Philadelphia, PA

[Max Kim]

On 7/25/2024 at 10:06 AM, newinhere said:

Hello everyone, I'm an international student who's about to start a PhD at Temple. I was thinking about renting an airbnb for the firsts day when I'll arrive in Philly, then I'll start to visit some apartments in person. Does anyone have any up to date recommendations for housing? Like FB groups or websites? 

Thanks in advance.

ok so honestly — if you're flying into philly to apartment-hunt in person, just book an airbnb for the first week or two. way less stressful than committing to a lease off some photos.

for listings, zillow, apartments.com and hotpads are fine, but a lot of the actually decent stuff lives in facebook housing groups, so dig around there too. and please don't wire a deposit before you've either walked the place yourself or done a live facetime tour with the landlord. people get scammed on this constantly.

if Temple is your anchor, look at Fairmount, Brewerytown, East Falls, and Center City — depends on your budget and how much commute you're willing to eat.

the part nobody warns you about is the actual move-in. philly rowhomes are cute right up until you're dragging a couch up a narrow staircase with nowhere to park the truck. a buddy of mine used WellKnown Moving when he did the same thing and said they handled the rowhome stairs thing without making it his problem, which honestly is what you're paying for. worth at least getting a quote before you try to bribe friends with pizza.