Many individuals and couples have an idea in their minds about what kind of apartment they would like to move into. The problem is when there are more than a couple of factors, preferences and opinions.
A scientific way to make a decision about the things that we consider important is to make a decision matrix, listing the various factors that are crucial to the final choice, and assign weightage to each factor.

Choosing An Apartment: The Scientific Way

To facilitate an apartment choice, list out the basic factors and provide weightage to each, based on personal choice. A few of those elements can be:
<ul>
<li>Amount of rent per month.</li>
<li>Size, layout, design and direction.</li>
<li>Pet policies</li>
<li> Lease duration.</li>
<li>Windows and lightning, elevators, stairs and furniture placement</li>
<li>Outdoor space and nature view.</li>
<li>Proximity to the grocery store.</li>
</ul>
Each apartment can then be quickly rated for each factor, making the final decision quick and transparent.

The Decision Matrix To Choose An Apartment

When one couple needed to find a new home in a rush, they used a “scientific approach” to expedite their search. <figure><picture><source media="(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 3dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 288dpi)" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/01/12/realestate/06renters-lawry1/merlin_166302255_8e155fb2-a510-4677-b47e-f8448a431d2c-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=600"><source media="(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 2dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 192dpi)" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/01/12/realestate/06renters-lawry1/merlin_166302255_8e155fb2-a510-4677-b47e-f8448a431d2c-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=1200"><source media="(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 1),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 1dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 96dpi)" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/01/12/realestate/06renters-lawry1/merlin_166302255_8e155fb2-a510-4677-b47e-f8448a431d2c-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=1800"><img alt="Terese Lawry and Jacob Falkovich identified 22 things to consider in selecting an apartment and, after much discussion and a few compromises, assigned each one a different weight." src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/01/12/realestate/06renters-lawry1/merlin_166302255_8e155fb2-a510-4677-b47e-f8448a431d2c-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/01/12/realestate/06renters-lawry1/merlin_166302255_8e155fb2-a510-4677-b47e-f8448a431d2c-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 600w, https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/01/12/realestate/06renters-lawry1/merlin_166302255_8e155fb2-a510-4677-b47e-f8448a431d2c-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 1024w, https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/01/12/realestate/06renters-lawry1/merlin_166302255_8e155fb2-a510-4677-b47e-f8448a431d2c-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 2048w" width="785" height="524"></picture><figcaption dir="auto">Terese Lawry and Jacob Falkovich identified 22 things to consider in selecting an apartment and, after much discussion and a few compromises, assigned each one a different weight.
Credit...
Stefano Ukmar for The New York Times</figcaption></figure><img alt="Kim Velsey" title="Kim Velsey" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/06/14/multimedia/author-kim-velsey/author-kim-velsey-thumbLarge.png" width="50" height="50">When Terese Lawry and Jacob Falkovich suddenly found out they had to move in August — a miscommunication between Ms. Lawry, a doctoral student in biology at Columbia University, and the housing office resulted in their Morningside Heights apartment being assigned to someone else — Mr. Falkovich suggested they turn to a time-honored method for making hard choices: a decision matrix.“You start with, ‘What do I like about apartments — why do I even have one?’ Once you’ve written out some of those things, what else?” said Mr. Falkovich, 32, who works for a financial software company and described himself as a “generalized math nerd.”“We have a lot of the scientific approach in our lives,” Ms. Lawry, 30, said.The couple identified 22 factors to consider in selecting an apartment and, after much discussion and a few compromises, assigned each one a different weight.“Without weighting criteria, people just start being like, ‘I refuse to live without a dishwasher.’ How much is it worth for you — $100 a month, $200 a month?” Mr. Falkovich said.Advertisement$3,300 | Prospect Heights, Brooklyn<h2>Terese Lawry, 30, and Jacob Falkovich, 32</h2>Occupations: Ms. Lawry is a doctoral student in biology, with a specialty in neurobiology, at Columbia University; Mr. Falkovich is a product manager for a financial software company. Spreadsheets: weren’t used just to select the apartment, but also to furnish it. “It’s about letting the scientific method determine how to get the living room with the aesthetic you want,” Mr. Falkovich said. It worked: “very well, but sometimes we forgot to walk around with the measuring tape,” said Ms. Lawry, who selected a dining table that was much too narrow. As Mr. Falkovich put it, “Terese really narrowed down the dining tables.” Their neighborhood choice: Prospect Heights was a longer commute for Ms. Lawry than some of the other places they saw, but proximity to friends, the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Prospect Park — and being able to walk to other neighborhoods — helped boost its score.Their matrix featured basics, like cost — they considered only apartments available for $3,500 or less — as well as size and layout. It also included subletting and pet policies, lease duration and renewal terms, physical elements like windows, lighting, water pressure, outdoor space, air-conditioning and whether the building had an elevator or amenities like a doorman or a gym.AdvertisementSometimes they disagreed. Mr. Falkovich didn’t mind walking up three flights of stairs, but Ms. Lawry pressed him: What about when they had children? They agreed to assign an elevator a weight of 4; the size of the apartment, by comparison, was weighted as a 10, while laundry was given a 1.For location, they calculated the score based on the mean duration of 10 weekly work commutes. They also included neighborhood features like proximity to grocery stores and parks, as well as aesthetics — what were the buildings and trees like? Was it pleasant to walk around?After they set their parameters, they created a spreadsheet and plugged in information from StreetEasy, updating it with additional details after they saw each apartment, to calculate an overall score. On the matrix, the 600-square-foot Columbia apartment they were leaving scored 209.