<p>We have two weeks to get a list together of housing options to visit. Son will be a grad student, but he is looking for non student housing. He is moving from a southern to northern climate, so things like proximity to public transportation, grocery stores, pharmacy, are important to us. He won't be the typical undergrad who just walks to class and eats in the cafeteria. He will take classes on campus and work in the lab, but the school, University of Minnesota, is in a city, Minneapolis. He will be on the east bank, in Minneapolis, but the west bank may be a better option for proximity to shopping, etc. Because of our time crunch, and husband and I are involved in big projects right now so can't help son look, so we're thinking of hiring a real estate agent that would help us in finding apartments and narrow down a list for us to visit when we go up in two weeks. We only have three days to find a place, so I'm thinking it would be worth our while to get professional help. Can you guys recommend where we can look for such a place? Son has been working with the housing office, grad student help, but we're fearing some of these places will be filthy and geared more toward poor grad students just looking for a place to lay their head for a couple of years. Son is hoping to relocate to this area, so we'd like something near the university, but geared more for a working adult. Thanks for any input!</p>
<p>Craigslist has worked for S in finding a place for himself in Arlington, VA. I think universities are generally very good at helping find housing for their grad students. If you explain your thoughts, they may be more helpful in finding a nicer place, as long as you and your S are willing to pay the additional rent. If they can’t help, they may know of realtor to help you.</p>
<p>Craigslist is the place to start. You can e-mail and narrow down the nitty-gritty from there.</p>
<p>We have used rent.com with some success, especially for the narrowing down process…just keep in mind that those photos aren’t always representative of reality.</p>
<p>When we were looking for grad school housing off campus, DS went on Craigslist. He made contact with several different folks with listings. I actually was the one who went and found the apartment. I met each if the folks at a designated time, on the date. DS had notified them that I would be acting on his behalf. </p>
<p>Turns out the first person I saw was actually a property manager for a number of college rentals (I was in Winston Salem) and she had several places for me to see. My kid was not looking for a roommate…he wanted his own place.</p>
<p>happyniece3 found a place in one day in Minneapolis/St Paul with Craigslist. Truly, start there. If nothing looks good, then he should ask someone in the administration of his own department if they can recommend a realtor.</p>
<p>montegut, he won’t be like most undergrad students, he will be like most grad students…wanting a better place to live, and a certain amount of creature comforts–all on a very tight budget!</p>
<p>Does he want to live alone? Would he be happy in a studio apartment? Would he be open to renting a bedroom in a house or townhouse or apartment with other grad students? Would he consider signing a month-to-month lease for while he figures out the lay of the land? Will he have a car?</p>
<p>When my son was a graduate student (at Cornell) he used realtors twice and found two great apartments. His first year he was in a similar situation to your son: He had only been to Ithaca once before and didn’t know much about the various neighborhoods, except that he wanted to be close to his academic department. H set up appointments with 2 or 3 realtors and visited over the weekend to seal the deal. By using realtors he was able to see several apartments, send photos to his prospective roommates and sign the lease all in a matter of days.</p>
<p>He’s used CraigsList successfully several times but in different situations. There tends to be a higher fall out rate when dealing directly with subletters and owners than when dealing with realtors. Realtors cost more but are more efficient.</p>
<p>Op,
I have used a realtor to find rentals (albeit, home rentals) as a leasee. Yes, you will get the best lay of the land with a realtor. Most of the time, the realtor’s fee will be paid by the leasor. The leasor pays the listing realtor a fee and if you have a realtor representing you then the fee gets split between the two, like in home sales. Therefore, it might be harder to find inexpensive rentals with a realtor because it’s more likely that a leasor with higher rents are going to bother with a listing realtor. I presume that there is the equivalent of a leasee realtor whereby you pay the fee to the leasee realtor. Then the leasee realtor could find cheaper rentals because they could deal with all rentals, not just the rentals that are listed by leasor realtors. Maybe the graduate student housing could give you some names of realtors.</p>
<p>Since you are buried in work, you could have the realtor do all the work for you.</p>
<p>PadMapper.com</p>
<p>I think it varies a lot by city/region whether real estate agents are involved in apartment rentals. Here in Seattle, they really aren’t. Walking/driving around the neighborhoods and looking for signs, craigslist and the university’s listing would all be more effective. There are those color magazine things they have in boxes in front of supermarkets, but those are mostly big complexes in the suburbs, not close-in, or charming. Minneapolis may be totally different however. </p>
<p>Definitely have him ask his department for ideas. They know what is convenient for their grad students and where they usually choose to live. He will want a grad student friendly environment, obviously different from that chosen by undergrads. </p>
<p>My daughter has found roommates from both FB and Craigslist. Around here, realtors aren’t really involved in rentals.</p>
<p>Second Padmapper.</p>
<p>OP, have you checked the housing board on the U of MN website? Like several schools the U of MN Housing dept maintains a database for off campus housing (when he moved off campus, my s found his first apt in Boston through his school’s housing board, which made me think to look at the U of MNs site)</p>
<p><a href=“https://hrl-ochls.oit.umn.edu/ochls/”>https://hrl-ochls.oit.umn.edu/ochls/</a></p>
<p>…oops, just saw you said that S has been working with the housing office so he is probably familiar with this site 
</p>
<p>The great news is that the Green Line light rail service to the U of MN campus just went live about two weeks ago. It goes from downtown St. Paul west to Minneapolis, and stops on the U of MN campus along the way. So public transit to the campus just improved quite a bit. I personally wouldn’t use a realtor. I’d scope out apartment buildings for rent near campus or near the Green Line via online listings, and look on Craigslist starting a couple of days before you visit. </p>