RyanShell.com

Marketing, public relations, social media... and a little of this and that.

New York City Apartment Hunting Experience

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Not my actual apartment.

This post is part of a series that highlights my move and eventual new adventure, aka life, in New York City.

I was in NYC Monday – Wednesday of this week looking for an apartment, and I have to admit, it was quite an experience.

Prior to starting the search I tried to prep myself on how small (and expensive) the spaces were going to be, but I was still a bit taken back.

The Hunt

At the end of the day Monday I’d looked at eight or nine different places, and of those only one seemed to stand out. It was slightly discouraging, but I kept my head up and stayed positive.

My broker had a couple good apartments for me to look at in Downtown Brooklyn (One subway stop from Manhattan) and they certainly didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately, the prices of the two apartments rivaled what could be gotten in Manhattan, which is what ultimately made me not choose either apartment.

After looking at the two Brooklyn apartments I asked the broker (who rocked by the way) to set up an appointment for me to go take a second look at the second apartment we’d seen the day before. It was in the Financial District, a couple blocks from the Trade Center site, and the only apartment that really seemed to peak my interest.

It had a couple unique characteristics compared to everything else I’d seen, and the location was ideal because it’s close to virtually every subway line in the city. After taking a second look I opted to put in an application and was thankfully approved. Having housing secured is a huge relief!

40 Times & Documents

There’s one aspect of NYC apartment hunting that might surprise you. Let’s say you’re looking for an apartment that cost $1,500 (and that’s on the low end – 400 sq ft if you’re lucky) per month. In order to be eligible to rent the apartment you must make 40 times the monthly rent. So in this example, you’d have to make $60,000 a year to even have the option of renting. If you don’t make 40 times the monthly rent you can use a guarantor, but they have to make 80 times the monthly rent.

And then there are the documents. You have to have pay stubs, bank statements, a letter verifying employment and tax returns. NYC has a lot of unique qualities, and apartment hunting is most definitely one of them.

New Blog?

All and all it was an eye opening experience and probably one of many stories I’ll have to share about NYC.

Speaking of stories, I’m heavily considering starting another blog (have name ideas?) that allows me to share my random NYC experiences with you without cluttering this blog… stay tuned for that.

Facebook Marketplace Scam: A Scam to Watch out For (1st Hand Experience)

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As I prepare for my upcoming move to New York City I’ve opted to put some items (car, washer/dryer and a mountain bike) up for sale. In doing so, someone suggested that I try Facebook Marketplace – so I did.

The posting process was simple, but no less than two hours after posting my mountain bike to the Marketplace I received an email that immediately raised a few flags in my mind.

In the first correspondence the sender asked about the bike, used bad grammar and claimed to be from Canada – it just seemed fishy. For some reason the original email has disappeared from my Inbox, but my reply and several other emails are below. I responded simply to figure out if he was indeed a scammer.

As you read this, see if you can figure out the scam.

Me – “I’m the first owner of the bike and it’s in excellent condition. The final price is $800, which is $200 less than I have it listed for on Craigslist. You’d also have to pay for shipping – I’d take it to the local bike shop and have them ship it – probably cost $100 max.

I won’t be sending the bike until payment is received in the form of a certified check. You could also wire the money to my bank account.”

Derek (heryson.dman@yahoo.com) – “Thanks for your mail, I really do appreciate it, Well Everything sounds well and I guess that the bike is in excellent condition? I am okay with the price. So, I would want you to keep all other buyer’s off and also delete the advert from the website. Concerning payment my client will issue you a check, since I don’t have the funds in your currency. FOR CONVENIENT AND EASY TRANSACTION,I HAVE A SHIPPING AGENT THAT WOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PICK UP as soon as you receive payment for the Item.I will therefore need the following information of you to forward to my client before he sends payment.

NAME IN FULL……..
ADDRESS IN FULL….
CITY…….
STATE…
COUNTRY……….
ZIPCODE…….
CELL/OFFICE/HOME
PHONE NUMBER.
EMAIL ADDRESS

I await your urgent response.

Thanks

Derek”

Me – “Um, you can mail me a certified check – the only info I’ll be giving you is my address. This seems very scamish.”

