A Gal’s Guide to Finding Your Home Sweet Home
With one semester down and one to go before we get a well-deserved summer break, many of us are excited to see what the next school year will bring us. It will be filled with many changes, such as new friends, new parties, perhaps a better season in longhorn football and, for some of us, a new place to live. I have begun my apartment search for the upcoming school year, and one thing I learned is that I knew absolutely nothing about the process. I figured that I’m not the only girl feeling like Elle Woods in law school, with my Harvard being the real estate world. I spoke with a few women who were well experienced with the apartment process as well as girls who are learning as they go.
1. Make sure you know exactly what you’re looking for.
If you aren’t exactly sure what you want in an apartment, you aren’t going to get much out of searching for one.“It’s pretty hard to find the perfect apartment, so know what’s most important to you. Whether it is price, roommates, or location,” linguistics junior Paulina Franco said. Know how many roommates you want, what each of you are willing to pay, how many parking places you’ll need and how many bathrooms you are looking for. Knowing all of these things before you start looking at apartments will help to narrow your search. It’s difficult to begin a search when you don’t have a starting point. Use the information you and your roommates decided on as a first step.
2. Get a realtor.
One thing many girls new to the apartment world don’t know is that many realtors around the city are ready to lend a helping hand in your search free of charge! Biology freshman Mariel Salcedo, like many others, is in a search for an apartment that is “comfortable, close to campus [and] that’s also in [her] price range.” She partnered up with a realtor to begin her search. With the various realtor agencies available and because of the vast amount of apartments in the city, it’s better to try out several different realtors. There are many different areas around Austin, such as West Campus, North Campus, and downtown, that can be looked at. Realtors have many clients so having several realtors to show you around can help you to expand your search.
3. Make sure your price is sensible.
Living in a big city like Austin can be a huge change for some of us, and the standard of living might be extremely different than some of us are used to. I’m from the Lubbock area, and my older sister who attended Texas Tech had a great apartment for a cheap price. After looking at many apartment prices in Austin and reporting back to my parents, it was clear that I was going to have to adjust my price slightly in order to make it more reasonable. “You have to have a reasonable price limit and stick with it as much as you can!” said Textiles and Apparel junior Jennifer Ochoa. You want to make sure that your price is realistic enough for realtors to take your quest seriously. However, you don’t want to continue increasing your price range because of the pressure from realtors. If you know your price range is reasonable it is best to stay within your desired range. “If you must stray away from your limit, make sure it’s worth it and practical,” Ochoa said.
4. Don’t leave out your parents.
While getting your own place makes you feel more like a grown up, don’t forget that your parents are there if you need any help. They probably have had their own experiences with many of the things you have considered when apartment hunting. Ask them for a few tips, get their opinion on one of your choices, or if you get stressed you can always go to them and ask them for help. Whether you may think it will make you feel like less of an adult, it is actually more responsible for you to seek out help in any form you can get it. I learned this from personal experience that sometimes parents do know best.
Of course there is much more information to consider when looking for an apartment in the beautiful city of Austin, Texas, but these are just a few tips that will get you on the right track. The apartment process isn’t one of the easiest, but it is a very important one. After all, the place you choose is where you will sleep, study and hang out with friends, so you want it to be the place you can call home. Take these tips and set off on your own apartment hunt with a little more information to begin with than you might have not had otherwise. Good luck, ladies!