<p>Our youngest S is thinking of getting an off campus apartment for the upcoming year. He tried to get housing with 2 other students, but apparently, triples are very hard to get, especially for sophomores. They are guaranteed housing SOMEwhere, but not necessarily with each other, hence the idea of a rental.</p>
<p>Some of our concerns:
Not thrilled with the idea of signing a lease with 2 other parties who we don't know (assuming it requires signatures from all parties)</p>
<p>Not thrilled with the idea of having more bills to track each month...making one payment to the school seems so much easier.</p>
<p>We don't have experience with a shared rental, so we aren't sure whether or not it would be wise. Parents, can you share your experience with an off campus rental for your student...was it a positive experience? Pros? Cons? What things to look for in an agreement? Would you do it again? Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>It’ll more then likely save you money to rent… If I add up how much money my roomates and I spent on our on-campus apartment (no meal plan), we could have BOUGHT a cheap house! 4-5k per year times four or five of us over a 3 year period… </p>
<p>I’d try to get to know the other people though if they are going to be sharing a lease.</p>
<p>Both of my kids lived off-campus as juniors and seniors, and it was a positive experience in both instances.</p>
<p>The lease arrangements were different in each case. </p>
<p>My son lived in a building where a group of students (who had to be all of the same gender) shared an apartment but had individual leases. He lived with three other guys, and each guy had his own room. Nobody was responsible for anyone else’s rent, and all utilities were included in the rent. If someone moved out, the remaining residents were given 2 weeks to find a substitute roommate, and if they didn’t, the landlord would move someone (of the same gender) in to the apartment from the waiting list. I had to co-sign my son’s lease. He did not know all of the people with whom he shared an apartment (different people in each year), but it did not seem to matter. The building was run by incompetent morons, and that did matter. I saw the lease before my son rented the apartment, but there was nothing on it that indicated that the building was run by incompetent morons. I paid my son’s rent every month because he is somewhat scatterbrained.</p>
<p>My daughter lives in an apartment that she shares with another girl and a guy. Each person has a single bedroom. The landlord does not object to mixing genders in apartments, and mixed-gender apartments are very common in the community where they live. The three tenants are jointly responsible for the rent and the separate utilities. They all know and trust each other, so this is not a problem. When one of the original three roommates decided not to live in the apartment for a second year, the two remaining roommates were responsible for finding a substitute – which did not prove to be difficult (it’s a nice apartment, and they’re nice people). I did not have to co-sign anything, and I didn’t see the lease before my daughter signed it, but I did know that the management company was highly regarded. I don’t keep track of the bills. My daughter and her roommates do. They are adults, after all, and my daughter isn’t notably scatterbrained.</p>
<p>I think off-campus housing is a good experience for upperclassmen. It helps to prepare them for real life (just a little bit), and it gets them out of dorm doubles, which are not the most comfortable living arrangement. Some students (like my daughter) are only comfortable sharing an apartment with people whom they already know; others (like my son) are quite willing to live with strangers – it’s a personality thing (and I think, also a gender thing).</p>
<p>I think this is much more a case of what your son is ready and willing to do than what you are willing to do.
First, be sure that he can get back into dorming in a year if the apartment doesn’t work out. My youngest considered moving out for sophomore year, but found he would have to go to the bottom of the campus housing list if he returned to dorming. He wasn’t willing to chance this.
Paying rent, utilities, etc., is the tenants’ responsibility. If your son isn’t ready to write a check every month, how is he ready to cook, clean, pay his other bills, work out roommate issues, study, etc., on his own? It’s a big step, and one that should promote his maturity, not set him up to fail. My niece rented for junior year, but found that her roommates were parasitic, left her with almost 100% of the tidying/cooking and moved out without cleaning up a thing. She was back in the dorm senior year!