Derek – “Thanks for the reply and the information you sent and am very happy,well its all good, I want you to delete the Advert from the Website. Concerning payment I have just contacted my Client now and he has said he will issue out a check of nothing less than $3,800 to your contact address in which you will remove the asking price after cashing it at your bank, so i would want you to get an extra $100 for your running around and then send the rest of the money to my shipping agent via western union money transfer SINCE I WILL BE HANDLING THE SHIPMENT so that they will use for all their flight charges and for the insurance of the shipment when being shipped and also I would want you to do this for me because the shipper also has some other shipments of mine to handle for me in the state. I hope I can trust you on this? The information of the shipper will probably be sent alongside with the Check or when my agent is been assigned by his company for my shipments. I will notify you if my client has sent the payment and he will contact you to confirm the details you gave to me, So that there won’t be any mistake whatsoever when sending the payment. Looking forward to complete this transaction with you. Get back to me as soon as possible so that we can proceed with the transaction..

Note: All western union charges and bank fee for cashing must be deducted from the Shipping funds..

Thanks

Derek”

Me – “This is a scam. I’m now going to mark your email address as spam.”

The Scam

Here’s how I think this would have played out. Had I proceeded he probably would have sent a check of some sort, hoped I’d cashed it and then sent him the balance… only later to be contacted by my financial institution to learn that the check bounced. By then I would have already mailed this guy a large chunk of change.

Puzzled

Maybe it was a freak thing, but it sure seems strange that this guy reached out to me so shortly after I posted something on Facebook Marketplace. I’ve got stuff on Craigslist where I figured I’d surely have scammers reach out to me, but it hasn’t happened yet.

I’d proceed with caution if/when you use Facebook Marketplace… or any other online resource for that matter.

And no, I’m not saying you shouldn’t use online resources for things of this nature, but do use common sense and when your gut says, “this seems too good to be true,” listen, because it probably is.

Do You Think it’s OK to text While Doing This?

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A recent survey has provided some interesting stats about when people think it’s ok to text.

For people under 25, 49% think it’s ok to text while eating compared to 27% of people that are over 25.

But the kicker here is the percent of people that think it’s ok to text during the horizontal tango (Yes, I’m talking about that). Click here to see the stat and other results on my Facebook page. That’s some serious multi-tasking.

Facebook: Know how many People have Hidden Your Page Updates?

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You know that nifty little feature in the Facebook news feed that allows you to hide updates from applications, people and pages? Ever wondered how many people have hidden your page?

Now, thanks to an enhancement to the page insights you no longer have to wonder. To find the info:

  • Go to the Insights section of the page dashboard
  • Click “All Page Insights”
  • Scroll down to the box that says “All fans of….”
  • The number of fans that have hidden your updates should be represented by the yellow line

The chart below is an example of what you should be looking for.

One might imagine that all pages will have people that hide the updates, but if your number is substantial, you might take a moment to check your content and make sure it’s on point.

And on a random note, I’ve not figured out what we’re calling people that have “Liked” a page. They can’t be “likes” – that’s just dumb. Page members? Who knows…

Blogging: My Style

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Let’s take a moment and talk about blogging. It’s something I’ve been doing since my radio days and in fact, possibly a therapeutic form of communication for me.

Over the years I’ve had personal blogs, political blogs, campaign blogs, and now somewhat of a business related blog on this site. Of the various blogs, they all had one thing in common – I tried to give them a little personality and infuse things about my life in them. In my opinion, doing so makes a blog more relatable and gives readers something to identify with.  

There of course is a balance to sharing personal info; sometimes I hit the mark and sometimes I don’t.

When I decided to start a blog on this site it wasn’t to become the next [Insert well known blogger name]. I simply wanted an outlet to share  helpful information and possibly provide you a form of entertainment when it comes to the more personal post.

That being said, I was pretty happy when someone connected with me on LinkedIn yesterday and sent this message,

“I found your blog highly engaging and, dare I say, entertaining! I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”  

Engaging and entertaining in one sentence – woot woot to that I say!

So if you read this blog and wonder why I might talk about my “Get Fit” series one day, a marketing related item the next, and then about a female I met at the grocery store the next… hopefully this provides a little insight.

Lastly, if you’re considering writing a blog – make sure you write about something you enjoy and make it fun for yourself. If you don’t, you’ll end up with sporadic post and a blog that ends before it really begins.