I am officially half-way through my second semester at SUNY Oswego, and time sure is flying by! Between school, work, job-hunting, and apartment-hunting, my time has been completely monopolized, but, in a fun, starting-my-life kind of way. One of the big things that I wanted to talk about was my search for an apartment. I lived on-campus this past year, but for my second year at Oswego, I’ll be living off-campus with a few other girls. We decided to live together about a month ago, and we decided to dive right into looking for an apartment. This was my first experience ever with looking for a place, but luckily two of my future housemates have been through the process before and were able to give advice or input about what places looked promising. We’ve already secured a place for next year, and I’m super excited about it!
Here are a few apartment-hunting tips that I picked up along the way:
1.) Start looking as soon as possible! The best places go quickly, so start looking up places and contacting owners as soon as you know how many bedrooms you need.
2.) If you’re looking for more than a 2-bedroom, you’re probably living with more than one other person. In this case, it’s super important to know each other’s schedules when you’re booking apartment walk-throughs with property owners. It sounds small, but when you actually call the owners, you’ll need to tell them what day works for ALL of you. This is especially important when you find a place that you like, since you’ll all need to be present to sign the lease.
3.) Don’t be afraid to ask for the lease!
4.) When you’re checking out the apartment, check things like whether or not the faucets are dripping, if the lights work (especially on steep staircases!), and what the floors look like. Also notice if it’s cold or hot inside. This will clue you in about the apartment’s utilities.
5.) Take pictures in the apartments, especially if you are looking at multiple places in one day, or if one of your housemates can’t make it to the walk-through.
6.) Right after looking at the place, go somewhere and make a pro-con list with your housemates. If there’s more pros than cons, then it might be worth looking at the place again.
7.) Discuss finances with your future housemates. You’ll be splitting rent, so you need to know where they’re at financially.
8.) Have an experienced adult, like a parent, look over the lease before you sign anything. Even if your parents aren’t helping you actually pay rent, chances are they might see something that you didn’t notice that is worth asking the landlord about.
9.) Talk about who wants/needs a big bedroom. Most off-campus housing is characterized by older houses with smaller bedrooms. In fact, some places include one extra “bedroom” on the advertisement, but in reality, it’s a room the size of a closet. If you have a roommate that’s okay with taking a tiny room, that’s fine, but figure out who that person is before you sign the lease.
10.) Ask if any furniture will be left behind by the tenants. Most housing comes totally unfurnished, minus appliances, unless tenants choose not to take some items with them.
Happy house-hunting everyone, and remember- S.A. provides a list of property owners on their web site for students looking for off-campus housing. Also, living off-campus is a big step into the “real world”: if you like being close to classes and not having to worry about making your own meals or calculating commuting time, then living on campus is always the best option.
