Tag Archives: renting

Housing Advice, Renting

How to protect yourself when you rent

Renting an off-campus property can be an overwhelming task, to say the least.  We try to help, but how do you know you’re making the right choice when you rent?

In a recent article by Jessica Hickok (http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/05/15/how-to-protect-yourself-as-renter/), she identified some very specific things renters can do to protect themselves when renting a property.  Here is the breakdown of that list:

  • Checking the state’s landlord/tenant laws
  • Watching for red flags on a lease, including changes to monthly charges within the time of the agreement, can you make repairs yourself if the landlord does not respond to repair requests, will you get reimbursed for making those repairs, how will your security deposit be settled once you leave, and are there any eviction procedures that could take place
  • Make sure the owner isn’t in the foreclosure process with the property
  • Be sure to have an exit plan just in case

A lot of the time students may often forget they too have rights as renters.  This is why it is so important to point out some things you can do to protect yourself when signing an agreement because you just never know.

To find your state’s Tenant Rights Handbook, go to http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/topics/rental_assistance/tenantrights.

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Student Life

Why do students move off-campus?

At JumpOffCampus we know that every campus is different went it comes to housing. Some schools have housing for their students, some do not, and there are others in between.  But why do students want to move off-campus when their school offers housing on-campus?

In an article by RedandBlack.com (http://redandblack.com/2012/04/24/rising-sophomores-choose-between-on-and-off-campus-housing/), we got an idea on how to answer this question.  According to the article, 67% of freshmen students at the University of Georgia live on campus, while only 18% of sophomores and even fewer juniors and seniors actually live in the dorms.  However, one of the University’s biggest issues with keeping students on campus is space.  According to Carla Dennis, the Assistant to the Executive Director of University Housing, “The majority of our residence halls on-campus are filled with first year students because we have a commitment to first year students as part of the first year live on requirement . . . Unfortunately we don’t have the space to house all of the students who want to live on-campus after their first year.”

While space may be a consideration for some students, it is not the only thing drawing students to off-campus housing.  Other students interviewed at the University of Georgia suggested that the promise of independence, greater privacy, and more affordable living were especially appealing to students looking at off-campus housing options.  In another article in the Princeton Review (http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2012/05/16/30980/), they added that students also are enticed by greater accommodations, more recreational opportunities, and more “bang for your buck” when they make the decision to move off-campus.  While there are some disadvantages to living off-campus, such as inconvenience in the commute to campus and parking, it appears that students seem to identify more of a benefit to this style of living.  So while it may be tough finding a parking spot or taking public transportation to campus every day, for many it seems to be well worth it.

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Apartment Hunting, Housing Advice, Renting

When should I start looking for an apartment?!

With the summer finally here, at JumpOffCampus we have been trying to get a feel for the housing search process and see when students really begin their search.  While the sublet market for summer housing is a rather quick process where you can find an apartment one day and basically move in the next, the search for year round housing is usually a more involved process.

We saw an article (http://www.miamistudent.net/news/students-rush-to-find-off-campus-housing-1.2855045#.T6lQpehSSxg) about students at Miami University and how their housing search is getting a bit crazy.  Students at Miami have had a difficult time finding enough off campus housing for the population.  Because of the shortage of on campus housing, they feel rushed to sign leases up to 18 months in advance in order to beat the crowd!  Students at Miami University are required to live on campus their first two years, and they often sign leases for apartments as freshman.  One group of students when they were signing their lease even had students knocking on their door yelling that they would pay double.  There also were students calling and claiming the 2014-2015 school year already for their house!

So what does this situation at Miami University say about the off campus housing process?  The search for off campus housing is definitely not always enjoyable.  It is stressful, time consuming, and often times you feel like you are just spinning your tires without getting anywhere.  In the case of Miami University, the students there have felt so much pressure to get housing early, that they rush to sign leases school years in advance and once they sign they often regret it, because they have no idea what they are going to be doing two years from now or who their friends will be and whether they just made a good decision or not.

What can we learn from this case about how to go about the upcoming fall semester housing search?  Well, the first thing is to definitely start early (although Miami students may be forced to start a little too early).  It is important to plan ahead of time and try to secure something, but there is no reason to feel pressure to sign something without fully thinking about it.  You should try and stay ahead of the game, but keep in mind, there is never just one ideal option out there.  If you know where to look, you will find that perfect apartment.  You don’t need to take the first one that comes your way just to get the process over with.

It also is important to know where to look.  That’s where we come in!  We have now made it easy to sign up for JumpOffCampus without having an affiliated school.  That means that even if your school does not use our service or endorse it on the school website, you can still sign up and see what apartments might be around your area!  Also, if you are looking for a sublet, anyone from any school can see them too!

Lastly, it is important to work with the landlords and make sure the lease is exactly how you want it.   Make sure it is very detailed and that it covers everything you need in order to protect yourself (we will talk more about this in an upcoming post) and that any verbal changes that are made to the lease are written down and amended.  If the lease doesn’t address things you feel it should, then speak up!

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JumpOffCampus, Uncategorized

Sublets are blowin’ up!

We have some big news in the sublets department, and just in time for summer!  We know how stressful it can be to find summer housing, it’s always super competitive, and places that are willing to rent to students for just a couple of months are hard to come by.  Hopefully JumpOffCampus can help you with this and make your summer housing search faster, easier, and less stressful.  We have seen a lot of growth with our sublets and we have decided to make it even easier for students to find them.

For example, Brown University in Providence, RI has seen a huge amount of student response to sublets.  Over 160 sublet listings have been posted, and over 1000 messages have been sent through the site inquiring about them!  With this kind of growth, we wanted to make sure that any student could take advantage of our site, regardless of whether or not their school is affiliated with us.

We have now opened JumpOffCampus to allow any student to sign up to see sublets that are posted at any school.  This way you can look at any housing in an area you need.  What if you get a summer internship in Boston, but you are from Connecticut?  It can be really stressful to find housing in those types of situations, so we decided to make it better!  Now that you can see all sublets, you can simply find the perfect apartment in the area you are looking for!

Also, if you have an apartment that you are looking to sublet, we make it super easy to post and find the perfect students to fill your place!  What’s nice about JumpOffCampus is that the site is student centered, so if you have a place, you can easily find other students to fill it!  It’s easy, avoids wasting your time with the wrong types of people, and keeps your focus on things that are really important, oh yeah like finals!

If you have any comments, questions, suggestions, or feedback, let us know!  We are always looking to improve!  Good luck everyone on the end of the semester and let’s get those sublets rented!!

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