If the landlord’s requests during screening seem obnoxiously invasive, give him some credit. A landlord has got to screen thoroughly in a college environment. We were asked to co-sign son 2’s lease, as were all the other parents. This was in a medium-sized city; a small town may have far different standards. I am very glad that his landlord cares so much.</p>
<p>@midwesterner: We definitely feel our son is able to handle and manage living in an apartment as far as the bills, check-writing, working out issues, etc. He is very responsible and organized. If he were not, we would not even entertain the idea of a rental at this time.</p>
<p>Our biggest concern is if we must co-sign the lease and one of the other parties fails to pay for whatever reason, or damages the premises, we will be held responsible. And as you suggest, the idea of not being able to get back into the housing pool on campus is also a deterrent. From what S says, many others at his school have gone off campus, and then easily applied to get back on again. I will, however, confirm that with the school and see if the “guaranteed housing” is honored even after they have lived off campus. I know he will not want to lose that option.</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments…some good thoughts! Anyone else?</p>
<p>this is such a regional question in my mind. We are in CA. DS was in school in Boston. Rent was not cheap, we had to have a parent fly out and rent a van for an ikea trip to buy furniture, kitchen stuff etc could not come from home but had to be purchased…and on and on. Off campus rents are different everywhere. In Boston it is not uncommon to pay a brokers fee and to have to line up a place in Feb for the following Sept. What that means is that you pay four times the money rent many months before any move in.</p>
<p>Cross posted with you. Most places will want a cosign. Our son chose to live alone on a studio so we didn’t have issues but I have many friends who did have problems with roommates leaving their kid holding the bag on rent. You may want to look for a lease where you are only signing for your kids portion but you also may not find one.</p>
<p>Both my daughters lived in off-campus apartments their senior years and it is definitely a learning and growth experience. Each person in the house signed the lease so that was not an issue of being responsible for anogther person’s share of the rent. Although there are a good many issues beyond rent. In each case someone in the house needs to be the contact person with the utility company, someone needs to be the contact company with the cable company and yes you do need to have some kind of cable package in my experience in order to have internet service. There are expenses in getting furniture, no matter how minimal and kitchen supplies. There can be issues involved in parking spots depending on where the off-campus housing is. There can be issues with grocery shopping and how basics do get split up even if everyone is buying their own food as well as laundry and who does the grocery shopping and when. There can be issues with cleaning and who does what and when. There are landlord issues and problems-washing machines break down, there can be plumbing issues, leaking roofs, heating issues and issues with mice, there can be issues with snow removal and leaf removal…if a tree falls down in the street and pulls down power lines… you will be without electricity.If your apartment is in a so-so area, you have to extra careful about being broken into especially when you all depart for breaks. All these things happen in real life and have happened to all my daughters and friends in various apartments…would they have been mature enough to handle as sophomores… doubtful. Are they older and wiser now and able to deal with many of these issues, yes.</p>
<p>Thanks ebeeee. Good idea to look for a lease where we only sign for our son’s portion. And we already told him it MUST be a furnished rental…we will not be schlepping mattresses and dressers through the congested streets of his college town. Although he’s in an urban area, he is not directly in the middle of a large city like Boston, so the logistics may not be quite as complicated. That’s what we hope, anyway :)</p>
<p>@Bookmama: oh dear. These are exactly the issues we are concerned about. Deep down we’re hoping they can’t find a furnished apartment and decide to take their chances on campus. Would feel much better if they were juniors or seniors…just so many ‘what ifs’</p>
<p>Both of my kids lived in multiple off-campus apartments in both California and Virginia and we never co-signed the leases. Many places don’t require a cosigner but it sometimes includes conditions - like a larger deposit (refundable), proof of adequate funds in the bank (bank balance), etc. </p>
<p>Have your S use the requirement of a cosigner or not as a factor in choosing an apartment. As long as he gets one without a cosigner, and since he’s already a responsible person who’ll pay the bills on time, you’re off the hook. </p>
<p>One thing he should do with his roommates, regardless of how great friends they are, is to draw up an agreement and have all of them sign and date it. The agreement should cover things like who’ll pay for what (all bills split evenly or not - ex: if one bedroom is more desirable than another or if there are 2 in one br but only 1 in the other br), how furnishings will be handled (who provides what, who gets to use what, etc. - hint: they shouldn’t split individual purchases since it’s too hard to determine who really owns it later when they split), how many days notice to give to the roomies if one wants to move out and financial considerations of it, how the cleaning will be handled on move out, how the deposit refunds will happen, what happens if one of them has their GF to move in with them, etc. It should be stipulated clearly on the document and they all need to abide by it. If they don’t then there can be some ‘selective memory’ issues later on when issues arise. </p>
<p>It can all work fine and can be a growing experience.</p>
<p>Our son lived on campus throughout undergrad. I did find it easier to track and pay expenses directly to school for housing this way. </p>
<p>DS found a small studio apt in old Victorian house for grad school. Management company was OK. DID require me to cosign. I wasn’t thrilled by this but I would only be responsible for his one small studio, not a shared space with multiple roommates.
