A 21-year-old Lehigh University student found an unknown man seated at her desk in the wee hours of Friday morning in an off-campus house she shares with other students…
It turns out no one at the house knew the young man, and police believe he stole a laptop computer and accessories from the home in the 300 block of East Fifth Street.

Now, I can tell you from experience, this probably happens more than you’d think. One of my roommates disappeared from an apartment party we were at one Friday night when we were Sophomores, and we didn’t see him again until the next day. Thinking he may have gotten lucky, we started hounding him for details. Turns out, he decided it was time for bed and left. He stumbled into our apartment and fell asleep on the couch. The only problem was, he was in the wrong section of the apartments, and it wasn’t our apartment. No one at the other apartment even said anything, because they all thought we was one of the other roommates’ friends.

So, next time you see someone you don’t recognize in your place, go ahead and ask them who they are. They won’t take offense.

Here is the survey @ SurveyGizmo.com

Student rental areas are known by criminals and these criminals know when you will most likely be gone for the holidays as well as other typical student behavior.  To help you protect yourself, we’ve compiled some tips on keeping your rental and your stuff safe when you’re not at your rental, based off of our experiences and from some ‘experts’ (if you will):

1. Take you precious possessions with you!  If you have any items that you absolutely can’t replace or can’t have out on the streets, take it with you!  The rest of your possessions should be put away.  Keep in mind, when a thief is running through your house they are most likely to take what is in sight or easy to get to.  Putting things away or out of sight will give your items a greater chance to stick around.  This reminds me, any bags or back-packs laying around will be something the thief will use to stuff full of goodies, so put those away too.  If you have a safe, see if your can bolt it down to the floor in your closet, a locked safe that can be carried away won’t do you or your possessions any good.
2. Lock it up!  Before leaving, make sure all your windows and doors are locked in the rental, including deadbolt locks! Sometimes, locking windows will not stop a criminal from using a brick or rock to get into your house; the harder you make it for them to break into your house the less likely you will have problems.  Criminals move quick and try to go un-noticed.  If they have to draw attention to themselves by breaking a window, they may opt to try your neighbors with hopes they left a window unlocked.
3. Speaking of breaking windows…pick up around the rental, not only before break but at all times.  Any decent-sized loose rocks, tools, or other objects could be used to break a window.  Having those types of items around is just asking for trouble!
4. Closing all blinds will keep peeping Toms out and won’t tempt criminals when they see your TV, stereo, speakers, collection of CDs (who has those anymore with iPods), DVDs etc.
5. Remember the movie, Home Alone, when it looked like there was an entire Christmas party in the living room of the nearly vacant home?  That’s a bit extreme, but leaving a few lights on in different rooms may give the impression someone is home. You can always ask your landlord to invest in timers for lights in several of the rooms so that they only come on at dusk (as to not waste energy) and turn on and off in different rooms on different nights or through out the night, just in case someone is really keeping an eye on your pad.
6. Don’t leave trash and/or trash cans out at the road.  Setting trash out a few days early because you’re leaving for the week is a green flag for criminals, same as empty trash cans sitting by the road waiting for you to come home to take them back to the garage.  Tips:  If you’re going to miss trash day by a few days just let it build up until next time you come back or ask your landlord if they will come by and set out trash/pick up the cans.
7. Ask you landlord and campus safety to check on the house a couple times during the week.

You shouldn’t only be concerned about deterring criminals from your rental, but there are also a few other tips you can follow to be a responsible tenant:

1. Turn off and unplug unnecessary electronics or any appliances that may be pulling power.  This not only keeps the utility bill lower for you or your landlord, but it’s also a good way to be a little more green.
2. Turn the heat down, NOT off!  Keeping your house at a chilly 55 degrees Fahrenheit will keep pipes from freezing or bursting, which will make a huge mess of your house and either cost you or your landlord a lot of money.  Keeping your place at 55 degrees won’t cost much and it will keep everything in the house (except roommates/pets) at just the right temperature.

These are just a few tips I’ve compiled from experiences over time.  The best advice is use common sense and be aware of the possibilities. And, remember that your landlords should be just as concerned about keeping your rental safe from potential crime.  So, don’t hesitate to talk to your landlord and let them know when you and your roommates will be out of town.

Just wanted to thank you for making this site. Me and my friends used
it this term to look for a house at Kettering. We found 625 Dupont on
here but were a little nervous when there were no pictures and one of
the reviews including saying there is a kegorator. The reviews were
really high though. Well after looking at a few other prospects we
decided to give this one a try anyway. We are so glad we did! The house
is in amazing condition and the landlord is extremely easy to work
with. I know we wouldn’t have found this house without your site! Thank
you so much with helping us out!

-jg32189

Then it’s real life, baby, and that can be a bit overwhelming!  I came acrosss a website/blog: GradSpot.com - Life After College. There are numerous guides here on everything from building a resume, dealing with the transition, finding post-college housing, and more.

Check them out, hopefully they could be helpful as you prepare to graduate!

DormDelicious provides dorm decor advice, decorating ideas, and organization tips. Read about college dorm decorating projects, and get helpful tips from other students for turning your new place into a more attractive space. DormDelicious is making the world more delicious one room at a time.

Overtime you may see some cross-posting between our blogs.  Andrew at DormDelicious was kind enough to blog about our services in ther blog  How To Find Delicious Off-Campus Housing.

