthly rent--or know someone who pulls down twice that  is willing to co-sign your lease--you could end up out of the running for your dream apartment, or at least, the place you like enough that you can finally stop hunting.

    Did you know landlords might also pass on you if you're a full-time student, self-employed, retired,  don't have a credit history in the U.S., have cash on hand but not steady job, or are looking to have multiple guarantors for you and your roommates?

    It can get pretty rough out there. 

    Enter Insurent Lease Guaranty, which can guarantee your lease at an average cost of about 80% of a month’s rent if you have U.S. credit and 110% if you are foreign with no U.S. credit. Insurent also makes the process faster and easier, and can often get your guaranty to the landlord in 24 hours or less.

    Click here to apply online and find out whether you’re approved in about an hour, and click here to view the buildings and landlords that accept the Insurent Program.

    The Insurent Lease Guaranty program is now accepted in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York. Insurent has been featured in the New York Times, The Real Deal, The New York Real Estate Journal, Real Estate Weekly and Multi-Housing News.

    Insurent Lease Guaranty is the first and only institutional guarantor of residential leases in New York. To qualify and get the apartment you want, visit www.insurent.com or call 646-843-1712.

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    Click Here to Apply for Insurent

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  • Roommates Week

    Survival tips for roommates: make a match, find a place, keep the peace

    by Lucy Cohen Blatter | 7/28/14 - 12:59 PM

    It's Roommates Week on BrickUnderground, and we're rolling out lots of fresh advice all week long. But it's not like we've ignored the subject until now. 

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  • Zillow continues on path of world domination—but what does it mean for apartment hunters?

    by Lucy Cohen Blatter | 7/28/14 - 11:59 AM

    Today, online real estate listings giant Zillow announced that it'll acquire its largest competitor, Trulia, for $3.5 billion. Assuming the deal is approved by regulators, which is expected, two of the country's biggest real estate search sites—which reportedly control 61 percent of the market—will combine, creating a huge repository for online listings and property-value data. 

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  • StreetNoise

    Tips to decorate with roommates, defending your right to a cool apartment, and more

    by Virginia K. Smith | 7/28/14 - 10:59 AM

    Rupert Ganzer

    No one can force you to keep your apartment unreasonably stuffy.

    Decorate your shared apartment without ending up in a yelling match (or with a hideous new couch) (Apartment Therapy)

    Mercifully, your landlord can't tell you to stop using your air conditioner (NYT)

    Legislation to ban "poor doors" may be on the way after all (NYO)

    Development actually making Downtown Brooklyn cheaper? We'll take it (NYDN)

    Time shares at the Manhattan Club sound like a pretty raw deal (NYT)

    Even if you don't end up in a mansion, Riverdale's starting to look pretty good (NYT, previously)

    Get more BrickUnderground! Sign up for our weekly newsletter, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook

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  • Featured Partner

    5 all-too-common renovation shortcuts--and how to spot the serious ones

    7/28/14 - 9:59 AM

    Flippers are a common feature of the Brooklyn brownstone market. But how do you spot potentially problematic renovations?

    If you’re in the market for a Brooklyn brownstone, there’s a very good chance you’ll be buying from a flipper--a real estate investor who’s bought a house, done a speedy renovation, and put the place back on the market to snag the maximum profit. If the seller's cut corners, you could be in for costly repairs and big-time headaches. On the other hand, not every shortcut a seller takes should be a dealbreaker. 

    Indeed, in today’s market, where brownstones sell quickly--and often for more than their asking prices--compromising on some lackluster finishes may actually help you close a deal, says Donald Brennan, the principal of Brooklyn-based brokerage Brennan Realty Services, a trained architect and the host of a free monthly webinar, Brooklyn Market Update - Live.

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  • Roommates Week

    20 Questions: What to ask potential roommates to prove you're compatible

    by Lucy Cohen Blatter | 7/28/14 - 9:30 AM

    If there's anything we at BrickUnderground have learned from a collective two decades of living in every possible roommate configuration—​with best friends, strangers, men, women, college students, freelancers, clockwatchers, hardcore partiers, homebodies and more—it's that a lack of information can ruin an otherwise peaceful home. 

    Hence the all-important Roommate Interview to see if you'll be simpatico sharing close quarters. It's a must for any candidate, whether they responded to an online ad or are a friend of a friend. (It's even a good idea for childhood buddies—the better to suss out potential problems.) You'll want to be thoughtful about what you ask: too hands-off and you won't get the info you need; too nosy and you may scare them away. 

    Behold BrickUnderground's roommate questionnaire, with 20 queries that will get at the heart of an interviewee's lifestyle without being unnecessarily intrusive (or running afoul of discrimination laws). The point is to find out if you're a match made in, yes, heaven so the next year won't be a nightmare.

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  • Roommates Week

    Roommates Week kicks off right now

    by Leigh Kamping-Carder | 7/28/14 - 8:59 AM

    Sarah_Ackerman

    Welcome to BrickUnderground's first-ever Roommates Week, wherein we attempt to demystify and de-stress that perennially complicated, almost unavoidable facet of New York City life: cohabiting with a roommate. From how-to guides to horror stories, for the next five days, we'll be covering shared accommodations from every angle. 

    Send us your questions, tips, yarns and anything else inspired by the fun and frustration of living with someone else. Drop us a line or get in touch via Facebook or Twitter.

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  • Would You Rather?

    A fire station or a busy bar: which NYC noisemaker is a worse neighbor?

    by Mayra David | 7/25/14 - 3:59 PM

    www.howdyourpartygo.; Charles Phillips

    The cacophony of the city is unavoidable, and two of the biggest sources of sound pollution in NYC are, of course, sirens and nightlife. So we asked five noise warriors: would you rather live by a fire station or above a popular watering hole?

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  • Prize Penthouse

    A South Street Seaport penthouse: the next best thing to an actual yacht?

    by Virginia K. Smith | 7/25/14 - 2:59 PM

    This $2.495 million downtown penthouse has more than 1,600 square feet of outdoor space, but if you're still feeling cramped, you can combine it with the building's other penthouse (for another $2.59 million, that is).

    Fridays are nothing if not a time to daydream, or if you'd rather, while away the rest of the work day looking at nice pictures of pretty, expensive things. As such, no time like the present to take a look at this $2.495 million South Street Seaport penthouse and its enormous, duplexed outdoor deck.

    The sellers are calling it "one of the largest private outdoor spaces on the market," and at more than 1,600 square feet, we'd believe it. The deck also includes heated lamps, surround sound, electrical outlets, a hammock, and a water source, according to the listing. Maybe it's just because the place is near the South Street Seaport (and a stone's throw from the Financial District), but something about this deck reminded us of the yacht from The Wolf of Wall Street.

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  • Real Estate Want

    6 in-house NYC screening rooms worthy of a double feature

    by Virginia K. Smith | 7/25/14 - 1:59 PM

    In this $4.295 million West Village duplex, you'll find an entirely separate screening room (with leather seats and cup holders, of course). When you're ready to return to natural light, there's also a huge outdoor patio and garden. 

    Most of us don't have room for a full-blown dining room table let alone an entire screening room to call our own, but in some New York apartments, you can truly live the dream: theater-quality screen and sound system in the comfort of your own home, with total control over the concessions, the ability to pause, and no screaming (or texting) teenagers to side-eye. Whether you go the extra mile and install an in-house pump for sludgy popcorn "butter" topping is entirely up to you.

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