Episode 68: Expats Worldwide: Living the Dream: Tips for Expats in NYC from Lee\ Hanson

Rachel: [00:00:00] Welcome to Truly Expat Podcast. I'm Rachel and with me is Paula and today we're in New York City with Lee Hanson, an expat and real estate broker who knows the highs and hurdles of finding a home abroad. Originally from New Zealand, Lee shares her journey of relocating to the Big Apple and her top tips for expats navigating NYC.

Rachel: Whether you're moving to New York or already there. You won't want to miss this Insider's Guide to New York. Welcome Lee. Thank you. It's lovely to have you here. So tell us a little bit about yourself, um, what brought you to New York and how has your expat journey unfolded so far?

LEE: Um, totally random experience. I was, um, I was traveling, um, came through New York and, um, entered the green card lottery because [00:01:00] somebody else was doing it while I was waiting to go out for dinner. Um, and. Randomly, um, my name came up. Oh. And it happened at the time, so Cool. That, yeah, it, and it would've, it happened at a time that my brother-in-law was transferred over here by the BBC.

LEE: So, um, it was a, when it came up, it was just, it was a no brainer. It was pretty soft landing. Um, and I thought, I'll give it a go and if I don't like it, I'll go back to Australia where I was living at the time. So I did, and here I am. Uh. 11, 12 years later.. 

Paula: I was going to ask how long 

LEE: you've been there. 

Rachel: Wow. That's fantastic.

Rachel: What a, what a journey, like a lottery to get you somewhere and you're just like, okay, Charlie and chocolate factory, golden ticket. 

LEE: It was totally random and it happened at a time when, um, when I just separated from my [00:02:00] husband and I was traveling. So it was just kind of like one of those. Right turns that you take in life and it's just, um, and here I am.

Paula: Yeah. Those sliding door moments, right? It was just meant to be. Yeah. How cool. I cannot wait to hear all about New York because I know Rachel's lived there before, but, um, I want to know all about it. So what are some of the biggest surprises and challenges that, that you found when you moved there? 

LEE: Oh my, um, well, it's a vertical city.

LEE: So one of the great things about New York is that you've got everything at your doorstep. Everything's delivered. Um, one of the biggest surprises for me, which I thought may have been a deal breaker, was the weather. Um, I thought it might have been. I was worried about it being a bit too cold, but it turns out I love winter.

LEE: I love the snow. It doesn't snow enough in New York for most New Yorkers and when it does the city's just blanketed and it's [00:03:00] quiet and it's beautiful. They have snow days and nothing's better than a snow day. We haven't had one for a few years, but um, when you get a snow day, nobody goes to work.

LEE: Everybody hunkers down and you work from home. Um, yeah, it's beautiful. So the weather, the other thing was the humidity in the summer. Um, It's, it's a concrete jungle and the sun just pelts down and you walk out the door and your mascara is around your chin by about two minutes after you walk out 

Rachel: the door.

Rachel: It's absolutely horrible. 

LEE: There's a reason why New Yorkers head up to the Hamptons, head out east during the summer to get out of those ghastly two months. Um, so the weather was a bit of a surprise. Um, cost of health insurance. It's shocking. Oh yeah. I pay 1, 100 a month for health insurance here, and I maintain health insurance in Australia, um, too, just in case.

LEE: Have your bets all hedged in case I need treatment over there. For something, I think my health [00:04:00]insurance in Australia is 250, and that's Australian dollars, so it comes out as what, 80 a month, so it's more than five times. Wow. The, I don't know, I guess the other thing too is moving over here, anything you want to do, the importance of your credit score, everything's about a credit score in America.

LEE: If you want, you know, when you, when you want to move somewhere or, or buy something or do something, that all important credit score is. Much more significant here than I ever remember it being in Australia. 

Paula: That's interesting. I mean, so, so does that mean, uh, you need a credit score to buy property or a car or yeah, any of that?

LEE: If you're paying cash, you don't, but if you want to take a mortgage, you do, and it affects your mortgage rate. 

Paula: Uh, okay. 

LEE: Oh, okay. If you want to rent an apartment, you do. Um, when you come to rent an apartment here, if you don't have a credit score, most landlords will want you to use a guarantor. A US based guarantor.

Rachel: Okay. Because [00:05:00] that's probably what would use, uh, the company they're working for, or 

LEE: no, uh, no, you can't do, um, nobody, no, um, landlord wants to use a company as a guarantor because nobody wants to, if you don't pay your rent, it's too hard to chase a company. for your rent. And likewise, they won't use an international guarantor because if you haven't paid your 6, 000 a month rent, it doesn't make sense to chase somebody overseas for 6, 000.

