Finding an apartment when you wont be there till september

[meep95]

I officially accepted my offer and am super excited! However, I have never moved apartments this far away without being able to look at the apartment in person or meet rental agencies or landlords. I am worried I will not be able to find a place online because they will want to meet me in person, or that if i do the apartment will be shitty. I really can't afford to stay in a hotel for the first bit while I find a place, and I do not have a car so getting to campus would be hard since no reasonably priced hotels are near campus in the town I am moving to.  What are your suggestions? How are you all going about finding a place? I have contacted a few places already but they all said they are looking to fill their open apartments now and to check back closer to the time I will be moving.

[blc073]

I know the struggle. My girlfriend and I moved to Boston from the Midwest, and we were in your exact position. 

Here are a couple of suggestions: 

1) Look into university housing. A dorm, subsidized apartments, anything. It may not be ideal, but it is a place to stay. Most universities in big cities have university housing for graduate students. 

2) Look for apartment complexes. Avoid apartments run by independent landlords. A complex will have an office that will work with you. You can ask for a Facetime tour of the unit or detailed photos. Complexes typically have units ready for the future. They will post a unit and say "Available 9/1." Or something like that. 

3) If you find a place you like that is operated by an independent landlord, ask your university administrators to look at the apartment for you. They should be willing to visit the unit and take photos. You could also ask any of your cohort who already live in the city to visit the unit. 

4) Look on craigslist or another online site for people in apartments who need a roommate. Working with someone who is already in a place and who is in need of a roommate is probably the most flexible option. To this point, see if your university has a Facebook page or website for finding roommates. 

Don't worry, you will find a place. Every year thousands of incoming graduate students face this exact problem and figure it out. 

Good luck! 

[meep95]

39 minutes ago, blc073 said:

I know the struggle. My girlfriend and I moved to Boston from the Midwest, and we were in your exact position. 

Here are a couple of suggestions: 

1) Look into university housing. A dorm, subsidized apartments, anything. It may not be ideal, but it is a place to stay. Most universities in big cities have university housing for graduate students. 

2) Look for apartment complexes. Avoid apartments run by independent landlords. A complex will have an office that will work with you. You can ask for a Facetime tour of the unit or detailed photos. Complexes typically have units ready for the future. They will post a unit and say "Available 9/1." Or something like that. 

3) If you find a place you like that is operated by an independent landlord, ask your university administrators to look at the apartment for you. They should be willing to visit the unit and take photos. You could also ask any of your cohort who already live in the city to visit the unit. 

4) Look on craigslist or another online site for people in apartments who need a roommate. Working with someone who is already in a place and who is in need of a roommate is probably the most flexible option. To this point, see if your university has a Facebook page or website for finding roommates. 

Don't worry, you will find a place. Every year thousands of incoming graduate students face this exact problem and figure it out. 

Good luck! 

 

thanks! I probably should have mentioned that my boyfriend will be moving out with me, but unfortunately not until December (he has an extra semester of undergrad). Because of this, I am trying to get a place by myself so that he can move in, and it can't be university housing since its a one year contract and he wouldn't be able to live there since he isn't a student. I'll see if I can find any complexes though, seems like my best bet. 

[blc073]

2 minutes ago, meep95 said:

 

thanks! I probably should have mentioned that my boyfriend will be moving out with me, but unfortunately not until December (he has an extra semester of undergrad). Because of this, I am trying to get a place by myself so that he can move in, and it can't be university housing since its a one year contract and he wouldn't be able to live there since he isn't a student. I'll see if I can find any complexes though, seems like my best bet. 

I'm surprised he can't live with you in university housing. Most universities allow "domestic partners" to live in university housing. My girlfriend isn't a student, but she's living with me in university housing. They even gave her a family ID card. 

Anyway, I definitely think a complex is what you're looking for. 

[meep95]

2 minutes ago, blc073 said:

I'm surprised he can't live with you in university housing. Most universities allow "domestic partners" to live in university housing. My girlfriend isn't a student, but she's living with me in university housing. They even gave her a family ID card. 

Anyway, I definitely think a complex is what you're looking for. 

