Moving to Tri-State Area W/O a Guarantor (Paterson, Paramus: apartment, lease)

[yerolddad24]

I apologize if this has already been answered, I can't find anything related to my question. I want to move to the NYC area, but don't have a job lined up and don't have anyone I'm close to (family, friends) that could qualify as a guarantor, or would feel comfortable being a guarantor. Recently graduated college with a math degree and I have about 8k saved up, which would seem to be enough to get started anywhere, but I get it.

BUT- I don't really mind living out of the city at all. I would like to be relatively close though, maybe less than 25-50 miles to manhattan. Will all of the crazy guarantor stuff most likely come up even in like, say, Paterson, or Paramus or something? Is there a rough "radius" of where a guarantor is going to almost definitely be needed? I mean, surely it has to end eventually, right? Is it needed only in NYC city limits, or is it the tri-state area? It would seem like that might get pretty arbitrary. Any kind of advice would be greatly appreciated!!! Pretty frustrating. Thanks.

[Blue biker]

I've only heard about it in NYC but a lot of landlord run credit checks etc. maybe you could avoid something like that by looking for a share?
You'd save some money and once you find a job you could look for something close to where you work.

[daliowa]

Without a job I do believe it will be tough to find a landlord who will give you a lease.

As the other poster said, you might find a room to rent (share) in an apartment.

Be cautious about signing any lease that will commit you to paying for a certain length of time, since if you don't get a job & leave the area you would still be liable for the rent until the end of the lease.

Have you begun applying for jobs in NYC yet? I would imagine you could get some interviews lined up & come to the City for a week or two to do the interviews. Tell them that you are in the process of relocating after completing college.

I wonder if they'd do interviews via Skype, or something similar?

I'd be hesitant to move to a new city without a job lined up beforehand.

You might try getting a temp job. That's usually easier to get & some temp jobs can go on for months. This way you'd have a job & be in the city, so you could search for something permanent.

You might want to look for a place to stay in Queens. The subway is a lot cheaper than NJ Transit. Unless you live near a PATH train in NJ, but the closer to the City you are the more expensive it will be to rent.

[yerolddad24]

thanks guys! super helpful. Looks like that's my best bet, to just craigslist it or something to start. Just hoping to get a job where i can use my degree ASAP, so I can bypass the whole guarantor thing entirely. Might be more difficult to find a job like that if I'm craigslisting it, but seems like that's just sort of the way it goes...

[jaymoney]

Nobody ever said you have to tell them everything when you go in for job interviews. "I'm down here looking for a job and currently staying at..." is the best way to go about it. Not "I'm couchsurfing right now until I get a solid job so then I can get on a lease."

Most landlords are going to be looking for more than just the one paycheck, so even after you get a job it'll be at least a month until you can move out, so while you're looking for subleasing options do something that can give you a little leeway for staying an extra month or so, if not more. You might end up being okay with roommates.