LEE: So it needs to be a US based guarantor. Um, but there are guarantee companies, which are a type of insurance company. So you can use that as an expat. Um, but that costs another month's rent. So that's expensive, but that's sometimes your only choice. 

Paula: Okay, well at least you've got an option, right? If you don't know anyone in the U.

Paula: S. at all, at least there's an option there. And is it hard to find a place to live? Like, where do you live? Like, it's a, [00:06:00] I mean, it's such a big city. How do you know where to live? Where do the expats live? Like, I've got loads of questions that way. 

LEE: Um, there's a big big Australian community in Nolita. In Manhattan, it's just totally random where people live. It is hard to find a rental. It can be hard to find a rental. The rental market here is seasonal. Most landlords try and have. Their rental apartments coming up in the summer months, May through August, because you get a premium in rent there. For a landlord, it can make a difference of two, three, four, five hundred.

LEE: Um, so it's very small, the rental market. Um, and, um, there's, every year it's a little bit different. But generally it's chaotic finding an apartment in that time. The first year that I was working here, I remember you'd have to, you'd show somebody an apartment and then you'd have to sprint to get that application in and to get ahead of other people.

LEE: It can just be. [00:07:00] Awful. Um, during the winter months, usually it's not so intense, but you don't have the choice of inventory because as I say, most of your landlords will try and put their leases onto that summer schedule. Um, but that said at the moment, the rental market is unseasonably strong, which indicates to us that going into this summer season, prices are going to be moving up.

Rachel: Oh, wow. That's interesting. 

Paula: Is it normally 12 months or do you normally go into it for two years or?

LEE: Yeah. So sometimes you can do two year rentals. Most, most landlords will do 12 month leases because they love the option of increasing the rent. Ah. Um, but. The other thing too is, um, there's a lot, Manhattan has three different types of buildings, generally condos, co ops and rental buildings. Um, and if you're in a condo or a co op, most of those [00:08:00] buildings have rules that stop a landlord from renting out anything less than 12 months.

LEE: Oh, okay. So 12 months is the minimum term for most of your condos and co ops. What's a co op? There are short term rentals in New York, but they're hard to find, they're expensive, the market's not set up for short term rentals at all. 

Paula: Okay. And what is the difference between, what is a co op, uh, a rent, like, can you explain all the different types that you just mentioned?

LEE: So if you're buying in New York, um, chances are you're going to be looking at co ops. 65 percent of the market is co ops, which is a, it's not unique to you, New York, but certainly the numbers of co ops in New York, there are much more here and it's not like most other places.

LEE: In Australia, we call a co op a company title, apartment, the essential difference is When you're buying a condo, you're buying the space in the apartment. When you're buying in a co op, the company owns the building 

Paula: and you 

LEE: buy [00:09:00] shares in the company and those shares entitle you to a proprietary lease over a space. How it really affects you is co ops have a lot more rules than condos. For example, co ops, uh, might have rules regarding sublet policies. A lot of co ops say you have to live there for two years before you can lease your apartment out.

LEE: And then you're only allowed to lease for two years out of five years. Or many variations on that. Um, a lot of co ops would like, want to see you having two years post closing liquidity before they'll approve you to live in the building. The thing with the co op is most times you're going to have to have an interview before the board, which is, you know, not too bad, but the thing is a board can turn you down for no reason.

LEE: So your financials are very important. Whereas with a condo, you just need to have your mortgage, go to closing, money's paid, and that's it. You own the property. With co ops, that's not the case. They, they really, um, want to know your financials are strong. If you lose your job the next day, [00:10:00] they want to know that you've got two years ability to pay that maintenance and mortgage.

LEE: Um, some are a little bit flexible on that. Um, There's other rules like, uh, co ops usually want to see a minimum of 20 percent down, some, a lot want to see 25%, some 30%, some of the snooty ones up on Park Avenue don't want you to take a mortgage at all, and some are 50 percent up there, so, so, co ops are a lot more, they can be a lot more restrictive.

LEE: The plus side with a co op is you probably get about 20 percent more value. Condos are more expensive per square foot. Okay, so, so yeah. And co look. Um, it, look, and it doesn't matter whether you're buying a condo or a coop, the purchasing process here is very invasive. Uh, and by that I mean you, when you, you sign a contract like you do anywhere else, but there's a next, another step, and that is, uh, called a board package.

LEE: And that's a, a series of [00:11:00] documents and forms that you put towards the board in a co-op. And you have to do the same for a condo. The difference with a condo is they can't. Um, but documents will include personal references, professional references, um, mainly a financial statement, which details your financial position and you need verification documents for everything on that financial statement.

