Real Estate in New York City: As an Indian who's moving to NYC for the first time, how do I look for apartments on Craigslist?

Congratulations! I was in a similar situation 4 years ago. Here are some tips- Most advisable housing option for Columbia grad students is University Housing (UAH) which is marginally expensive than living off-campus but trust me it saves a lots of hassles of apt hunting, paying $1000 in broker fees, finding an old uncle to sign up as your lease guarantor, dealing with the nasty owners year-long. But if you want to save every $ (like I did ;)), read on: Don't sign-up for anything before you actually see it by yourself! Craigslist is full of fraud advertisements and you may end up loosing money to them. If you don't have any friends/relatives in & around NY/NJ area or any other place to crash-in when you arrive:  Indian Student Association at Columbia (ISAC) provides temporary housing to incoming students for upto a week. Its need based. Google for more details. Off Campus Housing Association (OCHA) provides assistance in finding apartments. They have a registry of available apartments and a list of registered brokers. You can contact them or visit their office once you come here. Columbia is situated in Morningside Heights. Some realtors & websites include it in Upper West Side (which is more posh and expensive area). On the north is Harlem which is somewhat cheaper (but perceived as "unsafe"). Not usually recommended to first timers in NY/naive international students as you may be spending late nights in the library and probably be walking home. Btw I lived there and I never felt that way, as long as you stay near "Broadway" you are fine. 99% of the students stay close to the campus where they can either walk/or take the night campus shuttle. Staying even 2 subway stops away adds 10-15 minutes to your morning commute. Time is very very precious at Columbia! Apartment sharing is very common among international students which obviously brings down the costs. You have plenty of time, contact other people like yourself (preferably someone who has relatives in US and who could sign up as a guarantor on your apartment lease) and see if they are interested in sharing apt. Join facebook groups of current and incoming students. Current students are always looking to sublease their rooms or find a replacement of their roommates. You will save hassle of apartment hunting by taking that route. Rule of thumb (as I was told when I was coming) - Anything below 125th Street and between Riverside Drive and Amsterdam avenue is safe and convenient. Refer to Google Maps if you are not familiar with these terms. There are plenty of apartments around Columbia and its relatively easy to find one in peak season (June - August). If you get the temp housing by ISAC, you should be able to find it in a week's time. Just do your research before coming. Good Luck! Edit: I would advise against some of the options suggested by others in this post like living in Brooklyn, Astoria. From my personal experience, Columbia is a very very rigorous school. As a grad student, you probably have to make a choice between grabbing a bite or catching a nap in between assignments/labs/classes. Closer you stay, more focused & productive you could be in your academics.

I know there are a lot of manhattan apartment scams on Craigslist - though, I'm not sure I'd say 90% are - but it can be difficult to assess whether something is legitimate until you've gotten to know the neighborhoods and rented some apartments before. Manhattan is a series of "neighborhoods" and rent can be pretty different based on the neighborhood and how close you are to the subway/amenities/etc. One of those apartment ads you listed is located on 146th St. and the other is much further downtown in Chelsea (on 30th). Apartments that far uptown are often cheaper than those you'll find closer to downtown. Columbia seems to have an office designed to help students locate housing. http://facilities.columbia.edu/housing/intro-ocha-3 They appear to offer a registry of rooms and apartments available, recommendations for brokers, and counseling services for help with the real estate market. I would definitely suggest contacting them for help (I wish I'd had some help like that when I moved to New York). For some help with neighborhoods, you can take a look at Not For Tourists. They have different sections for each neighborhood, plus there is a Google map with the general neighborhoods outlined on it. You can sometimes get a sense from that what different areas may be like to live in (including how expensive they are!) http://www.notfortourists.com/newyork.aspx

Getting a safe & clean apartment near Columbia University 1) Avoid the scams that are so rampant in manhattan apartment rentals 2) Avoid a broker fee (because you're a student and that money is better spent on late-night eats), and 3) Avoid bedbugs, rats, bad landlords, hot water problems, construction noise, and so on. So how do you accomplish this tall task? Actually, thanks to modern web offerings, it's fairly easy. Follow this 3-step process to find your apartment near Columbia: Read the "Rental Advice" section of http://howtorentinnyc.com/ to to learn what a landlord will require of you and what they can't require of you and to learn the common rental scams to avoid Head over to a listings search site such http://www.nybits.com/ Look up EVERY APARTMENT ADDRESS you find into https://www.addressreport.com/ before you ever consider signing the lease. AddressReport will tell you about that apartment's crime risk, bedbug history, rats, heat / hot water problems, subway access, noise problems, best local bars/restaurants and more. This is what the AddressReport crime report shows, for example:

Very carefully, or not at all re: Craigslist You're better off with http://streeteasy.com, it offers details about apartments and info about other units in their buildings. Craig's list is filled with bad-faith brokers and bait/switch situations so I would completely avoid,

There's a startup that's trying to gain some traction in NYC called RoomMatchers(http://www.roommatchers.com/index.php?refcode=JOCHEN). They basically try to help students and alumni find potential roommates, in hopes that it'll drive the cost of rent down by splitting it with others.  It searches close to 100% of the available rental apartments in NYC and gives you a way to find roommates that match your living style/preferences.  Personally, I've found craigslist a little sketch.  What the other authors said before about location is very important.  I would try talking to your fellow grad students and see what they did because they'll know the area better.  You can also try RoomMatchers, since they specifically cater towards students. Full disclosure, I work for them.

The 4 bedroom may not actually be 4 bedrooms. If you're looking on the Upper West Side around 115th, you're not going to find a real 4 bedroom. Also, Amsterdam ave up there is great, may drive up costs. If you want a big place, look North of Columbia. Another option is  bite the bullet and live in Brooklyn or Queens. Greenpoint, Astoria and Park Slope are farther, but great places to live.

Everything about No Fee Apartments is answered here: https://www.cityspade.com/blog/2015/02/22/10-no-fee-apartments-in-new-york-city