Anyone else stressed out about housing?

[Ambigiousbuthopeful]

Are you moving to a new city and worried about finding accommodation and roommates? Are going to have figure all this out without even visiting the city (esp if you are an international student)? How is the house hunt shaping up? What's your plan? 

 

Angst away! 

Edited April 26, 2013 by Ambigiousbuthopeful

[an11]

Thanks for starting this thread! Indeed, I've been feeling kinda stressed out about housing, for a while now! I'm moving to Los Angeles this fall, to start my graduate studies at UCLA, and I'm an international student...and as you so rightly pointed out, I've been at a complete loss, with regards to getting a suitable place of accommodation in the ''City of Angels''! As expected, apartment rates are inordinately steep and I'm having a pretty tough time, trying to find a place to live in near the campus that won't burn through my humble graduate stipend. University apartments are extremely overpriced as well...though right now, that seems to be my most favoured option, because I won't be able to personally judge the private listings that are put up online (on craigslist or the university's housings website), till I get there myself and I don't suppose it would be a good idea otherwise. Besides, I would really prefer having a private bedroom and really don't want to share a bedroom with somebody else...though I would love to share an apartment! And, I have had little or no success so far, trying to find places like that which are affordable. So I guess I'll just bite the bullet and stay at the university apartments initially (they have shared apartments with private bedrooms and studio apartments), and hunt down a better place to live in, after I get there this fall! Hopefully things will work out for me . 

[Biostat_Assistant_Prof]

I'm more anxious/excited than I am worried. I already have found a roommate, and now we're just waiting for more listing to come up with August move in dates... I've found the area I want to live, figured out the finances behind what I can afford, and I'm just waiting for the end of May/early June so I can go out to my new city and check out the places I'm considering

[Panama Slim]

I would suggest doing a hard search sooner than later.  I found that many of the choice spots were already taken.  Depending on how much space you need, you may find yourself further out then is optimal.  

[sharingfromafar]

Yeah, it has been an interesting process looking for a place to live. It helps though that I am moving to a college town so there are a lot of different options. I have found a 3BR/3B townhouse about 2 miles from campus and have already spoken with the other grad student that is interested in living there. I'll be going to visit for a weekend in late May to go visit between 4-6 different apartment options and then I will hopefully sign a lease that weekend as well. So, while the townhouse seems like a nice fit, it'll be nice that I'll get to see it in person before signing anything.  It seems that most people start looking for housing in May for the fall semester because most of the listings I have found were for the summer. So, I'm a little ahead of the curve, which is nice but I worry I might miss out on something by not waiting. 

 

What is nice though is that I have become the MASTER of apartment searching. Maybe if this grad school thing doesn't work out, I'll become a realtor for college and grad students haha. 

[BerenErchamion]

I'm in a similar situation to an11, and in fact it's at another UC campus (Riverside).

 

UCR doesn't guarantee housing for graduate students--I put in my application as soon as the online system had my application (a couple of days after I accepted their offer), and being from the Midwest I also won't really have an opportunity to check out apartments in person before I get there so on-campus housing is my best bet at least to get settled in.

 

Next week I think I'm going to call them and see if they can tell me how long it usually takes between applying and being offered a contract.  Still, I'm bracing myself for having to rent a place/share a place sight-unseen if necessary.

[msocean]

I've been searching online and that has been difficult.  I've narrowed down my choices and called them to ask basic questions.  I'm going to try out a studio apartment first, to avoid the room mate drama.  If I meet someone to room with after a few months they said I could move up to a 2 br apartment in the complex.

[Arrowfletch]

I'll be heading to my new city for a few days right after graduation to look at apartments and hopefully choose one.  I'm not a social person, so no finding a roommate/housemate for me--I'll be looking at single bedroom apartments not too far from campus, with easy access to bus stops (I'd much rather get on a bus than drive every day).  I'm not going to try for campus housing because as far as I know, there's no guarantee of a certain place (there's just a priority list) and I'd like to live away from undergrads since the undergrad program of my new school has a bit of a party atmosphere.  That puts housing cost a little high for me, but living alone and other considerations will greatly reduce my stress level.  Right now I have no time to look things up on my own, so my parents are doing the online searches for me.

[ylimer]

A quick tip: Write different departments or try to get on their listservs and ask about housing. There is usually a room or two that open up in a department and you'll be living with folks that are more senior than you in grad school, know the area well, and are not in your department. Might make it a little easier to swallow if you know some grad students already live there as well.

