We’ve barely seen any snow on the ground and I am already asking you to think spring! It’s about that time to start thinking about housing for your next lease.  Especially for B-Section Kettering University students who are starting to think about housing for the spring term (April-June).  RateMystudentRental.com has some amazingly helpful tools for student’s and landlords as the fall term quickly comes to and end.

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.

We have made a critical change to our Flag for Availability feature that will allow you to leave a short description explaining the availability.  Whether you want to tell the students how many rooms are available, if you are looking for someone to rent the room for certain dates, etc.  The new feature (with-in a feature) will capture potential student’s attention.

If you have not seen the Flag for Availability feature yet, it is located under the ‘Rental Services’ for registered landlords.  The Flag for Availability feature allows you to flag your rental so that students know there are vacancies and can contact you directly through our messaging system to inquire about the availability and become tenants.  Flags can be purchased using your earned/purchased credits and vary in length.

• Flag Immediately:  active flag for 2 weeks.
• Flag for This Term: active flag for 2 months.
• Flag for Next Term:  active flag for 5 months.

During the time period which your flag is purchased you can un-list and re-list the flag depending on needs.  To do this you can follow the instructions below:

1. Log into your landlord account
2. Click the rental services tab
3. Find the ‘Flag for Availability’ feature
4. Click the ‘Un-list Room Availability’ button
5. Click the Rental services tab again
6. Find the ‘Flag for Availability’ feature
7. Enter in your message about the availability (To avoid being charged, do not change the length of the flag)
8. Click the ‘List Room Availability’ button
9. Go to your rental’s profile by clicking the picture or address of your rental to view the flag/final product

Our Flag for Availability feature works!  For the Fall 08 term at Kettering University over 85% of the rooms that used the ‘Flag for Availability’ were filled with students.  As always, contact us with any questions of feedback