My college has only roach-infested hole-in-the-wall houses for rent >

[MissSilvy]

My college has only roach-infested hole-in-the-wall houses for rent >:(

I'm looking for housing for next year and god, is it frustrating. Most of the people on these forums are guys and all the guys I know don't really give a damn where they live. "Man, I'm only going to crash there between parties, hurhur" but is it so hard to find a decent house that is actually livable and doesn't have paint peeling, old nasty carpets, or some sort of shady **** going on? I know they usually rent to students but do I look like an idiot or something? I guess the search just has to go on. I'm checking craigslist, and contacted rental agencies. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[NeoDevin]

Most of the people on these forums are guys and all the guys I know don't really give a damn where they live. "Man, I'm only going to crash there between parties, hurhur"

No generalizations there...

 

[Renge Ishyo]

Your stereotype has failed. We nerds may not care where we live, but we certainly don't get invited to any parties.

 

[Crazy Tosser]

Wait... nerds live?

 

[turbo]

Have you joined any social groups in your college town? If you have, it's time to start leveraging them in your search for housing. You might also want to contact people who are graduating or moving to see if you can get the housing they are vacating. When I was in college, I made friends with a group of women who shared a large house and who were all graduating that year. They recommended me to their landlord, and I picked up a few of my musician friends to help share the place. We kept the place clean, and very rarely partied there - in part because we usually were playing in bands on Friday and Saturday nights.

It's helpful to get to know the landlords in a college town and figure out which ones are renting out slums to slobs, and which ones are trying to rent to more responsible students. The latter generally have better-kept properties. You'll want to keep standing offers with these better landlords - they'll appreciate having someone waiting in the event of an unexpected vacancy, and it will save them the cost and bother of advertising when a unit opens up. If you only watch Craigslist and the classifieds, you are in competition with every other student who is conducting a passive search - spend the time and effort to conduct an active search with landlords and you'll find a decent place.

 

[physics girl phd]

MissSilvy... do you go to MY undergrad?

Because my roommates had bad chemical allergies, we just accepted the roaches as matter of fact. We would just catch them under clear plastic cups and leave them there until they starved. Once we caught two of them getting down to it in our bathroom (we had to be sure to catch both)... but fortunately there was a loud party down the street later that week; we deposited both the roaches outside on their porch (sharing the love!).

Seriously... bad housing is, I think, part of the game of school and renting. In grad school I moved up to ants (but it was a arid area... they only wanted the cat's water). I thought it was getting better. But now we have kids... I think they're perhaps the worst.

 

[MissSilvy]

Ah, sorry. I didn't mean all guys are slobs or anything but it came out incorrectly. Sorry!

Turbo, I've tried but most of the landlord with decent properties are quite small. In my college town, the nice houses that I would like to rent are owned by individuals (usually people who are moving away and renting their own home or their second home). But you do raise an interesting point, I probably should contact individual landlords :) Thanks for the suggestion.

Physics girl phd: Ewwwwr! I salute you for putting up with that. I've been told that most undergrads live in a crappy place before they move on to better places but I'd just like to avoid the crappiness all together. Ants wouldn't even be so bad at this point. College life, I guess!

 

[turbo]

But you do raise an interesting point, I probably should contact individual landlords :) Thanks for the suggestion.

You're welcome. My freshman year in college, we were required to live in dorms. I knew that I would want a nice apartment when I was allowed to move off-campus, so I asked around and found a nice couple that owned a few well-maintained apartment buildings. I met with both of them, and convinced them that it would be reckless for an engineering student to be a party animal, and that I would treat their property with respect. I had to work summers in a mill in my home-town, and they stayed in contact with me and arranged to let me look at some open apartments on a weekend in late summer and let me pick a place. I took one that would have been harder for them to rent (small attic apartment on the 3rd story) and was cheaper as a result. It had a nice (though small) kitchen and a combination living/bed room and a really cramped bathroom. I also arranged low summer-rents with them so I could keep the place during summer when their properties were in low demand. It was a tiny place, but warm, dry, relatively quiet, and roach-free.