Agile housing

I’m a strong believer in the agile manifesto’s “Responding to change over following a plan”. So much so that I do everything I can to make it a lifestyle — and an ever more feasible one, thanks to mobile phones, the internet, laptops, and wifi.

So when we woke up in New York last Sunday, after staying our first night at a bum hotel on Broome, we went straight to a wifi-augmented cafe and hopped onto Craigslist, where we found an apartment that had just been posted moments earlier. We called up the guy, went to see it an hour later, and then we had a place for the week!

Subletting an apartment is so much nicer than staying at a hotel, and a much better deal for us, too, although this particular apartment just went up from $125/day to $160-175/day (the page quotes both prices).

We also looked for sublets on craigslist from home, but leasers faced with a choice between someone they’ve met in person and someone six timezones away with a funny name, tend to come out … not in our favor. Not to mention the cash-up-front problem.

So next time I’m in town, I’m definitely going to do the hotel-for-the-first-night and then go hunting for an apartment once we’re in town.