justiNYC

A Video Peek at the "Dirty Dozen"- NYC's Worst Landlords

NYC real estate YouTube.com: amnewyork - NYC's worst landlordsamNewYork presents a video look at NYC's most f**ked up landlords- otherwise known as the "Dirty Dozen." Technorati Tags: video, NYC, landlords,

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Hole in the Fence Hack, fresh out the Crisper

Hole in the Fence Hack, originally uploaded by jUSTINYC.

Every now and again, justiNYC likes to show you how to hack some NYC shit.  A little while back, you were shown how to hack a NYC electric bill and because you loved it soooo much, here's another hack, Jack!
If you want to keep creepers from crawling through the big ass hole in your fence, the best way is to not have a hole in your fence.

Nevertheless, if your fence is holey, use one of the racks from your refrigerator, like this genius did on Flushing Avenue. The
refrigo-hack should do the trick- and you can get a snack while you're at it (if the damn bandit didn't already get away with your grub).

[Bushwick]

Technorati Tags: lifehack, hole in fence, refrigo-hack

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Are you paying out the ass for your rent?

Probably.  But this tool will tell you if you are paying to much...or rather, more than others in your hood. Rentometer gives you a visual representation of your rent versus the regional median.  How snazzy is that?  Well...justiNYC predicts that it could be a pretty useful tool in NYC, if they made it work in about 30 different languages and steered clear of information taken from brokers.
[Link via Lifehacker]


Technorati Tags: rentometer, tool, rent, NYC, real estate

Some Do It Yourself Throwing Stars that might get you arrested

Forget paper throwing stars, these things will hurt.  These real deal stars [from Instructables] look like they pack a punch!  Now, I'm not recommending that you throw these at brokers or anything. In fact, hardware like this might be better left to real ninjas.


Technorati Tags: stars, ninjas

Real Estate can (and will) Curb You in NYC

This article in the NYPress about real estate agents who go AWOL makes some interesting points.  For now, I will just leave it at that.  Perhaps in the next few weeks i will have come up with something more to add. 
Now I know why LoftNinja is constantly making fun of real estate- to preserve his sanity.  Damn.  Ninjas really do know everything.

Rental Dementia [NY Press]
Thursday PM [Curbed]



Technorati Tags: real estate, nyc, agents

A Room Divider is always Useful in NYC

Found this creative set of room dividers by Helmut Dietrich over on SwissMiss Design blog.  Partitioning is always a consideration in NYCm even if its only when out of town guests swarm and begin stealing your oxygen and will to live.  In a city where we basically live on top of each other, its a good idea to know what's out there.

Technorati Tags: room divider, loft, tips

How to find a Roomate in NYC without Craigslist

This topic came up today on Ask Gothamist.  Its an important topic to cover considering that LARGE amount of people who can't afford to live alone in NYC.  justiNYC has a tip:  Make friends with a brokerand get in their head.  We are always running into people who can't afford what they are looking for and must resort to rooming with a stranger.  The good thing about this is that a broker will at least know who is qualified and who pays their bills (provided the relationship got as far as a credit check.).  Gothamist suggests an article in The New York Times that goes into detail on this subject.  Good Luck!

Technorati Tags: roomates, real estate, nyc, shared, advice

Are you sure you can afford to buy property in NYC?

Well, you can do the math at HouseMath.  Its a "detailed, no bull-shit look at what it takes to buy a home in New York City."  Give it a whirl....then throw your computer across the room.
 
they even have a blog..


Technorati Tags: house math, condo, co-op, buying property, calculations

Pissr Tells you where its cool to Pee

If you're like me and you like to Pee, check out Pissr (yet another witty Web2.0 spin off of the Flickr phenomenon- Coolzor has a huge Listr of them). It stands for People In Search of Safe Restrooms and it tells you all of the wonderfully cool places out there to pee . Personally, its the Poopr issue that complicates the cool...but then again, I could be wrong.  I'm just a boy with a blog.

