<p>I know this is a little too early since Fall 2011 has only started for two weeks. That said, I already decided to live off-campus housing next year, and I have my eyes on a place already.</p>
<p>However, I wonder if now is a good time to decide on a place to live. Should I wait until later in case that would somehow give me a better deal?</p>
<p>The sooner the better. Don’t make the mistake of waiting till the last minute to look for housing, or you will have to live out in Saudi Arabia aka Eagles Landing like me and my friends.</p>
<p>I didn’t start looking for a place until February, and I had no problem. GrandMarc starts offering better deals if you wait until late spring/early summer. If you start looking too early, you run the risk of hating your future roommates months before your new lease even starts. It’s hard to evaluate whether you can get along with someone in that kind of environment this early in the game, especially if you’re a first year and presumably have never lived with anyone else before.
I think early-mid spring semester is the perfect time to start looking. You’ve had a semester of adjusting to a roommate, you’ve made some friends, and there is still plenty of housing available.</p>
<p>I had an interesting situation, since I lived in Brown for 4 years but knew I would be moving off grounds for my 5th year student teaching. It took me until my 4th year to really start researching where I would want to be. I looked at places in January. The apartment I ended up with was amazing. :)</p>
<p>My 1st year when I knew I wanted to live in Brown again my 2nd year, I had been hanging out with this girl every weekend but I thought that she would want to live with her current roommate again since they were good friends. But her current roommate actually decided she wanted to live with someone else (to branch out or something). So I scooped up my to-be roommate for the next 3 years! 
The other girl would come visit us a lot, her mistake was my gain hehe. And now I am the bridesmaid, though to be fair the other girl is way out on the other side of the country. I think that things work out as they should, as long as you put in a fair amount of planning, and have some back up plans. And if you do end up out in Eagle’s Landing, it is a lot closer when the JPA bridge is not closed and the apartments there were nice last time I was there (2009?)… Just another reason for your parents to let you bring a car…</p>
<p>The place I’m interested in is an apartment on Ivy Road close to Emmet Street. It’s close to campus and the grocery store Food of All Nation, which is nice. After living at Copeley for three weeks so far, I really like having a grocery store within walking distance.</p>
<p>I find it stupid how every place requires a 12 months lease, though, even if I know the owners have to make their money.</p>
<p>@kindaslick89: I was concern that I would find a better value later and end up regretting it. Also, with my lack of experience, I’m not sure if it’s a good deal, either. The apartment I have my eyes on is “1930 Ivy Road” for about $400 per bedroom per month.</p>
<p>@brishe: The person I’m planning to have as my roommate is my friend since middle school. The only problem is that he’s currently at a community college, trying to fulfill the agreement for guaranteed transfer into UVa, so I’m not 100% sure I would get a roommate until he gets accepted (even if I feel that it’s more likely than not that he will get in).</p>
<p>Also, I’m a second-year. :P</p>
<p>@hazelorb: Well, I’m not too familiar with the process. I found the apartment on the BRAC website, but am not too sure of what to do next.</p>
<p>And I won’t need to bring a car since my friend will bring his. 
I barely touched the wheel after I took Behind the Wheel, so I have zero confidence in driving a car. Besides, my family doesn’t have a spare one for me anyway…</p>
<p>I used BRAC too!
You will figure it out. I enjoyed my 15 month lease but I worked in CVille both summers.</p>