LEE: So as a broker, that's what I do all the time. And it also means you're sharing with me your very personal financial data. 

Rachel: Yeah. 

LEE: It just all seemed to accept it. When I first came here and I was doing my first board package, I nearly had a heart attack. I thought, Oh my God, how can I ask people this information?

LEE: Because coming from selling real estate in Australia, if I was. to ask people these sort of questions, you'd be told where to go very quickly. It's just, it just wouldn't work in the Australian real estate culture that I'd work. But in New York, everyone accepts it. They know it. [00:12:00] And that's, um, your role as a broker here is a lot more, it's a lot more involved and closer than it, than it, than it is in Australia.

LEE: And that was a big surprise to me, but you know, now it's like water off a duck's back. Just straight in there and ask the hard questions and it works well. 

Rachel: Well, yeah, we were pretty shocked with that sort of thing. We were like, oh my goodness, really? Do you have to know that? And the, the amount of detail that they went into about your personal stuff was so What's very invasive.

LEE: Like a lot of the buildings, um, have a, have a rule regarding debt to income ratio. They want to see you under 26 percent debt to income ratio. So if you don't, then you don't qualify for that building. So, 

Paula: wow. It's very different. Is it like that everywhere in the US or it's just mainly New York? 

LEE: No, um, I think Boston has a lot of, [00:13:00] has a lot of co ops and I think it's the co op system that sort of drive that.

LEE: It's not like that everywhere in the U. S. because a lot of places you have houses. And in New York, if you're selling a townhouse in Brooklyn or somewhere, you don't have that because it's, um, it's a, you know, it's a one, it's a building on a block of land as a title. And most parts of America. It's, it's the housing market.

LEE: So no, it's not like that. I think it's a little bit unusual to you while, while not restricted only to New York, it is more specific to New York and maybe Boston and maybe a few other places. I don't know. That makes sense. 

Rachel: Yeah, that's interesting. 

Paula: And what about expats? Where do expats live kind of in New York?

LEE: Um, uh, gosh, um, everywhere, all over the place. Yeah, everywhere. What I find with a lot of the young people moving over here on the E3 visas, Is they all want to move to the West Village, [00:14:00] which is the most expensive price per square foot. I think it dukes it out with Tribeca and Dumbo. Oh, wow. So, you know, it's like, it's like, um, living in the most expensive neighborhood in, in one of the world's most expensive cities.

LEE: I just, it's just like, why? Yeah. You're just making life hard to begin with in my view. The West Village is a beautiful part of New York. It's full of quirky, originally it's got all these workers cottages that were built to house the workers who were coming in to build the mansions on the Upper East Side.

LEE: And now those quirky workers cottages are worth a lot more money per square foot than the old mansions on the Upper East Side, which have been converted to co ops or condos. But young people seem to have it in their head that they want to live there and it's crazy because it's not crazy to me it is because to find a two bedroom unit there and I'm not talking anything flash.

LEE: Yeah. Um, but you know you're [00:15:00] paying like eight thousand dollars a month. Wow. Whereas you can get a two bedroom unit in Midtown for like five thousand a month. I mean and I'm talking basic get in levels. I'm not talking anything flashy. I'm not, I'm not talking doorman. , I just got a call coming in.

LEE: That's New York for you. It's half past six in the morning and I've got people calling me now. So we, 

Rachel: yeah, we ended up choosing with the, uh, to go with West village and we had looked all over. New York, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Williamsburg. I think we really wanted to live in Williamsburg and we just couldn't find anything that was within our budget and had the sort of personality and the facilities that we wanted.

Rachel: And we did find something eventually that fitted our budget and we loved it. We really, really loved it. And I, to this day, I really miss that [00:16:00] apartment because we did it up and everything. Um, But, and I think it is like, New Yorkers, it has so many different personalities, doesn't it? So you can, you know, if you like, you know, the upper, living near Central Park, like being near nature and things like that.

Rachel: What 

LEE: it does! It does. And you know, the West Village, despite my harsh criticism of the pricing there, it's a beautiful, like, it's not high rise, it's not, the rest of the city's high rise, just buildings. As I say, it's a vertical city, whereas the West Village is not. A lot of it's landmarks. It's, it's low rise, so you get to see more sun when you walk out the door, and there's quirky little restaurants, and, um, you know, it's, it's that sort of lifestyle as compared to Um, when you're in Midtown, it's just like, you know, you're, you're really in the depths of a concrete jungle there.