Listr 2.0 [via Coolzor Blog]



Technorati Tags: restrooms, pissr, public, tips

How to find an apartment in NYC: Blog about it

[linkage from Curbed to jUSTINYC on flickr]

Curbed tracked down an interesting specimen today: A couple looking for an apartment decided to blog about it.  Interesting.  But despite the linkage, its gonna be hard to find a place for these cats, considering  the vacancy rates are under 2 percent in most every NYC neighborhood.  Even a Ninja has a little trouble finding affordable apartments these days.

· Two Nice People Need an Apartment! [Looking for an Apt. Blog]


Technorati Tags: linkage, blogs, NYC, real estate, finding an apartment

Apartment Hunting Pointers for Brooklynites- No you do not need to speak Yiddish (but it might help)

I rolled out a post yesterday (published today) for the Record (Brooklyn Record, that is) about  places to begin searching for space in Brooklyn.  I just wanted to clarify something incase it came across muddy (as it seems to have for our friend the EvilDiscussor). No, you do not need to speak Polish or Yiddish to find a place in Brooklyn.  However, it might help your chances if you do.  So, here are a few resources that I have found useful:

Polish to English Translator [Poltran]

English-Yiddish Online Dictionary. Free online English-Yiddish translation

-Yiddish Dictionary ייִדיש װערטערבוך

You know....just in case somebody's talkin about cha'!

Apartment Hunting Pointers [Brooklyn Record]


Technorati Tags: brooklyn record, apartment hunting, tips, Yiddish, Polish, translation

Technorati Tags: brooklyn record, apartment hunting, tips, Yiddish, Polish, translation

Technorati Tags: brooklyn record, apartment hunting, tips, Yiddish, Polish, translation

Google goes Green with thier new map mashups for environmentally friendly destinations

Good Grief... Google's done Gone and Got Green! Their new map mashup for environmentally friendly destinations in the US.  The mashup supposedly points out happy granola-type destinations and
services in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando or San Francisco.  A suggestion from Google via Lifehacker:

try searching for “environmentally friendly hotels” instead of
just “hotels” when researching trips to any city.

[link Lifehacker]
I'd hug a tree, but its hard to find one in NYC hugworthy!  Maybe i should try this mappy thing.....hmmm


Technorati Tags: maps, mashups, google, green, environmentally friendly, destinations, tool

Some terrific tips for moving (your furniture) in NYC

Let's face it- you're not gonna get as much space in NYC as you would say, Charleston,SC (or anywhere else in the world, aside from Tokyo).  Today, Lifehacker tipped us off to some great moving tips posted on Josh Smiths blog.   In fact, this tip is incredible for NYC space searchers.  Here it is:  make templates from your furniture's footprints


LoftNinja said that he wouldn't even be mad at you if you brought the little templates with you.  Its a lot easier than having to visualize your dresser crammed into that little East Village sink-turned-closet  that you're supposed to call a bedroom.  (pssst. that's why LoftNinja works in Brooklyn.  Don't tell nobody)


Technorati Tags: moving, tips, moving tips, NYC, LoftNinja, hacks

Environmentally concious ( ?) NYC Manhole cover doormats

This Manhole Cover doormat (made from recycled tires) is sure to bring you a smile [found via boingboing]. Now, I can finally replace my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mat that seems to bring me so much attention from my neighbors.
You'll have to shell out $27.50 for one of these badboys.

technorati tags: NYC, manholecover, doormat, newyorkcity

Some terrific iPod hacks for New Yorkers

Visiting the crafty fellas over at Make Blog, justiNYC ran across a couple of terrific NY-Centric ipod hacks that he wanted to pass on to you guys:
1) get the MTA subway map onto your iPod

2)Put Google Maps on your iPod

For a full list of iPod hacks and makes, visit Make here---> Link

technorati tags: ipod, hacks, nyc, subway, maps, google, googlemaps

A few cool tips for St. Patricks Day Weekend

Need more room in the kitchen?  Sure we all do (especially in NYC).  Try out these collapsable kitchen goodies from CoolHunting.   
Wanna make GREEN FOOD for the holiday?  Even though you'll probably get drunk and forget, check out eHow for that.
Planning to take your ipod traveling out of the city this weekend? ...hate being away from your iTunes? Check out LifeHacker for a solution to the iTunes clutch.

