<p>I am helping my son find off campus housing for UCF in January. It is tough! All the review sites are filled with nightmare stories of living in UCF area - I am beginning to thing this is some kind of battle of the properties to slam their competition. If it is really as bad as they say - this is third world conditions!!! So… I am going to see for myself on Thursday. I have a stack of options we can afford and I will just try and make the best choice. If you are in the same boat - reply and I will let you know what I find out. Good luck to everyone…</p>
<p>There is room oncampus for spring if you are interested. Contact housing at:</p>
<p>Fall 2009 Housing Available
On-campus housing is available for immediate move-in. Go to the Housing Administration Building or call 407-823-4663.</p>
<p>I will do it! It is hard to know what is good and what is bad so that is why I thought I would just drive over and see it for myself. I have found some sublets on Craig’s List so tell your friend that might be a good resource too.</p>
<p>The 4/4 student housing looks nice online - but the reviews are just awful. Not sure if it can be THAT bad tho. I did find some very small apts for 500-600 range but adding all utilities that is going to be pricey - but it is not forever and hopefully my son can find someone to share an apt with within the year. I will post what I find tho!</p>
<p>My S lives at the Lofts. So far so good. Typical student housing, parties in every building. There are openings at the Loft as one of my S roommates didn’t move in. The other two are going to SCC. </p>
<p>The Lofts maintenance was slow at first since they subcontracted and the company walked off with the money. Last week everything got fixed.</p>
<p>So far so good for Northgate Lakes for son. Everything was in pretty good shape w/ move in, and someone came in same day and fixed/cleaned a couple of things that needed handled the same day, and without calling. Loved how the police blocked the parking off at the entrance on game day so that only residents’ cars could be parked there, so as not to create a problem w/ non-residents parking in their slots and walking to the game. For him, he walked to the game, so that was perfect. No trouble catching the shuttle into campus on the two days he does that. The other three days he drives in, as he gets there before 9:30am, and has no diffiuclty finding a parking spot on campus.</p>
<p>I really like Jefferson Village. Some of the neighbors can be inconsiderate when it comes to noise but that’s not the fault of the community (unless it goes on too long). It’s clean, the rooms are nice, and the amenities are pretty great (the gym is awesome). Security can be really strict which is either good or bad depending on who you are. One thing I absolutely hate is the amount of speed bumps. Way too many. I’ve only had one problem that needed fixing and it was fixed on time. It was nothing major (my roommates fire alarm was beeping and would not stop) but they fixed it in a timely manner on move in day. They also added a concierge trash collection system which is great for us lazy people. All in all, I plan on returning next year.</p>
<p>hi i would also like to know any apartment complexes that are good. and not super expensive. I am transferring for spring 2010so on campus housing is out. and i don’t want to live in affiliated housing because i already have a room mate. so we only need a 1 bedroom or 2 bedroom.</p>
<p>When is a good time to start planning for next fall? I hear the good off campus housing books up fast. Is this something we can put off until the spring or do we need to jump on it earlier?</p>
<p>The off campus housing fills up real fast. My s and I went looking a month prior to the fall start date and the only places he would even consider was:
The Gathering
The Loft
Jefferson.</p>
<p>We never made it to Jefferson as he decided on The Loft.</p>
<p>If you are a lady there seems to be alot of apartments that are available for sublease on craigslist.</p>
<p>The one place I would have liked to seen was Northgate. I believe they are over by the stadium and traffic is horrible on the ‘other’ side.</p>
<p>My S likes his location because he is walking distance to Publix, Chilli, Blockbuster, and Walmart. He drives to school and dislikes the shuttle service.</p>
<p>My question is (since D hasn’t accepted yet for fall 2010) …just curious - these off campus apartments, what are the rental rates (approx) in comparison to campus dorms, just curious. Lets say dorm is 2700 for each semester so x 2 is $5400. Just curious…did someone say like $450/mo and for how many bedrooms, or I guess students are sharing, so how much total and then they split…and what does it include…electric etc.? </p>
<p>(does this jibberish make any sense??)
THANKS, I am still clueless about this stuff…
:)</p>
<p>The apartments I looked at were all in the $500-600 range. You sign an individual lease for a specific room in an apartment, not for an entire apartment. Everything is included, but there is an electricity cap…you should expect overages(split evenly) for electricity every now and then. It seems to be much nicer and cheaper than living in a dorm, but you have to keep your D’s safety in mind when choosing a place. I’ve heard that there are lots of car break ins and even some apartment doors have been kicked in at some places.</p>
<p>Here’s a quick review of the places I toured Monday…</p>
<p>The Lofts - The Lofts is VERY nice, but it’s in a bad location(behind a plaza) and needs much more security than it’s short walls and security guard that rides around. I’ve heard that many cars get broken into there.</p>
<p>Jefferson Village - It’s not too far from The Lofts, but it’s in a secluded area. It appears to be much safer than The Lofts, because there is a security guard at the front that stops every everyone to get info and call whoever they’re going to see. There’s also a huge amount of trees and bushes surrounding Jefferson, so the walls aren’t jumpable. It’s just a few years old, so everything looks new. It isn’t as nice as The Lofts, but it’s much safer.</p>
<p>Northgate Lakes - Northgate is overpriced because it’s close to campus. There’s no way that I would pay $600+ for an apartment that’s about 15 years old. The appliances are older, and the rooms are pretty small compared to the other places I stopped at. I was also turned off by the dirty pool and theater. It looks safe though.</p>
<p>The Edge - The edge is close to campus, and the model was decent. The dark brown carpet was a turn off, but everything else was decent. It has 2 phases directly next to each other, so there’s much more buildings than the other communities I looked at. Larger communities seem to attract more crime and noise than other places…it’s also off of the main road and lacks security at the entrances.</p>
<p>S is paying $530/mo for a 4/2 apt at Northgate Lakes. We figured out it’s going to run us about $2000/year less than what we were paying for an 11 1/2 mo. contract at The Towers (a 4/2) – based on what we paid last year.</p>
<p>I probably didn’t look hard enough, but I didn’t come across any off campus apts with leases that are less than 11.5 months. Most students prefer 11.5 so they don’t have to deal with moving every summer.</p>
<p>There are very few places that do semester leases. I believe those are The Pegasus. </p>
<p>The Gathering … review… Close to interstate. Police Officer lives at front of property. Older town house feel. Nothing fancy but they had the highest cap on utilizes. Carpet is either green or gray. Kitchens are all white.</p>
<p>Just a heads up to anyone looking at Jefferson Village: the security guards are being removed from the front and will instead be walking around the premises due to resident request.</p>
No trouble catching the shuttle into campus on the two days he does that. The other three days he drives in, as he gets there before 9:30am, and has no diffiuclty finding a parking spot on campus.</p>