October 24th, 2008 by AllStudentRentals.com

In most cities, landlords are a little hesitant to raise rent prices by a substantial amount each year. For the most part, they realize that renters have a number of options to choose from, and as a result they want to avoid alienating people by jacking rents whenever they please. Generally, the rental market is controlled by the renters, they have the majority of the power. However, if you live in a college town, this is simply not the case. Property managers in college towns realize that there is a limited supply of quality off-campus housing, and that the supply of college students needing housing is going nowhere but up.

As dorms become crowded and university housing systems are overwhelmed by enormous freshmen classes, the push to find off-campus housing for hundreds of thousands of kids across the country is growing rapidly. Finding an apartment is no longer a matter of searching for what suits you best, it has become, in some cases, a desperate search for anything that you can afford. Property managers in college towns know that decent (and I use that term loosely) apartments and houses are in incredibly high demand and that kids, flush with their parents money, are more than willing to pay for it. I’m not about to say that all property managers are exploitative, however, they certainly know what they have and what it is worth. I have seen average rent prices in my town go up by more than 50% in some cases, to the point where some average 1-bedroom apartments rent for more than $800. I know this doesn’t seem like much for those of you who live in more metropolitan areas, but considering that not long ago in my town you could get a 1-bedroom spot for less than $400, $800 seems like straight extortion. I understand that as things like inflation, gas/commodity prices, insurance premiums, and other expenses all go up that property owners must raise their rents, but I see it happening every semester.

The one factor that doesn’t help this situation at all is the fact that the economy has no real negative effect on the rental housing market. When the economy is great, lots of people need places to rent because they have jobs or they are in school or whatever. When the economy sucks, even more people need places to rent as thousands of former homeowners experience foreclosures and mortgage defaults. No matter what, the property owners collect money, and they are collecting more and more of it each year. It may seem incredibly unfair that rent prices are rising with seemingly no end to how high they will go, and the truth is, that it IS incredibly unfair. However, it is the nature of supply and demand. There is a limited supply of decent housing, especially in college towns, and those who are willing to pay a lot for it will inevitably drive the price up. What can you do? Nothing. Paying rent is one of those things that cannot be avoided. There are ways to get the best for your money however. AllStudentRentals.com was designed to provide renters the opportunity to view hundred of potential properties and find exactly what they are looking for without having to call dozens of property owners, drive around town, and essentially waste time. You can search by price, style, lease term, and dozens of other criteria, so at least you will be comfortable while you are getting raped by high rent prices.

One last thing, to illustrate the idea of raising rents and offering nothing, consider the situation at the house I recently moved out of:

Myself and three others were living in a relatively new 4-bedroom house that was close to campus and in a pretty nice neighborhood. We were paying $1700 a month and the house had all of the things you might desire including central air, washer and dryer, dishwasher, a big backyard, etc. When we moved out of the house, we found out that not only was our landlady raising the rent to $1850, she was also taking out the washer and dryer. It’s as plain as day, more money for less shit. Ridiculous.

October 23rd, 2008 by AllStudentRentals.com

The most competitive time of the year is here again at Cornell, and it has nothing to do with prelims, externships or career fairs. Finally, house hunting season is upon us.

Much attention has been recently paid to the West Campus Residential Initiative, and there’s no doubt the housing overhaul was sorely needed. Still, all this back-patting has distracted us from the fact that West Campus hosts only 1,800 students, while over 50 percent of the University continues to live off campus.

With interest rates on student loans rising and families financially strapped, many students currently turn to off-campus housing as a way to cut costs. And it’s easy to see why. For the 2008-2009 academic year, a double room in any residence hall aside from the Townhouses will cost you $6,950, beginning in August and ending in May. When you subtract the weeks students are closed out of their dorms for winter break, that shared bedroom is costing you about $770 per month. Even in the cutthroat monopoly that is Collegetown, that price will get you some pretty sweet digs — if not Park Place, maybe a nice flat on Linden.

Yet in their rush to save money, many Cornellians end up leaving the dorms for sub-par housing, feeling swindled and saddled with 12-month leases. And for those freshmen unaware that the blood sport of lease-signing begins only a few short weeks after they move in on North, the Greek system can become their only option.

