<p>Hi, in the fall I plan on living off campus. People have told me that close to the start of the fall semester, it will be hard to find any places (or the places you find will be crappy). I'm not going to be in the area for the summer. My idea was to find a room right now, but not start paying/moving in until august when school starts. I am a total noob to living off campus/signing leases/etc however. Is it common for people to let you reserve a room that you will live at in x months? The main thing is I don't want to find a room right now and have to pay for May, June, and July just to hold the room because I will be back at home. I want to find a room for August right now and have them make sure that when August comes by, the room will be available for me. Is this how things work or am I just a total noob? :(</p>
<p>I think it depends on how things generally work in your area. Here in Madison off-campus housing is extremely popular and competitive. I signed my lease back in October, but I won’t be moving in until this coming August. That was a little early (you can still find places now, for example) but you wouldn’t be able to find anything if you started looking this summer. Most people sign leases in like the winter for the next coming year. It will depend how big your school is and how popular off-campus housing is in your area, however.</p>
<p>If you get something now you will probably have to pay a security deposit (generally one month’s rent) to hold the apartment until the fall. This could of course vary with your landlord, but I think that’s pretty standard.</p>
<p>Your school may have resources to help you with this as well.</p>
<p>Now is the time to secure off campus housing for fall 2011. Don’t wait much longer. </p>
<p>Many college Housing Departments have a listing of some off campus rentals. Check with them. If you know of anybody living off campus now, see if they’re looking for a roommate. </p>
<p>When my kid rented, he and 3 other guys decided to hunt for and rent an apartment together. Their lease was for 10-months (Aug. 15th-May 15th). They each had their own bedroom and shared the rest of the apartment (kitchen/dining area, living room, 2 bathrooms). In his case, each person signed their own lease and paid their own share of the rent directly to the landlord. They were responsible for acquiring and paying the cost of a cable/internet package. One guy had the cable/internet account put in his name. He wrote out the check to pay the monthly bill and the other guys gave him cash for their share of the bill.</p>
<p>Try to find a place where the rent includes utilities, heat, garbage removal, parking. You’ll probably have to pay for and set up the cable/internet. </p>
<p>One more thing to consider: If you move off campus next year and decide you don’t like it and want to move back on campus, will you be able to get on campus housing for the following year? If on campus housing is limited, once you move off campus, you may not be able to move back on campus due to a lack of availability.</p>
<p>As RedSox noted in his post, you will probably need to pay a security deposit. This will hold the apartment for you until the fall.</p>
<p>Thoroughly read all leases before signing.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies! There is a off campus housing database for my school that I’ve been looking at. I guess I will send a few emails to some of the houses. The only thing I wasn’t sure about is if they would let me sign a lease starting in August since its only April, but from your responses it sounds like it is normal to sign a lease ahead of time.</p>
<p>On campus is usually filled up every year, and if things don’t work out, I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to move back on campus. I am optimistic that things will work out however. If they don’t I am sure I can sleep in some of my friends’ houses/rooms and they will understand that I need somewhere to sleep while I find another room.</p>
<p>About how much rent do you guys pay? Here they range from as low as 200 to 800. I recieve financial aid and am expecting it to be enough to pay for my rent for the most part, so I am generally looking for the cheapest places possible. There are a lot of good looking places in the 300 range so that may be my price point.</p>
<p>I’ll be paying 700/mo. I know that’s expensive, but it does cover utilities and everything, even cable and internet, which is nice. I’m on financial aid as well, full scholarship so I don’t really have to pay for it.</p>
<p>If you are on financial aid, make sure you work over the summer or get a loan from your parents or something because they may want your first month’s rent (you may actually have to pay both first and last month’s rent before you move in) before your financial aid is disbursed. Just make sure to check the dates.</p>
<p>Ok, cool I will look into that. I have a question about genders. Is it uncommon to have houses with mixed genders? Most of the listings I see are for rooms in a private home as opposed to apartments. Everyone has their own room of course though. I am just curious because one of the best listings I see so far (price, location etc) says in the description that 3 girls live there, and I’m a guy… so I don’t know if they will even consider my email to them.</p>
<p>I have heard of groups of girls actually liking to live with a guy because they feel safer. I also feel like some people think that’s weird, so I think it could go either way. I know quite a few people who are living in mixed-gender settings, but I personally wouldn’t really want to live with a guy. It depends on the person I think.</p>
<p>Do you have friends you can live with who haven’t signed leases yet? I think for off-campus stuff it’s nice to live with some friends, people you already know won’t be obnoxious. I think living with friends is common and if you’re just asking random people to live with them, your chances aren’t as good. (I realize that may not be possible, however.)</p>
<p>At my school, off campus housing for the Fall ended a couple months ago, I don’t know how it is at your school but you may want to get on that quick.</p>
<p>Well I have a few friends that were looking into moving into a house together but I haven’t really considered it due to two things.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Wouldn’t it be harder to find a place if you have more people to move in? As opposed to just myself.</p></li>
<li><p>I’ve always heard that friends often times make bad roommates. For example if one friend is really messy, you’re very clean, you’re friendship will be pushed to its limits if you live together.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>And its good to know that some females are open to male roommates. I asked because in my experience visiting friends houses, the only girls that lived with guys were the ones living with their boyfriends.</p>
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<p>Well that depends on if you’re looking for a vacant apartment (multiple bedrooms are more common than one-bedrooms I think) or you just want to move in with people. If that is the case then yes it would be harder.</p>
<p>You need to know the habits of your friends. I wouldn’t live with your BFF because then you can get sick of each other or there could be a detriment to your friendship like you said. I would, however, advise living with people you are friendly with and who you know you have similar habits to, rather than random people.</p>
<p>Ok I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for all the help, I feel like I know enough now to make an informed decision as to where I will stay next year.</p>
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