My university only allows that if you are married, and you have to provide a marriage certificate unfortunately :/ I looked into it already 

[spectastic]

i highly recommend renting a house, or finding a couple of rooms in a house, and speaking with the owner over the phone or skype, just to work out the details, but more importantly making sure the owner is level headed.

 

i've dealt with apartment complexes, and have had a couple of horrible experiences. one of them, I signed the lease from 700 miles away and didn't do my due diligence. I ended up in a low income neighborhood where the apartments were falling apart, few people had jobs, people were selling drugs, and friend of mine living in the same place had a state trooper knocking on his door looking for a convicted felon who broke parole. I found a letter written in prison.. the situation had more to do with the area I was living in, which was a total shithole. But the apartment leasing managers in that area were a bunch of snakes who would sell you a bag of dogshit and tell you it's chocolate.

 

But I digress. people are much easier to deal with if you're their only customer, in my experience. There is usually a little more wiggle room and room for compromise. but that also depends

 

subleases also come to mind, especially if it's going to be temporary while you look for other options

Edited March 27, 2017 by spectastic

[hj2012]

Another option is to check the university's student rental listings (if not official, many universities have listings through uloop or Facebook) and try to get a sublet for one semester while you get a better sense of the area. There's always students studying abroad for one semester or taking some time off and while it might be a pain to have to move again midyear, this might allow you to secure some place better in the long run. 

[fuzzylogician]

Make friends with current students. You might be able to get someone to go look at apartments for you. You should never sign a lease for an apartment you haven't seen, but if you can't go yourself, at least have someone go there and take pictures for you. You'll owe them something nice, but it'll be worth it. This is something that you should be able to find someone to help you with! Also, check if there is any current student moving out of an apartment whose lease you could take over, or if any of them happen to know of an opening. That would be an excellent way to find a place that is more likely to be okay. (E.g. check if any graduating students are leaving an apartment that would be good for you.) Other than that, university listings are also a safer bet; craigslist is always a bet, but it's better if you actually have someone go to each place you're considering in person. 

[meep95]

2 hours ago, spectastic said:

i highly recommend renting a house, or finding a couple of rooms in a house, and speaking with the owner over the phone or skype, just to work out the details, but more importantly making sure the owner is level headed.

 

i've dealt with apartment complexes, and have had a couple of horrible experiences. one of them, I signed the lease from 700 miles away and didn't do my due diligence. I ended up in a low income neighborhood where the apartments were falling apart, few people had jobs, people were selling drugs, and friend of mine living in the same place had a state trooper knocking on his door looking for a convicted felon who broke parole. I found a letter written in prison.. the situation had more to do with the area I was living in, which was a total shithole. But the apartment leasing managers in that area were a bunch of snakes who would sell you a bag of dogshit and tell you it's chocolate.

 

But I digress. people are much easier to deal with if you're their only customer, in my experience. There is usually a little more wiggle room and room for compromise. but that also depends

 

subleases also come to mind, especially if it's going to be temporary while you look for other options

 

oh wow thats crazy! I don't think that will happen, seeing as the town I am in is literally entirely green for crime rate--meaning there is basically none. I looked around to see the good and bad area's of town when I went for my interview, but since I wasn't sure I was going there yet I didn't look at any apartments since doing that at every interview would be an nightmare. I may see if anyone is subleasing for a semester or something though. 

 

1 hour ago, hj2012 said:

Another option is to check the university's student rental listings (if not official, many universities have listings through uloop or Facebook) and try to get a sublet for one semester while you get a better sense of the area. There's always students studying abroad for one semester or taking some time off and while it might be a pain to have to move again midyear, this might allow you to secure some place better in the long run. 

I am trying to do this as well, but I have been unable to find any Facebook pages for this school.

 

1 hour ago, fuzzylogician said:

Make friends with current students. You might be able to get someone to go look at apartments for you. You should never sign a lease for an apartment you haven't seen, but if you can't go yourself, at least have someone go there and take pictures for you. You'll owe them something nice, but it'll be worth it. This is something that you should be able to find someone to help you with! Also, check if there is any current student moving out of an apartment whose lease you could take over, or if any of them happen to know of an opening. That would be an excellent way to find a place that is more likely to be okay. (E.g. check if any graduating students are leaving an apartment that would be good for you.) Other than that, university listings are also a safer bet; craigslist is always a bet, but it's better if you actually have someone go to each place you're considering in person. 

