Can I just Find Somewhere to Live, Please?

David R.

April 2, 2010 - 10:36 AM

As most students are still trying to become acquainted with new classes for the spring term, it is also time that they try to find somewhere to live for next year. This can be a very stressful and frustrating period. Everyone wants to live with as many of their friends as possible, but there aren't always houses with enough rooms available to accommodate everyone. How do you think we ended up with six people in a five-person house? There are multiple real estate agencies to go through, like Property Management, Von Klein, and Mallard. For the house I live in now and the house I will be living in next year my roommates and I have gone through Property Management Concepts. They have a step by step process that students must go through in order to apply for housing. First, I had to fill out an application for myself, and an application for a co-signer, including all kinds of information that can be difficult to obtain. Each application includes a $35 fee for applying, so essentially, each person who applies is paying Property Management $70. After the applications and the money have been turned in, all of them must be approved by Property Management. This process can be a hassle because sometimes the company is looking for information that is different from what was included in the application, requiring the applicant to drive or walk over to the Property Management office to add the additional information. After everything has been approved, a mandatory house walk-through is required. Basically, you have to see the house you want to live in before you can take it. Even after walking through the house and deciding that you want to live there, you still might not be able to. If other people take the walk-through before you and decide they want the house, then you are simply out of luck. Housing through Property Management, and most of the other agencies, is administered on a first come basis. If you take the walk through and decide you like the house, but someone else has already taken a walk through and turned in applications, then you have to find somewhere else to live. Waiting too long to look for a house can create a terrible situation. If the majority of the housing in the area has already been taken for the next year, the people who got a late start on the search are forced to live where no one else wanted to.

We had a similar experience when trying to find a house for next year. We have already reserved a house on 15th and mill, but we liked another house better. However, another group of applicants turned in applications and took a walk-through before us so we were basically out of luck. The house for next year is an actual house, instead of a condominium-type residence that we all refer to as a house. It will be nice to be able to have an actual house with a yard to lounge around in. To all those still looking for a place to live, good luck.