Apartment hunting

I seem to have become obssessed with finding accommodation in New York. You see, I'll be taking a couple of trips up there over the next few months for...something. One of them being a long trip with lots of appointments somewhere, if you get my drift.

Sorry I'm being obscure - just trying to continue to fake Google out.

Anyhoo, so, hotel accommodation in New York is freakishly expensive. Even though a lower cost hotel is available to me, it is still going to cost maybe $2500 to go on this trip. Which is a whole heck of a lot of money. So I'm looking around for an apartment. Except that if you want to rent for less than a month, you know, say 10-14 days, a lot of places won't take you. And you have to pony up an exhorbitant security deposit. And then there are agency fees to pay to the website that you found the apartment on in the first place. So it's kind of freaking me out.

My acu has a friend who has an apartment there, and she offered to grovel to this friend on my behalf. I don't know if this friend will expect money, if so, how much money or even where the apartment is. Apparently, it's in "the 60's". I don't think the acu was very pleased with me when I whined that it had better be in the east 60's and not the west 60's. I mean, hello? Central Park is a pretty big obstacle to get around at 7 in the morning if one is trying to get somewhere. The acu said it didn't matter as I'd be taking a cab. Uh, no, actually, I'll be walking if I can because I'm cheap and spending a fortune as it is. I'll take the subway if I have to, but supposing there's a day where I might get some sedation, I'd prefer to be able to stumble 1 block home rather than navigate cabs or subway lines. I mean, it's super super nice of her to grovel to this friend, and if it works out and is cheap (or even, can I dare to hope, free?), it would be amazing. But I feel like I need to know NOW where the darn place is, if it is available for the time I need it, and how much it'll be.

Then there's various websites for apartments. I have an internet buddy who I may be able to share a one month rental with - depending on timing and all that jazz. So that would mean a lower cost, but we'd have to get at least a one bedroom so that there's two beds. Which bumps the price up again. But still, it could work out very well. So I signed up to receive landlord emails from one site as it was free, and otherwise it would cost $85 for 60 days just to respond to the ads. I got this email (I have taken the phone number out where it says phone # in italics, but otherwise it reads exactly as I received it, asterisks and all).

FOR EXPEDIENCY, PLEASE ALWAYS REFER TO THE INQUIRY NUMBER WE SEND YOU WHEN WE OFFER AN APARTMENT.

Dear, SARAH ***** our apartment are excellent clean ect. your comming in hight season if you need less than $3,000.00 you need a studio please call us @ phone # or please provide a phone # thank you,*****

Thank you for your e-mail. Please let me offer you the following:

And then the same person bombarded me for the three following days to see if I wanted to book any apartments. One of which was listed on the site at $600 less per month than I was being offered it for. Bad English AND unscrupulous pricing practices? No thanks.

Bah humbug. Anyone got a fabulous apartment they'd like to let me stay in for free in New York?