 

Thats a great idea! How would you suggest making friends with current students who you have not met yet that live several states away? I don't want to come across as overbearing or whatnot.  Additionally, I have no idea how to find these people, especially because my profession (counseling) keeps identifying info very private on Facebook so clients can't find out things about us.

[fuzzylogician]

38 minutes ago, meep95 said:

Thats a great idea! How would you suggest making friends with current students who you have not met yet that live several states away? I don't want to come across as overbearing or whatnot.  Additionally, I have no idea how to find these people, especially because my profession (counseling) keeps identifying info very private on Facebook so clients can't find out things about us.

Well when I first moved what I did was find out the email address for the graduate students (programs will usually have a listserv kind of thing to make it easier to send announcements to the entire student body) and email them all with a quick introduction and my questions about housing. I'd already visited so I met some of them, but this was more efficient. I got very detailed replies from a couple of them and ended up deciding to be roommates with a current student who was looking for a new apartment, so that she looked for the place (since she was there) and I trusted her judgment. We had a long Skype conversation to make sure we were on the same page; we lived together for three years, so that worked out nicely. 

Another way to go is to reach out to a professor you've been in touch with and ask them to put you in touch with students. There are always some who are more active and would be willing to help, the trick is to identify them; professors will tend to know who those are, so if you ask to be put in touch with someone who could answer questions about housing for you, they should know who is likely to help. Otherwise, you could just open the People page for your program and cold-email a few people who seem like they might have similar interests to yours. They will either answer or know to tell you who could help. People are usually pretty friendly and willing to help when it comes to prospectives and new students; everyone remembers when they were in that situation themselves. 

[shadowclaw]

I was in your position when I was accepted into my PhD program. I had to move 3,000 miles from the east coast to the west coast! Everyone has given you great advice, but here is my experience with long-distance moving:

First, I had a tough time trying to rent from independent landlords. They had the most affordable housing in my area and all of the features I was looking for. However, none of them would rent to me unless I was willing to fly across the country to meet them first. They were "uncomfortable renting to someone so far away." I didn't have the funds to make a trip like that, so I missed out on some potentially good apartments.

Second, even some of the bigger rental companies and complexes would not rent to me unless I saw the apartment first. One company was willing to let me have someone else look at the apartment for me. However, like you, I felt really weird about emailing students I never met asking them to go look at an apartment for me. In retrospect, this was an error, because there are lots of cool people in my program and several of them would have been happy to do this for me had I asked. 

What I ended up doing was renting from a complex. Several of them had apartments available for when I would arrive and were willing to hold it for me with a deposit. This could have ended poorly... my apartment could have ended up being a complete dump. However, none of the complexes actually wanted me to sign a lease until I got there and did a walk-through. So if it was truly terrible, I did have the option of saying "nope" and heading to a motel, although I would have lost the holding deposit and been stuck without an apartment for a bit. Truth be told, I was a bit disappointed with my apartment. The website and craigslist ads for the complex make this place look like a beautiful park filled with beautiful townhouses with private yards. Turns out there's only one tiny spot that looks park-like and the interior of my unit left a lot to be desired. The private yard is actually decently sized, but it's surrounded by a crumbling brick wall. Yet I'm still here, so it's really not that bad

Some other strategies used by other members of my program who moved across the country:

One had a friend living about an hour away. He put all of his stuff in storage and stayed on his friend's couch until he found an apartment.

Another found someone looking for a roommate for the fall term only and decided to do that so she could look for apartments when she got here. However, her roommate turned out to be a demon, so she found an apartment really fast.

My only other comment is that it's really early for apartment hunting. You're not likely to find anyone advertising leases for the fall until June or July. Also, if you are planning on bringing a lot of stuff with you, look into different options for moving trucks and shipping containers. For me, a shipping container was the most economical and I originally could get two of the u-haul containers for a very good price when I checked into it in early June (for a September move). However, when I actually went to reserve the containers in August, the price had more than doubled, so I could only afford one from a different company (ABF) and had to leave some things behind. So the moral of the story is reserve early!

