Good luck

Best bet would be somewhere in east queens - think Jamaica, Kew Gardens, or Forest Hills. Your girlfriend could take the subway to Manhattan easily, but your best option would be to get a car to commute to Old Westbury - the drive would only be 20-30 minutes. If you absolutely needed to, you could take the LIRR from Kew Gardens to Westbury, but you’d still need a car/bus/Uber on the end to get to your final destination, and it would take a LOT longer. You can easily find 1-bedrooms under $2500/month in those areas, possibly even a 2br depending on the area and building.

Check out Long Island City. Great location, one stop on the subway into the city. I live there. Great great great spot.

THis is not a thing.
You need to do this yourself because apartments go quickly. You need to have all your paperwork ready with a handful of cash.
Yes it's cutthroat. But NYC real estate has always been this way.
The minute someone tells you about an apartment it's likely gone.

AnD things are much more cutthroat because landlords all use this software to collude with each other to keep rent prices artifically high, the DOJ is already investigating this. It's called RealPage.
https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-realpage-rent-doj-investigation-antitrust

Flushing is another good option. It's a genuinely cool neighborhood and you can commute out to Old Westbury via Northern Blvd. The LIRR in morning rush hour can suck west of Clearview Expwy.

Or even Western Nassau like New Hyde Park or minneola and take the LIRR in. Or Douglaston little neck

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