How should four roommates go about getting a couch in NYC?

Ikea couches are disposable. If you pay less than $1000 for a couch, you don't own it; you're renting it from the dump for a few years,

I would go with pitching in all together and saying that the couch lives with the apartment. Whoever is the last person in the apartment who is also a person who paid money for the couch gets the couch. If there are two people, someone can buy it from the other person or flip a coin or some such. Seems like the most important thing is to buy the couch.

This may not work for you, but the last time I had roommates we lived without furniture for a couple weeks and watched the craigslist free section like hawks. Within a week or two, somebody was moving out of her apartment and wanted the entire living room gone that night, for free. We mobilized and came out like bandits with a bunch of slightly worn Ikea gear. This might be trickier in NYC because I assume you don't have cars...maybe zip car? That being said, we were all super broke and unemployed with time on our hands. If you guys have the cash to split a new Ikea couch, that is by far the easiest and most efficient solution.

You can each buy your own comfy chairs. Four recliners. Sweet!

Don't forget that moving assembled couches that are not flat packed in magic Swedish boxes is a huge pain in the ass. You don't want to set up a situation where some poor schmuck got the privilege of buying out his/her roommates for the honor of getting mad at an old couch.

Do you need anything else? When a roommate and I furnished an apartment we just divided up the responsibility--he bought a couch, I bought a dining room table, etc. We worked it out so we spent an equal amount. That way we each contributed but owned discrete items. Do you need a TV, TV stand, dishes, a vacuum or other stuff like that? Otherwise, I endorse Dasein's pre-negotiated buyout price approach.

I have never paid for a couch. I took one off the hands of someone else stuck with a couch or took one off the street. I would hesitate to do that now due to the threat of bedbugs, however. If you know the person who is giving you the couch, and you know they have no bugs, it's probably your cheapest solution. Then you pass on the couch when you move. Circle of life. You can get a pretty great couch from your local thrift store. Check their policies about bug treatment-- the Salvation Army where I used to live would fumigate furniture before they put it out, but that policy may differ in other locations. New couches...the way I see it, you either try to work out couch stock with your housemates and assume you'll be eating your share of the cost later on, or you buy the couch and it comes with you. Sort of sucks, but at least you'd have a couch. If someone else takes care of a major appliance, it's more even. Say, you get the couch, someone else owns the microwave, you use them in common. You kind of don't need a couch- you need a couch-like object, which may be a series of chairs, a futon, or a homemade nesting area of some kind. This approach may work out cheaper.

You could rent the couch from a furniture rental place. Not a rent-to-own place, which will rip you off, but a place that furnishes furnished apartments, like http://www.cort.com/furniture-rental. Then it becomes part of the rent of the apartment. Now of course, you will pay way too much for this, you will actually come out ahead if you just chip in and buy a couch from IKEA or whatever and throw it away after a year, but you will not have any ownership hassles whatsoever. If you live there, the couch is part of the rent. When you move out, you stop paying for it. Last person there turns in the couch.

You all pitch in. Couches depreciate, so you agree ahead of time on a buyout price for people who are moving out at the end of each year. You can factor in year-over-year depreciation. At the end of each year, the people who are moving out can be bought out at the agreed-upon buyout price. If the remaining roommates don't want to buy out the couch, the couch is offered for sale with everyone sharing equally. (To simplify things, new roommates do not get a chance to buy a share in the couch.)