LEE: So, so there's that, but in terms of other areas, you know, um, there's places like the financial district, which people, when they come here, they might turn their nose [00:17:00] up a bit, but the financial district's fantastic because post 9 11, all the, um, all the cabling and the infrastructure down there got cut. So all the banks and the financial institutions that were down there relocated to Midtown and as a result, those big old, um, buildings, uh, a lot of them were converted to residential.

LEE: Um, and so you've got these beautiful big old loft buildings down there. Um, and the thing about the financial district is all the train lines come into a hub there. So wherever you want to go in the city. If you're in the financial district, you can get there really easily. Um, and there's been a lot of development down there.

LEE: There's some, a great Australian pub opening down there, uh, I think the week after next. There's actually a couple down there now. So it's um, so I think that's an area that people should not turn their nose up and should actually have a look at. Um, a lot of young ones, like young, young ones, listen to me, a lot of young ones go to the East [00:18:00]Village.

Rachel: Yeah, that's quite funky, funky place. I, I quite like, I quite like Fai Dai, uh, financial district because about at the time we couldn't find something that we really wanted to, but I liked it because it had this old sort of sea shanty feel to it because it's so close to the, to the, you know, the bottom sort of, uh, Peninsula of Manhattan and it has got that cool like cobblestone streets and stuff like that.

Rachel: Yeah, 

LEE: that's right It's the old original part of Manhattan If you look at a not the island of Manhattan route right down the bottom is where New Amsterdam got settled and Wall Street Is where they had a wall so the the um, there was a wall I don't what the wall was for was it to keep them Keep people out or keep whatever it was for, but it's all the beautiful, it's like the very oldest part of New York down there.

LEE: And so it does have its charm and it's also, um, you know, surrounded by water. You've got the Hudson on one side, you've got the East River on [00:19:00] the other. So, and then other areas, Midtown, I think is an underrated area as well. Parts of Midtown, certainly the West side of Midtown. There's been a lot of construction there with Hudson Yards.

LEE: Um, and that, and so through Chelsea, I think Chelsea through to, um, Hell's Kitchen can be a good area. And there's other places up near, um, in Midtown, up near Central Park. So, I mean, my, my, my view with people is just be a little bit open about your areas, unless you've got no budget problems. It's just, it's very expensive to live in the West Village for, um, and the thing is, if you were, it doesn't matter where you are, if you're on the West Side and you want to hang in the West Village, you're a 10 minute Subway ride home and the subways go all night.

LEE: So, you know, that's my view. 

Paula: Well, I guess that was the kind of a question I had for you. Public transport there is, is like, nobody has a car, right? 

LEE: You can't have a car. It costs you probably about somewhere between [00:20:00] 700, 000 a month to park your car. There's no parking. No buildings have parking. I think maybe 700, 000 a month.

Rachel: I thought you said 700, 000. I was like, Oh,

Rachel: what's your commission on that? It is 6am and I am still on LA time. I 

LEE: could have said anything. No, it's about 700, 000 a month 

Rachel: for parking car and a parking 

LEE: station. Yeah. Yeah, no, but very, very few buildings have, have, um, have parking. Um, So if you've, if you've got a car, you'd be, I'd park it outside of Manhattan.

LEE: You know, it's just, if I want to go away, you ho rent a car, you know, then I've got zip cars for those that need them. Um, but no, the public transport here is amazing. This, I just love the subway. It's, um, fast. If you wanna get across town and I go down and catch a taxi, the, the crosstown [00:21:00] traffic can take you.

LEE: a ridiculous amount of time. You just go down the subway and you're there in like five or ten minutes. So, uh, the subways in New York, despite what you might read or hear about them, are really good and very efficient. Um, and then they have crosstown buses too, which are pretty effective. Um, or fair, even the ferries when I lived in Brooklyn, I often used to take a ferry from, from Dumbo up to up the East River if I was going to Midtown.

LEE: So the public transport here is excellent as it has to be in a vertical city. 

Paula: Yeah. And is it a walkable city? 

LEE: That's all you can do is walk. You walk and walk and walk. You walk for miles. It's quicker to walk, um, in the real estate business. You don't, like, you've got clients, you walk, you set out your schedule.

LEE: People are, when you're taking out buyers, buyers tend to choose neighbourhood first. When you're buying, you know the city, you know where you want to live. So you might have seven or eight properties to show somebody on a Saturday, so you walk from one to the other. There's no other way. Um, but if you're going from [00:22:00] one neighborhood to another, you'll grab a taxi if you're going from the Faraday to the Upper East Side, but you don't generally do that because it's quite two very different neighborhoods.

LEE: But yeah, you walk everywhere. 

