Since I get asked the same questions over and over, I thought I’d finally put together a little summary of the most FAQs and tell you about me, my family, our history with our apartment, and what it means to have rent stabilization.

Q: How long have you lived there?

A: I have lived here most of my life! My family moved into this apartment in 2002. Before that, we had been living in a much smaller, more expensive one bedroom apartment also on the Upper West Side. A good friend of my dad’s and his wife were moving out of the city and asked my parents if they’d like to move into his rent stabilized two bedroom apartment. It was an absolute no brainer for my parents, so he put them in touch with the landlord and we moved in.

Q: What does it mean to have rent control/stabilization?

A: Rent regulation, in the form of rent control or stabilization is a program in NYC that protects tenants from rental increases. Rent stabilization means your lease can only go up a certain percentage (it used to be 2.5% but I think it’s gone up to 3.2% now) per renewal. Rent control means your lease cannot increase in price at all. The only way to obtain a rent controlled apartment is if you’re already in one, or through a family member (you must have been living in the apartment for 2 years to qualify). Rent stabilization is far more common and available to anyone, but they can be hard to find because once you get a rent stabilized apartment, you do not let it go. More info on this topic here. Unfortunately, these programs do not help the people that they should; they are not intended for low-income families, in fact, there is no income cap for living in one of these apartments. While I acknowledge the immense privilege of living where I do and benefitting from this system, I also am aware that it needs some serious revision.

Q: Is this your forever home?

A: I’m definitely never going to find a better deal in NYC so I’m always going to keep the lease in my name. I would love it if my children wanted to take over after me, but who knows what they’ll want to do and that’s very far down the road. I dream buying a historical fixer upper house upstate for the weekends but can’t fathom not having roots in the city!

Q: What happens if your landlord sells the building or wants their apartment back?

A: It’s noteworthy that my “landlord” is not single person, but a company who owns multiple buildings in the city. They do not want nor care about my individual apartment, at least they haven’t in the 100+ years it has existed! I’m not entirely sure about selling the building but this is something I have never thought or worried about. This is a rental building, half of the apartments are rent stabilized and been inhabited by the same families for many years longer than I’ve been alive. There is perhaps a chance my building could one day go co-op, in which I would probably be offered some sort of insider price.

Q: If you had the opportunity, would you ever want to buy your apartment?

A: Sure, I probably would! It would be significantly more expensive than the deal I have now- with mortgage, monthly co-op fees and property tax, which is why I rather stay in my current situation.

Q: How much is your rent now and what was the cost when your family moved in?

I currently pay around $1400, when my parents moved in 20+ years ago it was $900, so the increases have been gradual.

Q: How big is your apartment?

A: About 1300 sq ft.

Q: Is your landlord okay with all of your renovations/how does that work?

A: Yes! Before doing a project I just send an email to notify. Aside from the kitchen though, every project I’ve done has been a restoration, not a major reno, so those do not require permission/notification. For larger projects, like demo-ing, repairing and redoing my kitchen floors, they just asked me to ensure I was going through a company that was licensed and had insurance. I also had help from my superintendent and plumber who work for my building. I am not the only tenant to do this kind of work, it’s actually quite common to do your own updates to a rent controlled apartment, at least in my building.

Q: How do you feel about investing in a property you don’t own?

A: If you’ve made it this far in the Q&A, I’m sure by now you understand this isn’t a traditional rental. This is my childhood home that I see myself keeping for the rest of my life and possibly passing down to children, another family member or friend one day when I’m old. Therefore, I don’t see it as investing in someone else’s property, I’m investing in my home, my life and my future. Secondly, content creation has been my full time job since 2022 and the majority of my content is around interior decor and home projects. I view any project I’m doing as a relatively short term investment that gives me content to post, which allows me to grow my audience and opens the door to more work opportunities. Lastly, I am very fortunate to have this apartment at fraction of would it would be priced at if it were market rate. If you think about that 75% I’m saving every month by living here, the work I’ve done has really paid for itself.

Q: What do your parents think of the apartment now?

A: I think they’re a little amazed 🙂 They LOVE it and are so proud of me!

Q: Do you have pictures of the apartment from childhood?

A: Not many unfortunately. No one could have predicted that one day my job would largely revolve around my apartment so we don’t have any good interior shots without people in them. I’ll share a few I have below- on the right is the “before”, left is the SAME angle now!