 

When I was in my Masters program, there was this one house that people just cycled through over the years, so it was never listed on a website. It was solely internally advertised.

[marxistfeministdialectic]

I've made a similar post in the IHOG forum.  This is a particular worry for me as an international student who is unable to visit my new city until just before the program starts.  I'll repeat the advice I've been given in that thread: if you're forced to rent sight unseen, a short sub-let might be a good idea.  That way you have a place to go when you arrive but if the place isn't as good as advertised, you're not stuck there long-term.  Talking to current grad students might also be a good way to get information about the housing situation.

[sweetpearl16]

I had to do the whole rent thing/find a roommate site unseen. This is an area where people begin signing leases for the next year in October. At this point, many of the best places are fully leased. I don't have a car and graduate housing is about two miles away from my classes, so that was too far for me. I talked to the tenant union, stuck with landlords who had only 0-2 complaints in the past five years, looked at pictures, called places and asked questions, read reviews of management companies and picked the best place I could find that was still available. It was a little more than I was hoping to pay, but all the cheap, good places had been leased and the cheap places that were left were not companies I really wanted to rent from. I figured in October I can look at cheap places for the next year. For now I would rather pay a little more and live in nice place, in a good location, run by company I trust. At the same time I found a roommate who will also be beginning graduate school. We spent a long time talking on the phone and feel very comfortable with each other. It wasn't the ideal renting situation, but I think I did the best with the cards I was dealt.

[Sorawit]

So far I haven't done much.  I know I should be looking for places and potential roommates and whatnot, but I kinda have a feeling that doing this from half way across the world would yield nothing much.  I do not know anybody in Minneapolis so my plan is probably trying to map the possible housing area by price and distant, and go look for myself when I get there in August.  Do you it's too late? 

[Ambigiousbuthopeful]

So far I haven't done much.  I know I should be looking for places and potential roommates and whatnot, but I kinda have a feeling that doing this from half way across the world would yield nothing much.  I do not know anybody in Minneapolis so my plan is probably trying to map the possible housing area by price and distant, and go look for myself when I get there in August.  Do you it's too late? 

 

I am also an international student going to Minneapolis and I suggest you try finding housing before August. I can't say my search is successful as yet but I am fairly certain I'll find something before I get there. You should send out an email to your department and ask them to forward it to current and incoming students. There a bound to be a few people looking for housing/housemates. And if you do find someone all you need to do is schedule a few skype calls to ensure you are compatible. Also, you could start looking at craigslist and responding to listings. Things will really open up in the May-June period. The cities forum on gradcafe has tons of useful information on the best neighbourhoods for grad students and on what a decent rental budget looks like. 

 

It is definitely stressful, it's seems doable! 

 

By the way, if all else fails, the university does provide cheap temporary housing for international students. However, one would have to be prepared to settle for a less that satisfactory place in august since all the good stuff might have dried up. Also, finding a roommate in august might be tough. 

[St Andrews Lynx]

I applied for graduate housing on-campus. An email came round advising prospective students to apply now before all the places filled up, so I hope that applying now means I'll get somewhere to stay. I'd rather do without roommates, but can suck it up for one year before finding a place entirely of my own. Solo apartment hunting is just one stress too many for me in the grad school application process...

[nugget3]

I'm not stressed out, yet... because I know there's still lots of time. But I am in the same situation as the international students: though I'm American, I'm living abroad until the summer, and have never been to the city I'm moving to. Thanks to the City Guide thread, I know where I want to live and how much to pay, but there's really no way for me to visit and sign a lease before school starts. I have been scouring 4-5 different rental websites, and just started contacting some landlords, but I think it's going to be hard without having someone to go look at apartments for me (which one landlord wants). I can't even call anyone without dropping a bunch of money! sweetpearl16, were you able to sign a lease completely electronically? How did that work?

 

I just have to remind myself... there's still time! Most of the listings are for immediate move-in, so I can guess there will be new immediate move-in rentals for when I arrive as well. And many people don't have to give more than 30-60 days' notice, so those places won't be up until June/July anyway. 

 

Here's to hoping we all have somewhere to live by the time school starts!

[sweetpearl16]

Yes, I was able to do the entire thing electronically. I called up the company I was interested in renting and was very lucky that they had one two bedroom apartment left. My roommate and I printed out the application, filled it in, scanned it emailed it to them. The then emailed me the lease. I printed it out, initialed and signed it, scanned it, and sent it to my roommate who did the same thing. We then emailed the scan lease back to the company. The company had an online portal for paying rent and other fees. We used it to pay our security deposit. After our payment had cleared, the company sent us back the lease with their signatures on it. The entire process only took a few hours. The longest part was waiting for our applications to be approved. I talked to a few other companies before we settled on this apartment. Most of them seemed very flexible about lease-signing. Two or three of them had similar procedures for renting from afar. Another one wanted us to print out the lease, sign it and mail it in with our security deposit. 