Rachel: Yeah, it's a great, great city for that. We didn't, I don't think we even hired a car. Uh, to do anything there, only when we were going traveling or something like that. That was, that was it. It was just so easy to get around and we left it so long that, yeah, no, it's super easy to get around.

Rachel: And like you say, the subway just gets you through all of the traffic jams. 

LEE: It's not a big, it's not a big, in terms of area size, Manhattan, it's, it's like it's walkable from one end to the other and half a day or something or a day or whatever. I've never done it, but, but it's, um, it's not a big area. Yeah, 

Paula: I have actually walked it from Central Park all the way down to Tribeca.[00:23:00]

Paula: Um, but my feet were very sore. An 

LEE: hour and a half or something? A little bit longer. 

Paula: My feet were very sore by the end of it. Yeah. Yeah, I had boots on. I don't know why I thought that was a good idea. But anyway. You get carried 

Rachel: away though, 

LEE: don't you? Now everybody here wears Sneakers or versions off to work, you know, I don't know what it would have been like 20 years ago when women wore high heels, you know, but it's just now, you know, I love, I love the sneaker culture now that, you know, you can, yeah, you wear sneakers with your nice work dresses.

LEE: It works really well in Manhattan. 

Paula: And is it easy to find a community like, uh, find your tribe there when you, when you first got there? 

LEE: You know what, I, I was at a function, I was at a party last night, and I asked a couple of my expat friends about them, and, um, one of the, one of the, um, guys there, a guy called Drew said to me, I said, what should I, what would you say about that?

LEE: And Drew said, well, as long as you're not a dickhead, you can.[00:24:00]

LEE: He's quite right. Well, New Yorkers are very welcoming, not like. They're much more inclusionary than, say, Australians might be. Um, but there's another side to that too, and that is that New York is very overly scheduled. Um, you tend, I tend to hang, and most expats tend to hang within their own community. Um, and there's a, I think there's a number of reasons for that.

LEE: And when you say is it hard, not for the young ones these days. The young ones, listen to me. You've got the American Australian Association who put on functions. There's a guy called American Josh who's making a living out of, um, Hey, Australians, we're going to have a barbecue this weekend, or hey, we're going to watch the game at this pub at three o'clock in the morning.

LEE: So there's all those sorts of things. But I think also, and for me, it was friends of friends, you know, like, um, I've got a couple of great girlfriends in this, uh, in the city here, and we're all just ex, [00:25:00] ex, uh, eastern suburbs. From, uh, from Sydney, but, um, but even more so, you know, it's that Eastern suburbs group, there's a couple of girls in LA, there's a couple of people in different places.

LEE: It's like, we all know we're all part of this weird community that live over here. And it's a friendship on, on Facebook. And you know, if I'm in LA, I just had dinner with two of them two nights ago. And some of them are, one of them's coming through New York on the 25th, but we're, we're the, we were. We were friends or contacts back in Sydney, but here we're something else and it doesn't, I can't really, um, put a name to it, but it's a, it's a strong connection, your ex, um, your ex communities.

LEE: Can I say those 

Paula: Eastern Suburbs, Sydney people are so lovely. I can't, I can't speak to I'm one of them. Well, they've 

LEE: been my tribe, you know, for quite a few years. And when I go back, I stay in Bondi, you [00:26:00] know. Yeah. And they all, they all come through. Yeah. Like, you know, it's, um, it's one of the things about living in New York.

LEE: You really have to have a sofa bed or two, because when you live in New York, you have a constant, constant stream of guests. I have a second bedroom in my apartment and it has its own, um, it has its own calendar, you know?

LEE: My friends know, like yesterday, my niece went, she's in my spare bedroom from the 28th Of May to whatever date. And then I've got another friend texted me like three days ago saying, is your room spare August the 13th? Just continuous. Someone will be here for the U. S. Open. Somebody will be here for something different.

LEE: So. Always busy. Um, yeah, it's always, um, and I like that that's fun, you know, sometimes, sometimes when your grandmother's next door neighbor's in New York and wants to catch up for breakfast, it can get a bit too much, but, um, you know, you do [00:27:00] those things, don't you? I think the big thing about communities here is that old immigrant story of you stay with people who think like you.

LEE: Yeah. And for me. One of the things that a lot of people will tell you that when you get into trouble for the first time is the Australian sense of humour. Americans don't have it. And it's, um, it's like, I said I was talking to somebody last night about doing this podcast and I was, we were discussing that and there was this lovely American friend who lives on the Upper West Side and I was describing an experience that happened to me very early on in my real estate thing.