Follow DormDelicious and RateMyStudentRental on Twitter today!

Students

Maybe your fall housing arrangements were temporary while you waited for your dear friends to return from their study abroad term, or maybe you were abroad yourself!  Or, maybe you just can’t stand your roommates anymore, or you’ve just had it with who-knows-what in the apartments or in the house.  Whatever the case is, RateMyStudentRental.com’s comprehensive database of rental’s is here to save you during the search.  Check us out to search for housing around campus and sort through your options by evaluating the ratings and reviews left by other students.  While you are there, rate your current (and past) rental(s) so that other students can benefit the same way you are benefiting from their ratings.

Tips For Students Looking For Housing:

• Cut your search time in half by looking for rentals who have been flagged as available or sublet needed.  To find rentals that have been flagged as available/sublet you can search the home page to see recent availabilities or you can use the search box. When using the search box, type in your school and select the “with room availabilities only” function.
• Create a Student Watch List (must be logged in as a student to view).  Let us know what your ideal student rental is by filling out the student watch list form.  When a rental is flagged as available that matches your criteria, we’ll alert you and you can contact the student or landlord who flagged the rental to make arrangements to move in.

If you are looking for a replacement roommate or you are finding someone to replace your spot in a rental you can flag a rental as sublet needed.  This will alert prospective students that you are looking for someone to fill a room or two in your current rental.  Instead of the prospective roommate contact the landlord directly, they can contact you.

Landlords

It’s really never too early to start seeking out student tenants for the upcoming term.  A survey conducted by Alfa Jango Software and Marketing helps RateMyStudentRental.com determine when student start looking for their next housing arrangements.  We asked students “How long before you need to move in, do you start looking for your next student housing arrangements?” Here are the results:

With those results, it’s clear to see right now is the prime time to start seeking out your tenants.  Reaching out to students can be difficult, but RateMyStudentRental.com has a feature that makes this necessary challenge, possible.  The Flag For Availability feature not only tells students you have available rooms but it also alerts students who have a Student Watch List created if your rental matches their criteria (number of rooms, rent price, distance from campus…etc).

Tips When Using The Flag For Availability:

• If you are a landlord at a school that has rotating semesters/quarters (like Kettering University who rotates students every 3 months) this tip is for you. If you have available rooms for both sections/terms, purchase the longest Flag - Next term, which stays active for 5 months.  You can use the description box in the flag to tell students how many rooms are avaiable during each term (and you can change this description as often as you would like during the life of the flag).

To all, good luck with house hunting and finishing and starting your next term.  Don’t forget to rate your work term housing too, we do that!  As always, contact us with any questions or comments.  We’re always looking for the next best way to make your life easier when it comes to student housing.

When you create your account you can choose whatever username you desire.  This username will appear on your rental reviews and will be how other users view your activity on the site.

TIP: If you want to keep a low profile pick a username that does not incorporate your first or last name, your school email address, or other terms descriptive of your real identity.

Situation 1:

When you contact a landlord your real name will appear as the contact. We’ve chosen to do this because chances are when you contact a landlord, whether to inquire about an available room or to submit a maintenance request, eventually you are going to disclose your  real name - and when that time comes, we don’t want your reviews (linked to your username) to be revealed to the landlord.

Situation 2:

When Landlords make the first contact to you they will only know/see your username, allowing you to reveal your identity at your discretion (or as we recommend, not at all).  Even when you reply to a thread that was started by a landlord your real name will NOT be displayed unless you type it in the body of the message.

We’re taking every measure we can to keep the identity of your review completely separate from the business you can conduct through RateMyStudentRental.com, while managing both identities under one account.

So, you may still be asking why it is important to keep your username and real identity separate?  It’s simple, at least we think so!  We don’t want students to feel any pressure to hold back the truth about a shoddy rental for fear of being bullied by a landlord or singled out.

If you have comments or suggestions on how we can do an even better job with this issue, please contact us and we’ll be happy to hear your thoughts.

]]> http://blog.ratemystudentrental.com/2008/11/10/working-harder-to-secure-your-identiy/feed/ http://blog.ratemystudentrental.com/2008/11/06/a-look-back-at-the-last-year-of-designs/ http://blog.ratemystudentrental.com/2008/11/06/a-look-back-at-the-last-year-of-designs/#comments Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:04:37 +0000 Kristen http://blog.ratemystudentrental.com/?p=186 It’s been just over a year since we’ve launched our first version of RateMyStudentRental.com.  Today we looked at the transition and improvements we’ve made over that first year as a launched website.  Why don’t you go on this journey with us!

There was the first mock up:

Then there was our place holder until we were ready to launch:

October 2007 Launch, we were so proud of this website:

Then we added a search function, called our users home-slice and made a few cosmetic changes:

We got on Twitter, finally designed a distinctive logo, added the landlord services, and started to play with the home page:

Then we thought our home page was a sidewalk and started to draw types of rentals in chalk, we got our first U of M review, and moved some things around a bit more:

And, here we are today. It is so refreshing to see even the design improvments over time.  We didn’t even talk today about the changes in our services and features which are driven by you, our users.  We’re always ready and working on our new and improved version of our website and services so send us your suggestions using Features Request page where you can submit a feature request and vote on other features other users submitted!

Thanks for all the support from our users: students, landlords, schools and mentors!