Windsor Terrace/ Kensington

How to find a $200-a-month room through Craigslist

Find out how she got a huge room in Windsor Terrace for $200.
Find out how Emily Farris got a huge room in Windsor Terrace for $200.

We’re down in Austin for SXSWi interactive this week, on a panel called The Broke Diaries. (Thanks for inviting us, Nichelle!) One of our fellow misers is Emily Farris, the lifestyle editor of the Kansas City Free Press who used to live in Brooklyn and now rents a room in Windsor Terrace for $200 a month. Better still, she found this crazy deal on Craigslist.

Here’s a pic of her ridiculously spacious room, and how she wangled it:

Emily pays $200 a month for this "pied-a-terre" in Windsor Terrace.
Emily pays $200 a month for this "pied-a-terre" in Windsor Terrace.

“I lived in Brooklyn for 9 years and moved to Kansas City. I needed a place to keep books and a bike and to sleep when I came back to New York every couple of months. I figured there must be someone out there who wanted that situation, so I wrote on Craigstlist—in the housing wanted section—that I wanted a place for my bike, some books and a bed, and I’ll pay you $200 a month.

“There was a woman whose boyfriend had just moved out and she wanted to pay $200 less a month for rent. She had a spare room she was using for storage–a 16 x 10 bedroom with a bathroom and a walk-in closet. So she was happy to have me move in.”

Picture 18All of her furniture came for free from a friend who was moving out of town, including this rad Deco dresser.

“I posted on Facebook that if anyone was getting rid of furniture to let me know first. My friend happened to be leaving her apartment and didn’t want to bother with selling her stuff, so she just gave it to me.”

Emily says her part-time digs are “better than any bedroom I had when I lived in Brooklyn full time,” she says. The moral of her story? Just ask, and ye… know the rest. Craigslist San Francisco, here we come.

3 Comments

  1. Shay carter

    Look for room only pays 200$ a month in Philadelphia for me and my son he is 10yrs old his father abandon us now we on are own and got to start from the bottom god is good we making I’m 33 my son 10 very smart respectful young man we just need a start thanks ??

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