LEE: It was just something stupid like, One broker was trying to get the key in the door and she couldn't do it. So another guy said, here, I'll try. There was a group of us having a look at this apartment and it was, and then dropped the key and whatever. And I just said, Oh my God, dumb and dumber. Like that's a throwaway line that an Australian would make.

LEE: And it's humorous to Australians. I can't explain why it's humorous. [00:28:00] But anyway, so I said that and this woman turned around and told me off how rude of you and I was like I like it just she really got stuck into me and what was interesting last night was drew my friend. He laughed He said oh, we've all been there Lee.

LEE: We've all done that and even my American girlfriend said It was rude of you.

LEE: last night. And I said, but Evie, that's what I'm trying to explain the culture and and humor. And she said, yeah, but I don't get it. I said, Evie, that's the point. Yeah. You know? Yeah. But versions of that sort of thing, it's just, uh, that Australians are very. Um, we, we put each other down in a funny way all the time.

LEE: We make those derogatory or comments and you don't do that to Americans. But there is a flip side to that as well and that is there's no tall poppy syndrome here. Like when you grew up in Australia, and [00:29:00] describing that to somebody last night, they were shocked to hear what the tall poppies syndrome is in Australia.

LEE: Americans are really different. If you're doing something well, they want to know how, why they want to offend you, rise on your coattails. And similarly, if you ask them, they're more than happy to tell you how they got there, what their secrets are, mentor you or whatever. So it's just, it's a different culture.

LEE: There are good bits and there are bits that you've got to watch out for. 

Paula: Because you wouldn't think coming from like, uh, like we're, you'd think we're all similar, right? New Zealanders, uh, Australians, Americans, but we're not, we, we've got our own cultures within our, our own culture, our own country. Yeah.

Rachel: Yeah. 

Paula: Yeah. We do. 

Rachel: Yeah, for sure. And so how, I mean, when I lived in New York or we lived in New York, it was just so expensive to go out. You, you were looking at at least 150 just for a simple dinner with [00:30:00] maybe a glass of wine and then you would get your tax and your tip on top of that and you'd just be like, what did I just pay for?

Rachel: Um, how do you navigate that? Like. 

LEE: Um, um, look in the, in the words of Barry Humphrey, always live a little above your means, , . Um,

Rachel: I dunno, 

LEE: I dunno that New York's much more expensive these days than Australia or, or Auckland. Um, the accommodation probably is what Australian accommodation's, a whole different story, but, um, I mean. Well, you earn American dollars that helps. Yeah. Yeah. No, that does. Um, um, yeah, I mean, I don't know. It's, um, The tipping scares me.

LEE: I guess, I mean, I don't know that it is that more expensive is the bottom line. I don't know that it is. Um, and you do have options here. One [00:31:00] of the things for me that keeps me here is the cheapness of travelling. Travelling is insanely cheap from here. I went to Europe four times last year. I went over to LA for four days.

LEE: Now I'm thinking maybe there's a big RV convention up in Toronto in the next week. I mean, depending on how I'm going with work. I might pop up there. Um, my friend Mary and I, you know, last year we went to Barbados to this golf club because we thought we'd go and get lessons from this guy and we lied there.

LEE: Uh, you know, we, you can do stuff like that here. Um, randomly last February, one of the best things I've ever done was this travel zoo deal came through and it was two and a half thousand dollars to, um, go 500 miles above the Arctic Circle right up the top of Norway, almost where it meets Russia and the Barents Sea.

LEE: And it was, it was one of the most incredible things I've done. I spent more money getting together in our couture wardrobe. But I mean, you know, my girlfriend from Canada [00:32:00] joined me and we flew into Helsinki. We flew direct to Helsinki. That didn't cost much. Up to Ivalo and we got picked up. But things like that you could never do living in Australia or New Zealand.

LEE: So New York gives you this incredibly affordable travel. Uh, and adventure thing. For me, that's a big draw to being here. And I mean, you know, if some things are more expensive, I guess that evens Evens it out to in terms of, um, expensive dinners and stuff like that. Um, I do a lot of cooking, but there's the other side of that coin is the shopping here is insane.

LEE: Um, and they have sample sales here where everybody, because, you know, if somebody's cutting it, I don't know how the clothing, the fabric, the clothes. S thing all works, but my understanding is if you've got a a, a, a pair of pants, you do a hundred thousand of them, they do, they cut [00:33:00] 105,000, they have a plus or whatever, and that extra 5,000 that don't get shipped out, they end up in sample sales here or, or.

LEE: What they don't sell for last season or so the sample sales culture is incredible. You get just incredible bargains, but New York also has genuine sales like 50 percent off, 60 percent off in Australia. When you have a sale, I think they put the price up the week before and then they, they put it up like 25%.

