<p>I've spent literally hours looking up apartment complexes, reviews, floorplans, and various city/campus shuttles. I've pretty much narrowed down the apartments i'm looking into. (La Scala, La Regencia, International Gardens, Canyon Park). If you guys have any feedback about these apartments, or any other apartment complexes (more information never hurts) I would be REALLY REALLY glad to take it into consideration.</p>
<p>But my main question is, when is the best time to start my lease? None of my roommates are taking summer courses so I have time from now until September. I read on this forum that it's cheapest to rent during the dead months of summer, which i assume is the middle of summer. However, one downside is that we won't be able to see which room we got until we move back. We plan to visit several complexes this weekend but I'm concerned we'll end up with a room that looks much worse than the ones we see now.</p>
<p>you should start your lease whenever you want to start it. (which sounds dumb, but it’s true)</p>
<p>if you don’t need a room until closer to the time school starts back up in the fall and you make your lease for june 15th (or whatever), you’re either going to have to 1) live there and find something to do 2) find someone to sublet your place until you want to move in or 3) pay for an empty apartment while you’re at home for the summer.</p>
<p>when it comes to looking for an actual apartment, you should set a price range and stick to it. list what you must have in an apartment and the max amount you’re willing to pay. if you find that apartment, great! put down a safety deposit to guarantee its yours. almost half of ucsd students have found, are looking, or will be looking for a place to live very soon, so you want to make sure you’re not homeless/have to pay way out of your price range for a place.</p>
<p>honestly, you’re only living there for a year. obviously make sure the place isn’t run down (or at least below what your expectations are) and make sure you can handle your roommates for a year. you’re always going to hear of someone’s friend of a friend who pays $100 a month for a huge bedroom with a state of the art gym/pool/etc. but that’s just how it is. (i’m exaggerating to make a point, i don’t think that apartment exists in la jolla)</p>
<p>Well i figured I’ll be taking 1 year leases either way so i’ll have to pay for one summer or another eventually. I’ve been reading that people have gotten 2BR apartments for about 1500 while most 2BR/2Bath now are going for ~1800 and I’m curious how they got leases for so cheap.</p>
<p>as a general rule, a large majority of leases start at the beginning of summer, or at the end of summer (for instance a june 1 start date compared to a september 1 start date, like i currently have). if you aren’t planning on staying/doing anything here this summer, it may be beneficial to have a late august/early september start date so that you at least have the school year to find a sublet/job/whatever for next summer instead of scrambling to figure all that out in these two months before summer begins.</p>
<p>also, if you go into the leasing offices of the various apartment complexes they might be able to offer you a better rent rate/deal of some sort.</p>
<p>Yeah, i visited 6/7 places today and tried to get an idea of when it’s usually cheaper to rent. None were really able to give me a good answer except one told me cheapest is usually may/june. Not sure if he was being truthful or trying to get me to lease earlier though. I’m just mainly concerned how people get rent as low as 1500 when the going price now is 1700/1800</p>
<p>yeah may/june is a good time for the price range you’re looking for. but just be careful, there’s no guarantee that many places will open up!</p>
<p>Thats paradise. I’ll just wait a bit and hope prices drop a bit. If anyone else got apartments for cheap, I would love to know when your lease started. Thanks (:</p>