Posts by Margot Slade:
Attention all you actors, business consultants, student interns, renovators and bad boyfriends in need of a rental for fewer than 30 days: While there will no doubt continue to be a thriving gray-market of temporary domiciles, notes the New York Times, your legitimate options will shrink drastically next month when a state law banning rentals under 30 days in most buildings goes into effect.
While there are good reasons for putting a single exterminator in charge of treating a bedbugged building, there can be very good reasons not to; for a real-life example, just refer to the misadventures of our Bedbugged! columnist Theresa Braine.
It's not a good sign when you check the Internet history of your home computer and discover that your nanny surfs the web two or three hours a day. But, as observed in a tell-us-your-worst-nanny-story-ever thread on UrbanBaby.com, you usually don't know you have a bad babysitter until she or he crosses a major line. For one parent, that line allegedly involved a dog that would do anything for peanut butter. Urban myth, plot point of a Sex and the City sequel, or another reason to buy a nanny cam....?
Over on StreetEasy.com, experienced buyers are swapping hindsight. In answer to "what are the things you wish you had known?" come these responses:
Lowball offers are not exactly music to a seller's ears, but how you present your "underbid" can apparently make all the difference, according to a StreetEasy.com thread low on bravado and full of practical advice.
Apparently bed bugs, break-ups, and college grads aren't the only things that keep the NYC rental market brisk. High rents also keep things humming.
