Out of the Dorms, and Into Life (A Guide to Finding the Best Place to Live in College)
Your Freshman year is almost over, and you can’t wait to get out of your dorm hall where you have to share anything and everything personal - right down to your sleeping habits and that bar-sized refrigerator. Chances are you’re at a big campus, so it’s time to get out there and spread your wings. If you’re like us, then one year of dorm life was enough, and you might need some tips on where to go from here.
Life in off-campus housing is great - you have some freedom! You can live by your own rules and on your own schedule (well, by your own, I mean ‘yours and your roommates’, whom you can now be much more selective over). There are usually a lot of rental houses and apartments to pick from around campus that all cater to students. Before you go out and sign a lease, though, there are a few things you should consider. We’ll walk through some issues to think about based on our past experiences, reviews we’ve seen through our site, and a bit of research.
-
Start Counting Your Benjamins!
First, and most important to most students, is the cost of the rent. Hopefully as a student you have some sort of budget in mind for the next 4-5 years of your college career. Finding a place that is within your budget should not be too hard. Also, keep in mind that the theory that “you get what you pay for” isn’t always true with student housing; we’ll get into that a little later.
-
What Are Your Gotta-Have-Its?
When you find yourself getting creative with Ramen noodle meals, you know you’ve accepted that you have to give up some luxuries in life at college. But there are so many things we definitely can’t live without. For most students these things include:
- cable and high-speed internet
- washer and dryer (laundromats suck)
- less than 5-10 minutes from campus
Take your gotta-have-it list and keep that in mind when looking around for housing.
Remember, some landlords might be charging extra for some of your gotta-have-its depending on your usage (for example, water, electricity), but often it is included in your monthly rent.
By now, since you’ve determined your price range and gotta-have-its, you should be able to narrow down the type of rental you need: apartment, house, town-house, etc.
-
Can’t Live With Them, Can’t Live Without Them (Roommates)
Choosing roommates really doesn’t seem that hard. And it’s not if you have a few close friends who are also looking for a place to live. Roommates are great for several reasons; they help cover the rent and help create some of the best memories of your college career (if you choose wisely).
Most landlords charge students for all the rooms/occupancies in the rental. This means if you can’t fill one of the rooms, usually that cost of that room is added to everyone’s overall rent. If you find a good landlord they will work with you when special cases arise, like when a roommate leaves before the year is up.
When possible pick roommates that you know ahead of time, this way you know you will get along with them a majority of the time (honestly, there are days you really don’t want to deal with roommates at all). If you are adventurous there is nothing wrong with random selection when looking for some new ‘roomies’. Living in a house takes a lot of cooperation between everyone to make things easy and comfortable. Look for a future blog post from us on ‘Guide To Living With College Roommates’.
-
So, Which Place Should I Choose?
Hopefully by now you’ve recruited some roommates, narrowed down your price range, and have a list of your gotta-have-its. Now it’s time to find a place. So, where do you start looking?
Most students hear about available housing through their peers. Even the biggest social butterfly just doesn’t have time to ask each friend about housing based all of their own criteria; however if you could search a database of your peers’ feedback on student housing, now that would be awesome… [shameless plug alert!]
And that’s where RateMyStudentRental.com comes in. We’ve done our best to make your search as easy as possible. Check out our intro video tutorial (~2 min) to see how easy it is to find the place that fits you.
-
Commit Already
Now that you’ve found the housing that meets your financial needs and gotta-have-its you can sign the lease with the landlord. Here are a list of things to be cautious of when signing the lease:
- Read the entire document, every term counts. Each lease different. Some don’t make sense (i.e. not reviewed by a lawyer). Some are fair. Some try to screw students. And some (believe it or not) unwittingly screw the landlord!
- If something doesn’t seem right to you, question the landlord and if needed check your State’s laws on rental properties and tenant rights.
-
Live It Up
You’ve got your own place now to call home when you’re at school. Let the good times roll & make the best of these years, however you see fit!
Tags: Dorms, Freshman Year, Moving Off Campus
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:59 pm
I think that the leasing agreement contract law should actually probably be the most important since that is also quite possibly the binding legal agreement that has the most capacity to screw you over.
Therefore, even if your anxious landlord is watching over your shoulder and tapping the fingers on the table trying to sucker you into signing the lease agreement in a hurry — DON’T fall for that trap.
If anything, you should ask if you can have a few days to read it over and do so very carefully. Read it over with a friend, your family, your parents, your pet if you have to! If there’s anything you don’t understand, it is the responsibility of the landlord to clarify.
If the landlord feels to be witholding information from you on purpose, or is only willing to give you vague responses that doesn’t (satisfactorily) answer your question — chances are, you’re going to get screwed over — so don’t fall for that.
Just be very very cautious and have a friend tag along so you can bounce ideas off of.