<figure><picture class="css-1j5kxti"><source media="(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 3dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 288dpi)" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/01/06/realestate/06renters-lawry3/merlin_166302270_4cc9c34e-0668-4928-8e16-1e1594d57e1b-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=600"><source media="(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 2dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 192dpi)" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/01/06/realestate/06renters-lawry3/merlin_166302270_4cc9c34e-0668-4928-8e16-1e1594d57e1b-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=1200"><source media="(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 1),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 1dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 96dpi)" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/01/06/realestate/06renters-lawry3/merlin_166302270_4cc9c34e-0668-4928-8e16-1e1594d57e1b-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=1800"><img alt="To furnish the new apartment, the couple divvied up items to research, then brought each other lists with the top contenders and the pros and cons for each." src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/01/06/realestate/06renters-lawry3/merlin_166302270_4cc9c34e-0668-4928-8e16-1e1594d57e1b-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/01/06/realestate/06renters-lawry3/merlin_166302270_4cc9c34e-0668-4928-8e16-1e1594d57e1b-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 600w, https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/01/06/realestate/06renters-lawry3/merlin_166302270_4cc9c34e-0668-4928-8e16-1e1594d57e1b-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 1024w, https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/01/06/realestate/06renters-lawry3/merlin_166302270_4cc9c34e-0668-4928-8e16-1e1594d57e1b-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 2048w" width="600" height="600"></picture><figcaption dir="auto">To furnish the new apartment, the couple divvied up items to research, then brought each other lists with the top contenders and the pros and cons for each.
Credit...
Stefano Ukmar for The New York Times</figcaption></figure>Given their tight deadline, they sometimes split up for showings so they could cover more ground, ultimately seeing more than 20 apartments. “With the matrix, we could trust each other more,” Mr. Falkovich said. “Rather than one of us seeing an apartment and saying, ‘It was pretty nice,’ we could see what the other person rated each of the factors.”It also helped them move quickly and decisively. When an open house overrun with “hip yuppies” stirred their competitive spirit — if all those people wanted the place, shouldn’t they try to snag it? — they plugged the numbers into the matrix and felt confident walking away.And when they toured their current apartment, a two-bedroom, two-bathroom duplex in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, that rents for $3,300 a month, it scored so high that they begged the broker to cancel the next showing she had scheduled while the landlord reviewed their application.Advertisement“We knew we had to act fast. It scored a 238 — that’s two deviations up” from the other listings, which ranged from 180 to 215, Mr. Falkovich said. “If we took the math seriously, we knew we might not see another place like this.”Among the apartment’s attractions: It was in a building with a doorman and an elevator. Also, they were told, it was 1,400 square feet. They have come to suspect, however, that the square footage they were given includes a rickety outdoor terrace they’re barred from using unless they pay to have it fixed. But they do have an extra bedroom, which makes it easy to entertain out-of-town guests.“It’s a huge service to people we know, friends or friends of friends coming through New York, who would otherwise have to pay $200 a night for an Airbnb,” Mr. Falkovich said. “And we get to hang out with cool people.”They arrived in September, offloading the majority of their old Ikea furniture to incoming students, who were happy to take it off their hands. To furnish the new apartment, they divvied up items to research, then brought each other lists with the top contenders and the pros and cons for each.The apartment does have a few drawbacks. It scored low on lighting, because some rooms don’t have ceiling lights. And there is a no-pet policy, but they make do with a stuffed octopus and animal-themed art.Overall, however, they are convinced that using a decision matrix served them well, allowing them to see the best option clearly, without getting hung up on minor details. “It was really much nicer than the other places we saw,” Ms. Lawry of their new apartment.“When I tell people about the matrix, their intuition is that I’m outsourcing my heart,” Mr. Falkovich said. “But my heart is confused. I need to put my desires in a more organized structure. Goal factoring and decision matrices help you realize what’s missing and what you care about.”AdvertisementIt’s not the first time he has relied on a decision matrix, he confessed. He used the same method when he was single and trying to decide whether to continue dating Ms. Lawry or another woman he began seeing around the same time. When he told Ms. Lawry about it later, how did she react?“I was amused,” she said.For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/realestate/" title="" dir="ltr">sign up here</a>. Follow us on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/nytrealestate" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" dir="ltr">@nytrealestate</a>.Advertisement