Edited April 28, 2013 by sweetpearl16

[norangom]

I'm not stressed out, yet... because I know there's still lots of time. But I am in the same situation as the international students: though I'm American, I'm living abroad until the summer, and have never been to the city I'm moving to. Thanks to the City Guide thread, I know where I want to live and how much to pay, but there's really no way for me to visit and sign a lease before school starts. I have been scouring 4-5 different rental websites, and just started contacting some landlords, but I think it's going to be hard without having someone to go look at apartments for me (which one landlord wants). I can't even call anyone without dropping a bunch of money! sweetpearl16, were you able to sign a lease completely electronically? How did that work?

 

I just have to remind myself... there's still time! Most of the listings are for immediate move-in, so I can guess there will be new immediate move-in rentals for when I arrive as well. And many people don't have to give more than 30-60 days' notice, so those places won't be up until June/July anyway. 

 

Here's to hoping we all have somewhere to live by the time school starts!

 

I had to do this for my undergrad, but it work out seamlessly for me. If I were you I'd get a Google Voice number and call them from that. Or you could pay a few bucks for Skype credits to call them. Very cheap and easy alternatives to regular calling.

[Arcanen]

I definitely was. Housing was one of the single most important decisions to me when it came to deciding where it is that I wanted to pursue my PhD. So many grad students just want quiet, clean comfort, and will be ok with whatever apartment they can find. They want solitude. But I wanted a community. I wanted to live somewhere where grad students lived as friends rather than strangers, where the community went to great effort to ensure that there is always some event/trip/party on whenever students can find the time.

 

I'm under no illusions; I'm going to be really busy very often. I'm not always going to have time to do this sort of stuff. But when I do, I want to be able to walk out of my room, across the hall, and into awesomeness. I don't want to be spending half my free time organsing with friends who live elsewhere in the city what we're going to do with the other half. I also don't want 90%+ of my friends to come from my department/program. I'll be spending so much time with them for the next 5 years that I'm going to need the variety.

 

Since I applied to PhD programs, I was able to checkout the housing options at each of my schools. Fortunately, all bar 1 school had options like the above. Even more fortunate, I was just accepted into the corresponding housing program at my chosen school.

 

I understand that many grad students are older with families. But many grad students are also moving alone to new countries and cities where they don't know a single person. Considering how lonely grad school can supposedly get, how little free time we'll supposedly get, I really just don't understand why you wouldn't want to make your living accommodations as awesome as possible. Me? I'm choosing the option with movie nights, community dinners, sports groups, day trips, weekend trips etc.

[APOCooter]

I wasn't freaked out until yesterday.  I had been skimming craigslist and kept seeing a fair amount of postings for the neighborhood I wanted to live in, so I figured I was fine waiting until June/July to find a place.  Then I started digging deeper and checking out apartmentratings.com and most of the properties/management companies are terrible.  Now I'm afraid I won't be able to find a nice place in that neighborhood.  I'm sure it'll be fine, but the shock of having multiple possibilities dwindle to just a couple was kind of shocking.

[nugget3]

That's great to hear that the whole electronic process worked for someone. It can happen!  Although more and more landlords are saying that they want someone in the area to look at the apartment...

 

I also hear the previous poster on realizing that so many places seem to be run by slumlords, or are filthy, etc. I thought I found the perfect place, but the landlords have the worst reviews I have ever seen. Many other landlords in the area also seem pretty unfavorable. Guess I'll keep looking!

[GodelEscher]

I unfortunately am in between a rock and a hard place. I applied for graduate housing but it is a little on the expensive side. At 780$ for a 2 bedroom 2 story townhouse (800 sq ft) it feels a little over the top (I need 2 bedrooms- for the kiddo). So I am contemplating whether I should risk applying for an apartment not on campus (sight unseen & forefeting $150 deposit) or just move there. I just don't want to move and then have to move again. And I do not (repeat-do not) have easy things to move. Like big screen tv's I can't carry and a sofa that is double my height and weight. 

 

Oh and does not help that I highly doubt I will pass their credit check (housing off campus)...oh what to do?