[ThisGreatFolly]

On the topic of when to start looking for an apartment, I think it really depends on where you are moving. A medium to big city probably means leases coming available no more than 2 months out of when you want to move it. But a college town and/or properties overwhelmingly housing college students likely are renting now for the fall. When I was at UCLA, you would be hard pressed to find anything in Westwood much later than April/early May, although you would be fine finding something outside the neighborhood much closer to the fall. When I visited UVA two weeks ago they were having their off-campus housing fair and people were already snapping up apartments for the fall. I'd reach out to grad students to see what the rental timeline looks like where you are going. 

[fuzzylogician]

^ Yep. In some places, now is exactly the time to start looking, and by May many of the good places might be already taken for the fall. The bigger the city and the less dependent it is on the universities nearby, the greater the chance that you'll find apartments year-round with leases beginning at any time. But that's not guaranteed, so you need to ask around to learn what the housing market is like both in terms of timing and availability where you're moving to.

[Bernardo Ribeiro]

That's exactly the topic I needed! I'm having the same issue as meep talked about.

I'm kinda struggling to find an apartment for the Fall term. I'm going to Brown by the way..So, Providence is a medium city, not to say small, and I was worried if it's too soon or even a bit late to search for apartments on that area. Do you guys have any ideas around Providence too?

I was looking into independent landlords as well. My first option was the grad housing that they have available but it's too expensive for me. They wanted to me to pay for the entire second semester in advance and since my stipend is per month (as all regular stipends I believe it is) I couldn't afford it.

I'm thinking about asking students that my Professor might know that are used to that kind of stuff.

I'm an international student from Brazil and yeah..not being able to visit the apartment before moving into is not the ideal thing but we have to accept it sometimes.

Let me know if you guys have any advices for my case please. I really appreciated all the help throughout this topic so far!

[meep95]

On 3/27/2017 at 11:58 AM, shadowclaw said:

I was in your position when I was accepted into my PhD program. I had to move 3,000 miles from the east coast to the west coast! Everyone has given you great advice, but here is my experience with long-distance moving:

First, I had a tough time trying to rent from independent landlords. They had the most affordable housing in my area and all of the features I was looking for. However, none of them would rent to me unless I was willing to fly across the country to meet them first. They were "uncomfortable renting to someone so far away." I didn't have the funds to make a trip like that, so I missed out on some potentially good apartments.

Second, even some of the bigger rental companies and complexes would not rent to me unless I saw the apartment first. One company was willing to let me have someone else look at the apartment for me. However, like you, I felt really weird about emailing students I never met asking them to go look at an apartment for me. In retrospect, this was an error, because there are lots of cool people in my program and several of them would have been happy to do this for me had I asked. 

What I ended up doing was renting from a complex. Several of them had apartments available for when I would arrive and were willing to hold it for me with a deposit. This could have ended poorly... my apartment could have ended up being a complete dump. However, none of the complexes actually wanted me to sign a lease until I got there and did a walk-through. So if it was truly terrible, I did have the option of saying "nope" and heading to a motel, although I would have lost the holding deposit and been stuck without an apartment for a bit. Truth be told, I was a bit disappointed with my apartment. The website and craigslist ads for the complex make this place look like a beautiful park filled with beautiful townhouses with private yards. Turns out there's only one tiny spot that looks park-like and the interior of my unit left a lot to be desired. The private yard is actually decently sized, but it's surrounded by a crumbling brick wall. Yet I'm still here, so it's really not that bad

Some other strategies used by other members of my program who moved across the country:

One had a friend living about an hour away. He put all of his stuff in storage and stayed on his friend's couch until he found an apartment.

Another found someone looking for a roommate for the fall term only and decided to do that so she could look for apartments when she got here. However, her roommate turned out to be a demon, so she found an apartment really fast.

