This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Suffolk chapter.
Now that winter break is over and spring break is quickly approaching, so are housing deadlines for next year. It is that time of year when you need start figuring out where you want to live and with whom you want to live with for the upcoming school year. For some, mostly underclassmen, this process is not that daunting, seeing as you may be guaranteed another year in the dorms. However, for a lot of schools, especially city schools like Suffolk, housing is barely even guaranteed to freshmen, and a lot of big decisions (and payments) are going to have to be made over the next couple of months to ensure that you won’t be homeless next semester. Here is my checklist of things you should be doing before signing the lease!
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Who are you going to live with? This is probably one of the most important factors of apartment hunting. Though everyone thinks it is a good idea to live with your best friends, make sure they are people you think you can live with before agreeing to live with them. Consider the things that are important to you in a living situation. Of course, everyone is different when it comes to lifestyle. A few questions I would definitely consider are: Is their room clean? Are they clean? Do they stay up too late? Do they wake up too early? Are we the same shoe size? (kidding…but not really). Luckily, my best friends passed these tests and we were able to successfully live together, but if you honestly do not think you are a good roommate match with your closest friends, don’t feel obliged to live with them! If this is the case, start asking around to girls in your classes, clubs or dorm to see what people are doing for housing next year and if they need a roommate. Suffolk has a website dedicated to off-campus housing, which allows you to take a quiz and find people similar to you who are also searching for a roommate. Click this link to check it out!
What is your budget? This is a major factor of the apartment hunting process that you should be talking about with potential roommates. Obviously, everyone comes from different households with different financial situations. If you are talking about being roommates with someone who is wearing all-designer labels and may be expecting to live in a waterfront penthouse, you should probably double-check with your parents and your bank account to see what you can personally afford. Once you find out this information, make sure to discuss budget with your future roommate(s) and come to an agreement of what the mutual price range is before starting to look at apartments.
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Where do you want to live? Once you have your roommate situation figured out and have decided on a price range, it is time to meet with a realtor or off-campus housing representative who will guide you to different neighborhoods and apartments that are suitable for you. Deciding on a neighborhood can definitely be a fun part of the process. In Boston, there are so many different areas the offer all different types of things.
Things to consider when choosing an area are:
- How long does it take to get to campus
- Do I have to drive/commute to get to class everyday?
- If I do have to commute, is public transportation easily accessible and how long does it take?
- Is the neighborhood safe?
- Do a lot of college kids live in the area?
If you go to Suffolk, the closest neighborhoods to campus are Beacon Hill, North End, West End, some parts of Back Bay, and Downtown. The cheapest areas, where a lot of Suffolk students live, are Cambridge, Allston, Fenway, and Mission Hill. Depending on how many roommates and how many bedrooms you want, almost all apartments in Boston are going to be significantly cheaper than living in the dorms, which definitely is a plus to apartment-living.
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Now that you have selected a roommate or roommates, decided on a price range, and picked out a neighborhood in which you want to live, it is time to start narrowing down your options.
Some things to consider when taking tours of the apartment are:
- What floor of the building is the apartment on?
- Is there laundry in the building and how much does it cost?
- If there are no laundry machines available, where is the nearest Laundromat?
- How far away is the local supermarket/CVS/gym/bank?
- How many people are actually allowed to live in the apartment? (Sometimes
- if it’s a two bedroom and you have three or four people, you need to get
- approval from the landlord first.)
- What amenities are included in the rent? What amenities will we have to take care of separately from the rent?
- What kind of furniture and appliances will you need to buy before move in?
- Is there enough room for everyone to have beds in the bedrooms? (Some apartments, like mine, are so tiny! Definitely take some measurements before assuming that two beds will fit in one room.)
- Is there over-head lighting?
- Is there parking available on the street for move-in day and when visitors come?
- Does the landlord spray insect and rodent repellent along the outside of the property?
- Have there been any previous incidents with bugs or rodents in the apartment?
- How is the plumbing? Are there any leaky sinks or a toilet that has problems flushing sometimes? (This is something I really wish I had asked before moving into my apartment!)
This may seem like a long list of questions to ask when you are looking at each potential apartment, but this is where you are going to be living for the next year of your life! You are better off knowing the answers to these types of questions before signing the lease than on the day of move-in. If you forget to ask the residents these questions while touring, your realtor should be able to answer most of them for you!
Your realtor should also have the phone number or email of the people who are living in the apartment before you. I was lucky enough to be moving into an apartment where two college girls had lived before me, and they were really helpful with answering further questions we had for them over email!
We wanted to know things like:
- What are the neighbors like?
- Did anyone ever report you for making too much noise when you had friends over on the weekends?
- Is the landlord around a lot? Or do you never see him?
- Do you feel safe living there?
- Do you honestly enjoy living there?
Getting an inside scoop on the apartment and neighbors will make you feel so much better once move in day rolls around! Plus, forming a relationship with the previous lessees will open up the possibility of being able to buy some of their furniture, so that you have less to move in to the apartment.
Signing the lease can be a really exciting and nerve wrecking at the same time! You are signing a stack of papers containing a huge list of rules, and if you break one, you can have your apartment taken from you, sometimes without any warnings! Make sure to actually read over what you are signing, and don’t be afraid to ask questions if you have any! If it is your first apartment, you may need to have parents present, which is actually really helpful. My parents, as well as my roommate’s parents, had a lot of questions that I would have never thought of, and I’m glad they were there to ask and support us! Signing a lease is not only a big decision, but it is a big purchase, so take some of the tips above and make your apartment hunting experience, a successful one!