When one couple needed to find a new home in a rush, they used a “scientific approach” to expedite their search.

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When one couple needed to find a new home in a rush, they used a “scientific approach” to expedite their search.

When Terese Lawry and Jacob Falkovich suddenly found out they had to move in August — a miscommunication between Ms. Lawry, a doctoral student in biology at Columbia University, and the housing office resulted in their Morningside Heights apartment being assigned to someone else — Mr. Falkovich suggested they turn to a time-honored method for making hard choices: a decision matrix.

“You start with, ‘What do I like about apartments — why do I even have one?’ Once you’ve written out some of those things, what else?” said Mr. Falkovich, 32, who works for a financial software company and described himself as a “generalized math nerd.”

“We have a lot of the scientific approach in our lives,” Ms. Lawry, 30, said.

The couple identified 22 factors to consider in selecting an apartment and, after much discussion and a few compromises, assigned each one a different weight.

“Without weighting criteria, people just start being like, ‘I refuse to live without a dishwasher.’ How much is it worth for you — $100 a month, $200 a month?” Mr. Falkovich said.

$3,300 | Prospect Heights, Brooklyn

Terese Lawry, 30, and Jacob Falkovich, 32

Occupations: Ms. Lawry is a doctoral student in biology, with a specialty in neurobiology, at Columbia University; Mr. Falkovich is a product manager for a financial software company. Spreadsheets: weren’t used just to select the apartment, but also to furnish it. “It’s about letting the scientific method determine how to get the living room with the aesthetic you want,” Mr. Falkovich said. It worked: “very well, but sometimes we forgot to walk around with the measuring tape,” said Ms. Lawry, who selected a dining table that was much too narrow. As Mr. Falkovich put it, “Terese really narrowed down the dining tables.” Their neighborhood choice: Prospect Heights was a longer commute for Ms. Lawry than some of the other places they saw, but proximity to friends, the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Prospect Park — and being able to walk to other neighborhoods — helped boost its score.

