This is a sponsored post on behalf of MyNewPlace via Izea. All the opinions expressed here are mine.
I've lived in New York City for almost two years now, and have moved a total of three times since. To say the least, the NYC apartment hunt and move is a hellish and stressful experience, and, to be perfectly honest, I hate the entire process with a passion. It's time consuming and typically disappointing - as apartments come and go as quick as they become available.
I've only ever used Craigslist on my computer to search for, and find, an apartment. So I was very interested in downloading the MyNewPlace free iPhone application, and check out how useful it could be in helping me find my next place.
It uses GPS to find nearby apartments based on where you're currently standing, which, I feel, is pretty innovative. I used the app to search for available apartments when I was in both Midtown and the West Village, and it was really convenient to be able to see what was currently available based on my position at any given moment. If I was actually searching for an apartment at this time, I would be able to get directions to listed apartments and call or email the property directly from my phone. When you're seeing an apartment listed on MyNewPlace, you can use your iPhone camera to take photos and notes, saving them directly onto the online property listing. You can also use Facebook Connect to easily share listings on your Facebook Wall to get feedback from your friends during your apartment search.
Although the functionality of the app itself is really cool and they list over six-million apartments and rentals nationwide, I discovered that 80% of the listings in the MyNewPlace search were out of my price range. Because of this, I would not be able to find enough apartments through this application alone to be able to use it exclusively when searching for an apartment. I would likely still need to turn to a service such as PadMapper, which simply integrates listings on Craigslist with Google Maps. Though Craigslist is the only listing service I've used to find an apartment in New York City, I'll definitely take MyNewPlace for a spin when I have to move again in eight months.