Need a great organic food delivery service?

Just because you live in NYC doesn't mean you have to look like one of the Warriors.  Try Urban Organic and make a commitment to yourself to eat healthy. They offer a variety of products and services, and they’ll deliver your order as close to your kitchen table as you like.

technorati tags: food, organic, grocery, NYC, health

Is there room in NY for the creative individual?

It's damn hard to live in this city, if you're in any way "creative." Believe justiNYC, he knows. But you might say, "What the hell does this have to do with real estate?  or with real estate agents, for that matter?"  Just look around.  I just happen to most likely be the most obsessively creative real estate agent on the planet.

According to Crain's NY Business (spotted first by Curbed), "More than 40% of the city’s creative workers made less than $35,000 last year and half have little or no personal savings, according to the poll of 1,200 creative workers."

The truth is, if you aren't at least somewhat creative, you will NOT survive in this city.  Living here is about improvising and jerry-rigging anything and everything you can get your hands on (or foot in) in a way that makes it balance (at times, just barely), so you can.  Take this blog for example.  Do you think that anyone ever showed justiNYC how to blog?  or even what a blog was?  When i began blogging real estate, there were less than 50 real estate blogs in existence and the only one in NYC was Curbed.com.  Check out this interview from a while back to see what i mean.  These days, I find homes and studios for artists mostly (with a lot of help from the LoftNinja, of course).  The creative individual will venture into a neighborhood that is less than desirable because it is the only place that he/she can afford and at (primarily) their own expense transform the dirty rock into a diamond.  Once everyone comes to see the diamond, its all friggin over!  Everyone wants to be a part of the art and will soon come knocking in flocks to live around it, no matter what the expense.  Its expensive to be un-creative.  This is why the creative type must soon move from his 'hood installation' to start the whole process over again, further out, up and/or away.

Edward Gorey renter, originally uploaded by jUSTINYC.

[found via swissmiss]

Whatever you do in NYC must be tweaked and polished. This requires creative instincts and a drive to do something just a little different from everyone else.  At times, you have to be the type that doesn't follow the pack in order to do this and as this article demonstrates, a city such as NYC (although priding itself as being the mecca of the creative sort) does not tend to endorse such lifestyles (as much as in days past).

High costs threaten NYC's creative status [Crains NY]

While we're on the subject, here are a couple of FREE tips for the broke-ass creative types:

Can't get that movie produced?
Celtx- Free TV and Film Production Software [via Download Squad]

Need more friends? Clone some!
[Energyface Blog via LifeHacker]

Dead friggin broke? What, no furniture?

[try GarbageScout   (you'll thank me for this one)]

A trip through Long Island City, across the Queensboro Bridge and into Manhattan

Yesterday, I took a car from Greenpoint to 59th and Park in the city.  The trip through LIC was (although not unfamiliar) nice to shoot.  I figured, "Hey, what the hell- I'll blog it!"  You know, cuz thats what I do.

Queensboro Bridge in all of its glory.

Cable car to Roosevelt Island

How one could MAKE a Loft on MakeBlog

A terrifically NYC useful post on Make Blog for how to make a Loft.   If you live in NYC and are scraping by with one of those "under $100k per year" gigs, chances are you have one (or need one).  justiNYC assumes that it won't be necessary to explain the space issues in the city that demand such an object- lets just say that they are necessary if you plan to not sleep on top of your television.  Most affordable apartments (say under $2000 per month) are like glorified dorm rooms, compared to most anywhere else in the country.  This is why it could be a good idea to try this loft recipe from the Elephant Stairs posse.   

This idea is mainly geared towards college kids building a loft for their dorm room so that they can better utilize limited space, but we hope it inspires you to do more.

Sometimes youll get lucky and find a crib that already has a loft built for you, but don't bank on it.  Hopefully this tip may help you in your time of need.