Second management company came on for second year and did not require me to cosign that lease.</p>
<p>Our junior son lives off campus in a townhouse complex that’s part of a nationwide chain of student apartments (PM me if you want more information). We did have to co-sign, but trusting the roommate wasn’t an issue. He still lives with his freshman roommate, so they know each other well. They pay rent individually and share the electric bill. Rent and groceries seem to be less than on-campus room and board. Their rent for senior year stayed the same because they signed the lease by a certain date. That would not have been the case on campus, where the fees have increased by a pretty large percentage every year. They chose the furnished option, because we would not have schlepped furniture 1,000 miles.</p>
<p>Though this is a very different experience than my four years in a dorm at a women’s college, it has been good for him. He’s had a chance to try out “regular” life where he really does have total responsibility for himself: cooking, grocery shopping, ironing shirts, calling maintenance when something goes wrong, even little things like turning the heat way down when they leave for breaks. Bathroom cleaning still needs a little attention, but I won’t go there.</p>
<p>The problem that I’ve noticed with D’s friends who go to other colleges where off campus rentals for upperclassmen is the norm–kids have to sign up for 12 month leases.</p>
<p>True, both my kids had to sign 12 month leases, starting in June (they were both at the University of Chicago). My D was on campus both summers (after sophomore and junior years), but did sublet when she went abroad junior year in the fall. My S sublet for 2 summers and the one quarter when he was abroad. His experience was a little tougher, as the landlord only wanted one check and there were 7 roommates. There were months over the 3 years that we fronted the rent, but all roommates always paid up, eventually. My D’s landlord will accept 2 checks, and that has worked out much better. All parents co-signed both leases.</p>
<p>We never had financial issues but for sure logistical ones.</p>
<p>Landlord needs to send the exterminator to spray for bugs. Which roommate gets to miss class that day to hang out waiting for a truck that arrives three hours late? Door lock is broken- sink is clogged- window sash won’t stay closed and it’s the window next the fire escape. It’s a lot of responsibility for kids- not that they can’t handle it, but sometimes they are unprepared to handle it. And move out during winter break was a major hassle-- not like locking the door to your dorm room, this was leaving all your stuff in a building which would be vacant for a month (and anyone in the area would know the students leave for break.)</p>
<p>Get a renter’s insurance policy; make sure kid and roomies understand that “minor” problems like water under the sink quickly become major problems (like a flood in the apartment downstairs) unless they are taken care of ASAP; budget for 12 months of rent just in case you can’t sublet the summer months; make sure your kid understands how much internet and heat cost if these are not included in the rent.</p>
<p>Paying for 12 months when they only live there 8 months (subtracting summer and winter breaks) is a pain, but at least in our case, it’s still cheaper than campus room and board. There are no sublet opportunities in our son’s college town because everyone who stays during the summer already has an apartment. Living in a larger, multi-unit complex, if it’s well managed, can have advantages because the maintenance people are on-site. Renter’s insurance is a good idea. When S comes home for the summer, he’s not leaving any valuables behind (it’s easy because he’s driving).</p>