LEE: Yeah. 10 percent or a sale in Australia is 20 percent off. New Yorker sales 70 percent off. Yeah. It's a proper sale. 

Rachel: I mean, in Singapore, in Singapore, it can be like, Oh, guess what? You'll get 20 off 500. Yeah. Just like that, you know, you're just like.

Rachel: We'll 

Paula: give you a 5 

LEE: coupon. No, it's not like that here. And you go, when you're first here, you go absolutely [00:34:00] silly. You go nuts and you're buying just things that you never would have, to the point where my new year's resolution, and I have not made a resolution. New Year's resolution and like about 20 years, but this year it was, I am not buying any new clothes or any new shoes for 2025 and it's now what the middle of February and I haven't.

LEE: Oh, I thought you were going to say you've done well done. I haven't broken that because. Um, you know, I still haven't worn everything in life. There's so many things in my wardrobe that I bought that I haven't worn. And I just think that's excessive and I don't like it. And it's awful. And I'm doing something to, to fix that part of my personality.

LEE: Ask me again in another six months, how I go, because I do have a bit of a. No, 

Rachel: I love, I love that about New York as well, like, uh, and all the little shop, the, you know, department stores like Nordstrom Rack and, um, what's the other one? You know, [00:35:00] um, Macy's? No, well, Macy's has great sales, but also you can go to, you go to 

LEE: Macy's, take your passport, you'll get an additional 10, 10 percent off as a foreigner.

LEE: There's a tip. 

Rachel: That's 

LEE: a 

Paula: good one. That's a good 

LEE: one. 

Rachel: Marshalls, Marshalls and all that sort of thing. You get really some good deals there and nice brands and stuff. You'd get them for next to nothing. It's fantastic. Shopping in New York is everything. Yeah. Uh, so that's how you buy cheap things there. And a lot of things you don't need.

Rachel: What's a bit of advice? What sort of advice would you give to someone considering moving to New York, whether for work or an adventure? Travel light, 

LEE: travel light. Buy everything here. Don't, don't even think about bringing anything over because it's, you know, it's pointless. What about furniture? Even furniture?[00:36:00]

LEE: Furniture's disposable here. I mean, you know, people, people all the time on Facebook, furniture are giving away nice bits of furniture. Furniture's disposable these days. You know, it's not, and there's so many, there's so many great furniture options over here. And, and you can, as I say, you just get people, you go and collect it from people on Facebook marketplace because I've got to get rid of it because they're moving on and they've got to get out of their apartments.

LEE: So if you're a young person without much budget, you can furnish your place very easily, um, from that. And, um, yeah, no, I wouldn't bring furniture over. Furniture's cheap here and nice, really nice. 

Paula: Yeah, that's good. That's good to know, especially if you've got, um, bringing 

LEE: a family. 

Paula: I think the 

LEE: best thing is you're going to need a bit of money.

LEE: And if you're coming over, if you're coming over for a job, make sure you're aware of what it costs to move into an apartment because you should negotiate as part of your package. They have broker fees here. Tenants pay broker fees. Um, and the broker fees are expensive. They amount to about one and a half months of the rent.

LEE: There are no fee options. I'm not going to give you a [00:37:00] big blurb about the variances between them. But yeah, moving here as an ex not, and it's a good idea to have a broker when you move here because I, you need, you need to resolve that guarantor situation. There are a few buildings where if you've got a nice employment contract, you'll get by with just that without your credit score.

LEE: But the few and far between a broker will know which buildings they are, but you're very limited. Generally, you're going to want. You're going to want a guarantor, so you're going to want to use one of those insurance companies. So there's a month's rent. So, like, if you're looking to move over here and you're going to take a one bedroom unit, you're probably going to want to spend 5, 000 minimum.

LEE: Um, and that's not in the West Village. Um, so you're going to have 5, 000 for that. Your broker fee is going to be about 7, 500. Your, um, Your third party insurance is going to be one month's rent and to move in you're going to need to pay one month rent in advance and one month's security deposit. So there's like one, two, three, that's like 25, 000 to move into a 5, 000 [00:38:00] apartment.

LEE: Wow. Wow. That's, that's like, it can be that much, it doesn't have to be, there's a lot of sharing that goes on. Yeah. Um, a lot of, you can find rooms on Facebook, but just, it is expensive, so it's a good idea to be aware of that when you're negotiating an employment contract, and two things that your employer should do, in my view, they should pay your broker fee and they should pay for your, your guarantee, your um, insurance guarantee because you don't have a credit score.

Paula: And is that, is that what you do? He can personally guarantee you himself. 

