Home is Where the House Is

Someone once said that home was the right place to walk around without shoes.

Recently, my roommates and I began the long journey of finding a house near campus. Like many students we had grown through the phases of living on campus to living off campus in a predominantly student complex. After all that, it seemed like time that we stop having to add another line to our address.

It’s pretty natural, I believe, for students to move on beyond the dorm or apartment if they become really attached to the community around their university. I know that after two years in the apartment we share now, two of my roommates and I independently came to the same conclusion – it was time to move on. We found some like-minded friends and went out into the big, bad world of real estate.

                 
In preparation for this, I did a little research. There wasn’t much guidance out there on what to do for college students. “It’s a buyer’s market” doesn’t help when you don’t want to buy anything. The cornucopia of resources out there lacked real applications to our situation, so we just kind of stumbled through. This by no means makes us experts, but still, even some guidance can be remarkably beneficial.
                 
So, there are decidedly five phases to the rental process. I’m still in the “Lease” phase myself, but I’m looking at the whole process and coming up with a checklist of sorts of things to do. It’s a good idea to do as much as you can as early as you can. There tend to be a lot of people looking around for a nice house, especially leading in to a new academic year. Leases for August get snatched up as early as January sometimes. This is just my experience, and it can be useful to ask around to friends with houses to get a wider selection of advice. Second opinions are one of the most useful things in the world.
                 
From the outset you need to determine a few key factors. This part of theprocess is massivelyimportant because changes here can absolutely ruin your progress later on. What kinds of things do you need to know? First and foremost, is a house even right for you? Houses have a lot of tradeoffs when compared to apartments and residence halls. A house isn’t as likely to be overly concerned with access to campus, for instance. Odds are, web sites that focus on properties in your area will address campus, but that isn’t the only problem. The trade in terms of freedom to really stretch your metaphorical legs, and often (with a fair number of roommates) a lower price, is almost always made up in the payments on utilities and other bills, and in minor maintenance – shoveling snow and the like.

Second, get a really strong idea of how many people who are getting into this with you. The more people that are wavering the more problems you have. In my case, one of my potential roommates decided instead to be in Germany for a year. Needless to say, this was a little problematic, as we had already looked at houses with a certain number of bedrooms. This also is important because it lets you determine what the group wants, which is the next step. Make sure you all want the same things, at least at the core of the matter, and decide on what priorities you all have.

Once your groundwork is done, it’s time to look into renters and line up tours. The internet is fantastic for this, local sites like KalamazooRent.com can be really useful. And, of course, there are places like Craig’s List too. It’s a bad idea to let pictures online get your hopes too high though, it’s easy for a property to not live up to your expectations. To this end it’s a great idea to contact a leasing agent not about one place in particular but about a series of places. Just list to them the things you want: bedrooms, price range, geographical area, and move in date just to name a few. It’s a good idea to let them know that you can be a bit flexible on these, particularly if you don’t have absolute confidence in your potential roommates.
 
The tours are a lot of fun I won’t lie, especially if you’re looking at an area with a lotof interesting homes. Scheduling them can be a little troublesome given the demanding schedules college can generate, but packing a lot into one day is a good way to do it. Be sure someone has a camera and someone is taking notes when you go from house to house. I personally like a shot of the outside of the house before all the ones of the inside, in order to organize them well in my thoughts. The thing that might be awkward is that often the people living in the house at the time will be there when you tour it, but it still is important to check for things like mold or insects; so poking around is important despite any awkwardness.
                 
The next important thing is to talk about that day’s highs and lows. It can be a real challenge to compare things as a whole, so breaking it up and settling on a couple favorites from each leasing agency can help. Once in a while, you’ll find that place that just feels right, but more often than not you just find theone that has what you want.
                
It can be a good idea to ask details about the lease before saying goodbye to each agent. That avoids a nasty surprise after you think you found the one. If the lease is reasonable and the house is the place you all agree on, it’s time to look at the language. A lease is a contract, and like any contract it can be a pain to read. Look for anything that could have double-meanings or any wording that just doesn’t feel right. A lot of agencies really rush this because other people are looking around too, and its often first come, first served. Still, it’s important to take the time. Look up the agency online and with the Better Business Bureau. Assuming everything checks out put the pen to paper. This is a step you want to do carefully. You don’t want to accidently be liable for something you didn’t expect. You’ll probably need to pay a deposit (usually around the price of a month’s rent) and a small cleaning fee at signing.
                 

If you live in a dorm or furnished apartment, odds are you don’t have a whole lot of furniture. Houses are big and really remarkably empty. It can be a goodidea to watch Craig’s List around move-out days at residence halls or apartments to try to find affordable furniture. Garage sales can be good too. And if all else fails, there’s always IKEA. This can be an expense that takes you by surprise if you don’t plan on it.
                 
One of the most important concerns after the lease is signed, of course, is maintaining good terms with the other people chipping in on rent. Odds are good that bills will get divided up; one person takes the rent, one takes the electric, one takes the cable, and everyone chips in on everything. If this balance gets disturbed, a real problem can come up. As the Irish say, “May the roof above us never fall in. And may we good companions beneath it never fall out.”
                 
There can be a lot of other little costs hidden in the process that can crop up, so it’s a good idea to have a little money set aside as you get ready to move in. Things you might need that you didn’t expect, like toasters or microwaves, can take you utterly by surprise. A wall air conditioner, if your property doesn’t have central air, is a prime example of a surprise expense that can really set you back some green. That’s to say nothing of the fact that decorating a house takes a lot more than a hand full of posters.

Of course, as the old saying goes, “The ornaments of your house will be the guests who frequent it.” Find a place to suit you, and fill it with the people important to you. Happiness will follow.