Edited May 1, 2013 by GodelEscher

[mpheels]

I unfortunately am in between a rock and a hard place. I applied for graduate housing but it is a little on the expensive side. At 780$ for a 2 bedroom 2 story townhouse (800 sq ft) it feels a little over the top (I need 2 bedrooms- for the kiddo). So I am contemplating whether I should risk applying for an apartment not on campus (sight unseen & forefeting $150 deposit) or just move there. I just don't want to move and then have to move again. And I do not (repeat-do not) have easy things to move. Like big screen tv's I can't carry and a sofa that is double my height and weight. 

 

Oh and does not help that I highly doubt I will pass their credit check (housing off campus)...oh what to do?

Can I ask where you will be living? $780 for a two bedroom sounds pretty good to me, but rates vary quite a bit. I currently pay $750 for a one bedroom (Chapel Hill, NC, mid-size college town), and have been looking at paying $800ish for a studio in Baltimore.

[GodelEscher]

Can I ask where you will be living? $780 for a two bedroom sounds pretty good to me, but rates vary quite a bit. I currently pay $750 for a one bedroom (Chapel Hill, NC, mid-size college town), and have been looking at paying $800ish for a studio in Baltimore.

Pullman, WA- fairly inexpensive city to live in but very old apartment complexes and I think I might stay in graduate housing since they were recently built so it's hard to compete with that. I currently live in a fairly inexpensive city as well to that is steep to me considering the area. It is quite different than living in Orange county, CA though. I once lived in a 500 sq ft studio for almost $1,000 a month (ouch). 

[Jbenrod]

For some of the bigger operations, an apartment manager may tell you there is only 1 (or 2) units left just to try and get you to feel a sense of urgency to sign a lease.   So be alert to that and don't always believe it especially if you can find reasons to believe it is not true.

 

Generally the people now living in the units signed a 1 year lease a year or more ago starting in either August or September.  Therefore their lease/apartment will turn over starting this August 1st or September 1st.   They need to give 30 or 60 days notice so that means that many of the potential apartments will not even be known until around first of July of August.

 

The terms of the lease are what you are agreeing to.   If the lease says you have to give 60 days notice you can cross out the 60 and replace it with 30 days and see if that is agreeable.  If not you can always change it back - if you wish.   It seems like it is going to be difficult a year from now if you want to move to have to give a 60 days notice (e.g. by end of May for an August 1st. lease).  (Think about are you going to know where you are moving to 60+ days in advance?  It sounds like that would mean you will be winging it for 30 days until other places open up.) 

 

Also be alert as the lease will give the landlord rights to show your apartment after you give notice of moving.  That is expected and fine as long as you are clear with the understanding.  For example, do they just show up after calling you the morning of the showing or are they to give you 24 hours notice?   I could care less but if you want advance notice put it in the lease.   I noticed one place I was looking at goes in and video tapes the apartment and puts it on Youtube?   I guess that is just fine with me - but if you don't want all your junk shown to the free world then pencil in the lease that showings of the apartment will be to real people actually on the property and that there is to be no video taping's of your property posted on the web.  

 

Most of the time a lease only becomes an issue when something isn't working out OK and often it is because you didn't understand the lease to start with.  It is best for landlord and tenant to work together and most of the time that is what will happen.  However years ago my brother had one landlord (a doctor who owned apartments in midtown Memphis) who took advantage of him and others by never returning their security deposits so it does happen.  

 

Also, that same guy had the building heat on a timer.  At 10:00 at night the boiler went off and didn't come on again until 6:00 in the morning.  About 3:00 you would wake up freezing in the winter!   So if heat is included ask about where are the controls located at, and if it is on a timer whereby it will be shut off during part of day or night - - just so you know.  It is those unanticipated things like this that causes problems for everybody. 

Edited May 5, 2013 by Jbenrod

[thatman2013]

I unfortunately am in between a rock and a hard place. I applied for graduate housing but it is a little on the expensive side. At 780$ for a 2 bedroom 2 story townhouse (800 sq ft) it feels a little over the top (I need 2 bedrooms- for the kiddo). So I am contemplating whether I should risk applying for an apartment not on campus (sight unseen & forefeting $150 deposit) or just move there. I just don't want to move and then have to move again. And I do not (repeat-do not) have easy things to move. Like big screen tv's I can't carry and a sofa that is double my height and weight. 

 

Oh and does not help that I highly doubt I will pass their credit check (housing off campus)...oh what to do?

 

I would give my left pinkie for a $780 house. Try finding a place in Silicon Valley. $2000 for studio apartments...