It’s your safe place. It’s where your people are– It’s where over 30 percent of your income goes. It’s housing!
Finding housing is scary, especially when most college students have never rented by themselves before. As someone who just went through the process (and had to learn everything from scratch), here are some resources my roommates and I found helpful in our search:
- rhino
-
Some college students don’t have credit yet, and a lack of credit can increase the rate of security deposits. One of my roommates didn’t have credit, and we got handed a hefty bill for a security deposit over three times our monthly rent. Yikes. We weren’t able to afford that upfront, and our property manager suggested using Rhino.
Rhino is a service that allows renters to forgo security deposits by paying a much smaller fee, either upfront or by month. Rhino is not without its disadvantages, however. We don’t have the safety net a security deposit provides for damages on the house – if anything were to happen, we would have to pay our landlord out of pocket for any damages at the end of our lease. Also, we won’t get a deposit back if the house is in good condition. But, if you can’t afford thousands of dollars upfront, Rhino is a resource available to you. Research apartments and houses that offer Rhino instead of security deposits if this is a concern for you.
- zillow
-
When looking for a place to live, Zillow becomes the first thing you check every morning and the last thing you look at before bed if you’re anything like me. Using Zillow to your advantage can help you dramatically in your search. Zillow has options to save searches where you can determine criteria for what you need. The filtering system is an easy tool to narrow down places that accept pets, have in-unit laundry services, and countless more. You can even set up automatic alerts when new places that meet your qualifications go on the market. You can request tours and submit applications on Zillow – so do it early. For $29, renters can use one application to apply anywhere for a month. This rate is significantly cheaper than most third-party applications, and you can use the same saved application for as many places as you want. Look for properties that accept Zillow applications, and use the built-in tools for quick and painless communication with property managers.
- rently
-
Rently is a service that allows renters the option to do self-guided tours in available houses. For just $0.99, you pay for one month of unlimited self-guided tours. My roommates and I found this helpful when looking at homes because it worked with our class schedules and gave us time to really look at the houses we toured. You can visit as many homes as you want that month, and you can even go back to homes you’ve already seen; this is great for bringing parents along or if it’s hard to coordinate a time that works for all your roommates. On Rently’s website, you can look up homes you’re interested in, and you can see all the homes in your area that allow self-guided tours.
Finding a place to live is no simple feat, but luckily there are several resources that exist that make renting for the first time a little easier. The right place for the right price exists… you just have to know where to find it.