My only other comment is that it's really early for apartment hunting. You're not likely to find anyone advertising leases for the fall until June or July. Also, if you are planning on bringing a lot of stuff with you, look into different options for moving trucks and shipping containers. For me, a shipping container was the most economical and I originally could get two of the u-haul containers for a very good price when I checked into it in early June (for a September move). However, when I actually went to reserve the containers in August, the price had more than doubled, so I could only afford one from a different company (ABF) and had to leave some things behind. So the moral of the story is reserve early!

Thank you for your advice! I bit the bullet and asked my future advisor to connect me with some grad students. Also, for the town I am going to it actually is time to start finding an apartment because basically the only thing in this town other than farms is the college, so all the leases end in july/august, and people are notifying now that they are moving out. So I am getting on wait list's because it is super competitive, although I have already been accepted to once place.  What kind of shipping containers did you use? They ship them to your new place? 

[shadowclaw]

3 hours ago, meep95 said:

Thank you for your advice! I bit the bullet and asked my future advisor to connect me with some grad students. Also, for the town I am going to it actually is time to start finding an apartment because basically the only thing in this town other than farms is the college, so all the leases end in july/august, and people are notifying now that they are moving out. So I am getting on wait list's because it is super competitive, although I have already been accepted to once place.  What kind of shipping containers did you use? They ship them to your new place? 

I used the ABF ReloCube as it was the most affordable at the time. Other options include the U-haul U-box and PODS. There may be others! Both the ReloCube and U-box only come in one size (and the ReloCube is slightly larger and holds 500 more pounds). PODS come in a few different sizes. Both the ReloCube and PODS can be delivered to your apartment where you pack it up, and then they ship it to your new place and drop it off for a few days. The U-haul box can only go from one U-haul place to another rather than to your door. They set it up in a trailer so you can rent a truck from them to pull it to and from your home (which naturally adds a little bit to the cost). The ReloCube also has a similar option to this where you can bring all of your stuff to an ABF center and pack up the container there and then unpack it at a center near your destination. However, you can't actually bring the ReloCube to your apartment like the U-haul box, so you have to use a moving truck of some sort to bring your things to and from the cube. This is actually what I did, because it was about $1000 less to ship from ABF center to center rather than door to door, and renting a U-haul van cost me about $50 on either end, so I saved $900. However, this might not be a good option if the nearest ABF center is really far away (their website will help you figure that out, though). 

Another thing to consider with a shipping container being delivered door to door is if your new landlord will be ok with a big container outside of your apartment for a few days. The ReloCube and U-box both fit into a parking space, so they might not be an issue (unless of course you only get one parking space and have nowhere to park your own vehicle - assuming you have one. Obviously not an issue if you don't). All of the PODS I've seen are a bit bigger, but it's possible they make a small one that also fits into a parking space.

Packing one of these containers is also a bit of an art form. They look small on the outside, but actually hold a lot of stuff. However, it's really important that everything is tightly packed or things could be broken as the containers are loaded onto the trucks. Oh, and ABF also offers a portion of a big truck trailer for shipping which ends up being more space than their ReloCube, but costs more. Basically, a big truck will pull up to your house and you have X number of hours to load up your portion of trailer space and then it drives away - same thing happens at the other end (but for unloading).

Definitely look into price quotes now and check all of the companies (it also doesn't hurt to check regular moving companies, too). I highly recommend making your reservation early, even if you don't know your new address yet. You can give it to them later when you know.

[spectastic]

damn, this is some heavy logistics

I remember just packing my honda civic full of crap and driving the 16 hour trip by myself. i owned nothing that was worth more than paying for a new one. simplicity is bliss.

[shadowclaw]

On 3/29/2017 at 7:37 PM, spectastic said:

damn, this is some heavy logistics

I remember just packing my honda civic full of crap and driving the 16 hour trip by myself. i owned nothing that was worth more than paying for a new one. simplicity is bliss.

Honestly, I owned very little that couldn't easily be replaced after the move, and what I did want to bring could easily fit in the car or be mailed relatively inexpensively (like my books). In fact, if it was just myself moving, I would have most definitely packed the car and drove. It probably would have been cheaper to replace everything than ship it, too.

However, I have a husband who has a large and heavy collection of insulators that could not fit in the car (too heavy, plus no room for my stuff). Leaving it behind or selling it was not an option, so we had to get some sort of moving container.