Looking for 1BR Apt Rental in NYC, $1200/mo Max (Any borough except SI)

[Veni,vidi,vici]

So, in a bit of a pinch and about to put stuff in storage on Monday as I continue to look for a new Apt for My SO, our cat and myself. We don't have very good credit which has been a huge issue with finding a place since everything is through brokers with all the harsh requirements that anyone who has tried renting in NYC knows about. We can't get anyone to cosign for us, but can offer additional money up front. For example something like first 3 months and a double security deposit, but we need to find a landlord who will work with us for this and those are few and far between. Only found one like this so far and it was out of our price range (generally overpriced for the location it was at anyways). Looking for a 1br apt and if anyone knows of some leads I can chase then it would be very much appreciated.

Thank you,

VVV

[Matumba]

Talk to private landlords in older houses.  Look for them on Craigslist,  maybe other similar web sites.  If you are a member of an ethnic community,  ask your people and check out community newspapers and message boards.   

Look farther out in Brooklyn and Queens,  maybe Jersey too.

Consider basement apartments.

[Veni,vidi,vici]

Talk to private landlords in older houses.  Look for them on Craigslist,  maybe other similar web sites.  If you are a member of an ethnic community,  ask your people and check out community newspapers and message boards.   

Look farther out in Brooklyn and Queens,  maybe Jersey too.

Consider basement apartments.

Finding the private landlords is the hardest part so far, everyone goes through brokerages. I even walked around taking pics of the apts for rent signs that are posted on the front of buildings in hopes of the chances being higher to find a private owner this way, but still have not had much success. Craigslist is 90% scams so far and the other 10% being brokers, so have not found a private landlord off there yet. I am also crossing over using many sites: Hotpads, streeteasy, zillow, zumper, renthop, etc... Finding a private landlord to talk with directly has been the biggest challenge and it is really our only hope due to the credit. Mine is from traffic tickets when I was a kid that I am slowly paying back and hers is from student loans that are getting closer to being paid off and the next payment will bump her into the 600's range. Those are quite harsh as you make 1-2 late payments and bam your credit is screwed up by the student loan, her payments are all there, but a whole 2 payments out of 96 were late thus plummeting her credit below 600. If anyone knows of any tools that can be utilized to specifically find those private landlords then I would very much like to know because I am not finding any such tool.

Thanks for the response,

VVV