No families, no parties? No problem

Here's a cunning strategy for renters and buyers looking for a quiet shoebox to call their own: "When renting, we found buildings that don't allow temporary walls were well-suited to weed out the just-out-of-college crowd and most families," a StreetEasy commenter counsels someone seeking a building of antisocial workaholics. "When buying, finding a co-op with almost all one-bedroom or one bedroom-plus-den apartments did the trick. Size of the place weeds out families; co-op board weeds out troublemakers." (StreetEasy.com)