LEE: Sorry, 

Paula: I missed that. What 

LEE: was that? Or your boss could be a personal guarantee himself. That'll save, you know, one of the, that'll save insurance. 

Rachel: We found, we moved on a local contract and we were shocked. I mean, we moved from London and we were so shocked at the price of the rent.

Rachel: And we thought we were going to be on a good wage and everything. And we were shocked how much it cost us. And I wasn't working in the first couple of years and it was tough. It was quite tough [00:39:00] because obviously, um, we had to make ends meet on, on. everything that my husband was earning and we thought we were on a really good wage and we were not.

Rachel: And it was, so you really need to do your due diligence. And that's why we bought, we were lucky enough to be able to buy, um, And have the money and stuff and that just saved us a ton of money. And then finally I got a job as well. So we had, we ended up having a, an amazing time in the end. Uh, but at the beginning it was really, really, it wasn't that we didn't have the money.

Rachel: We were just like, shopped at the, yeah, I mean, you could go to the grocery store, buy your milk, your staples, your milk, your bread and all that sort of thing. And. In the UK, where we were living, that would cost you like 20 quid, maybe even 15, and it cost us 50, and we were like, it's crazy, you, you drop 150 when you walk out the door, for [00:40:00] sure, for anything, like lunch and, and those sort of things, so it does add up, so, you know, doing your due diligence when you, when you accept the posting and then you go in, you know, you really need to have a buffer for what you think it's going to cost, it's probably going to be double, So, 

Paula: yeah, 

Rachel: yeah.

Paula: And so what do you love the most about living in New York?

LEE: Someone said this to me and it's so true. Um, New York's like living in a, in an amusement park. I just, um, a friend said to me, , New York is the biggest amusement park in the world. As long as you have enough cash, you can go on any ride you like.

LEE: And that sums it up, you know? That just, that sums it up to me.

LEE: You know, I'm here, it's like a 15 minute [00:41:00] walk, I go play golf on the Chelsea Piers, which, which I'm hopeless at, but you know, it's just like. When I hang up here, I'm going to go to Pilates. It's at the end of the street. It's like a two minute walk to Pilates. Um, my hairdresser's like a one and a half minute walk.

LEE: It's just everything's here. Um, I'll also get on the thing because I've been away in LA. I'll just get on the line to, um, Whole Foods, which is the most, the best chain. And that's something Australia does not have as Whole Foods. Whole Foods has the most. fantastic, um, fantastically sourced products, a lot of organic, a massive organic component that you don't, that's what my sister who now lives back in Australia really misses is that, um, the, all the organic ranges and the ranges of fantastic foods, health foods that you can find in Whole Foods.

LEE: You don't get those supermarkets in Australia, but I'll get, as soon as I get off this, I'll be on, that'll be delivered by about 11 o'clock. It's just the convenience, everything. I haven't [00:42:00] done this, but what I really like about where I live now is at the end of my street. There's a heliport and it's like a Uber helicopter.

LEE: So you can go to JFK for $250. So it's like, instead of having take, oh, that's awesome. Getting to JFK. You can, I know how to get there in like 30 minutes. 'cause you take the Long Island Railroad to Jamaica. But generally you, I'm traveling with you. Like when I go to Australia, New Zealand, I've got two big suitcases 'cause there's all the things I've gotta bring back for all the people that have ordered stuff.

LEE: And um, so I'll take a taxi at JFK, which. An hour. It can sometimes take longer depending on traffic, but Uber helicopter is five minutes and 250. So at one point I'm going to start doing that. It's um, that's cool. I know that 

Paula: is really awesome. Yeah, that's cool. I just do it for the sake of just doing it. 

LEE: I think I'm going to do that, but I always.

LEE: I think there's a limitation to how much luggage you can take in this new category. [00:43:00] Oh yeah. But one of these days. 

Rachel: Oh yeah, that's fantastic. Oh, thanks Lee. Is there anything else you want to add? I 

LEE: don't think so. I mean, I think I've talked too much already. You've been fantastic. Yeah. 

Paula: It's been amazing.

Paula: Thank you so much. I mean, you to take the time out to have a chat to us. So if anyone needs a broker, they can contact you. 

LEE: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Rachel will give you my email address. I'll send you my moving to New York 101 email. Perfect. 

Paula: Perfect. 

Rachel: That is fantastic. Put it in the show notes. Yeah. We will. Yeah.

LEE: That'll be lovely. 

Rachel: Thanks, Lee. Thank you so much, Lee. It was great. Have a great day. My pleasure. 

LEE: All right. 

Rachel: Bye. Bye.