Their matrix featured basics, like cost — they considered only apartments available for $3,500 or less — as well as size and layout. It also included subletting and pet policies, lease duration and renewal terms, physical elements like windows, lighting, water pressure, outdoor space, air-conditioning and whether the building had an elevator or amenities like a doorman or a gym.

Sometimes they disagreed. Mr. Falkovich didn’t mind walking up three flights of stairs, but Ms. Lawry pressed him: What about when they had children? They agreed to assign an elevator a weight of 4; the size of the apartment, by comparison, was weighted as a 10, while laundry was given a 1.

For location, they calculated the score based on the mean duration of 10 weekly work commutes. They also included neighborhood features like proximity to grocery stores and parks, as well as aesthetics — what were the buildings and trees like? Was it pleasant to walk around?

After they set their parameters, they created a spreadsheet and plugged in information from StreetEasy, updating it with additional details after they saw each apartment, to calculate an overall score. On the matrix, the 600-square-foot Columbia apartment they were leaving scored 209.

Given their tight deadline, they sometimes split up for showings so they could cover more ground, ultimately seeing more than 20 apartments. “With the matrix, we could trust each other more,” Mr. Falkovich said. “Rather than one of us seeing an apartment and saying, ‘It was pretty nice,’ we could see what the other person rated each of the factors.”

It also helped them move quickly and decisively. When an open house overrun with “hip yuppies” stirred their competitive spirit — if all those people wanted the place, shouldn’t they try to snag it? — they plugged the numbers into the matrix and felt confident walking away.

And when they toured their current apartment, a two-bedroom, two-bathroom duplex in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, that rents for $3,300 a month, it scored so high that they begged the broker to cancel the next showing she had scheduled while the landlord reviewed their application.

“We knew we had to act fast. It scored a 238 — that’s two deviations up” from the other listings, which ranged from 180 to 215, Mr. Falkovich said. “If we took the math seriously, we knew we might not see another place like this.”

Among the apartment’s attractions: It was in a building with a doorman and an elevator. Also, they were told, it was 1,400 square feet. They have come to suspect, however, that the square footage they were given includes a rickety outdoor terrace they’re barred from using unless they pay to have it fixed.

But they do have an extra bedroom, which makes it easy to entertain out-of-town guests.

“It’s a huge service to people we know, friends or friends of friends coming through New York, who would otherwise have to pay $200 a night for an Airbnb,” Mr. Falkovich said. “And we get to hang out with cool people.”

They arrived in September, offloading the majority of their old Ikea furniture to incoming students, who were happy to take it off their hands. To furnish the new apartment, they divvied up items to research, then brought each other lists with the top contenders and the pros and cons for each.

The apartment does have a few drawbacks. It scored low on lighting, because some rooms don’t have ceiling lights. And there is a no-pet policy, but they make do with a stuffed octopus and animal-themed art.

Overall, however, they are convinced that using a decision matrix served them well, allowing them to see the best option clearly, without getting hung up on minor details.

“It was really much nicer than the other places we saw,” Ms. Lawry of their new apartment.

“When I tell people about the matrix, their intuition is that I’m outsourcing my heart,” Mr. Falkovich said. “But my heart is confused. I need to put my desires in a more organized structure. Goal factoring and decision matrices help you realize what’s missing and what you care about.”

It’s not the first time he has relied on a decision matrix, he confessed. He used the same method when he was single and trying to decide whether to continue dating Ms. Lawry or another woman he began seeing around the same time.

When he told Ms. Lawry about it later, how did she react?

For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, <a dir="ltr" href="http://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/realestate/" title="">sign up here </a>. Follow us on Twitter: <a dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/nytrealestate" rel="noopener noreferrer" title="">@nytrealestate </a>.

The Best Way to Pick an Apartment? Try a Decision Matrix

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