Living in a fraternity or sorority house can be a great experience, but spring rush comes right when students are feeling the pressure to find housing for next fall. West Campus may be great, but the attraction of free beer and (presumably) a bunch of other things can lead freshmen away from Keaton House and toward the hedonism of Greek living. By allowing rush to disrupt freshman year, Cornell is undermining its own Residential Initiative, interfering in the North Campus experience and reducing West Campus to a back-up, not a first choice.

If the University is unable to provide housing for over half its students, it should be willing to take responsibility for making sure rising sophomores are fully aware of their options. A forum should be established for students to post about their own living conditions, whether costs may be negotiable and when their landlords begin showing apartments for next year.

And at the very least, the University should back up its claimed desire to create inclusive communities in upperclassman dorms by finding a way to make those dorms cost competitive with off-campus alternatives. Otherwise, students who need savings the most will be the ones heading for the (East) hills and away from Cornell’s idyllic West Campus system.

Source: The Cornell Daily Sun

Remarks: Living off-campus has many advantages. Students can save money and have a more independent college experience. However, one of the main problems is finding the right apartment, house for rent, or student rental. That’s where AllStudentRentals.com comes into play. Our goal is to make the hunt for off-campus housing as easy and stress free as possible. Although, we currently do not have any listings in the Cornell area, we plan on expanding accross the nation as fast as possible so students nationwide can benefit from our services.

October 15th, 2008 by AllStudentRentals.com

A glance at college enrollment figures over the last few decades shows some dramatic trends. Shortly before World War II, only approximately 160,000 Americans were in college. But thanks to 1944’s Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, better known as the G.I. Bill of Rights, in the years immediately after the war, approximately 2.2 million military veterans went to college. A few decades later, a swell of
“Baby Boomers” born between 1946 and 1964 crowded college campuses; enrollment rose to nearly eight million in 1970.

Now, get ready for the Millenials, because colleges across the country certainly are. Many of this group of 75 million children of Baby Boomers, also known as the “Echo Boomers”, will be attending college this decade, and this surge of incoming college students is capturing the interest of real estate professionals because providing private off-campus rental housing to these college students can be a great investment opportunity. But even if your firm does not focus on providing student housing, trends in this market will likely affect you in the years to come.

Why Student Housing is a growing market

There are several reasons why many real estate professionals are becoming interested in
investing in student housing:

• That wave of Echo Boomers will be filling college classrooms for years to come. The National Center for Education Statistics projects that college enrollment will grow by 11% between 2003 and 2013.
• College enrollment trends are even better than generational demographic trends–for most of the years between 1995 and 2014, the growth rate in college enrollees is expected to exceed the growth rate of 18 to 24 year olds.
• Today’s college students are taking longer to graduate, so they need student housing for a longer time. According to the report Trends in College Pricing 2005 from the nonprofit organization the College Board, almost 40% of today’s undergraduates are older than 24.
• Higher education tends to be less affected by economic trends. The reason for this is simple: when the economy is slow, people seek a college degree to improve their marketability in the job market; when times are good, a college degree is an important credential.
• The median rent increase among student housing apartments has been higher than the rent component of the Consumer Price Index over the last two years, according to National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) calculations.

Our findings Two years ago, NMHC took our first look at the student housing market niche by examining 64 “college towns” across the country to see what the demand for student housing was at that time–and what price the market was allowing. To build on that research, we returned to those same 64 college towns this year to look at rent growth between 2004 and 2006.

To get a helicopter-level view, we calculated a median rate of 7% overall across all 64 markets and across all the different types of units (studio, one-bedroom apartments, two-bedroom apartments, etc.). This 7% growth rate slightly exceeds the 6.5% growth in the Consume Price Index’s broader rental measure during the same period, indicating healthy rent growth in student housing.

Of course, such a broad median figure is only a starting point. Before investing in a particular college town, it pays to do your homework. Not surprisingly, of the 64 college towns we examined, many of those that recorded the biggest rent growth between 2004 and 2006 were in areas with already high housing costs. With some of the highest housing costs in the country for both rental and owned housing, California’s
student housing picture mirrors those high housing costs.

For example, Stanford University has the highest rents for units with two bedrooms and two bathrooms as well as those with three bedrooms and two baths; $2,069 and $2,534, respectively. And the University of California at Irvine has the highest monthly rents for studio ($1,394), one-bedroom ($1,481), and two-bedroom, one-bathroom ($1,637) apartments.

Important Implications for the Future No longer content with one shared bathroom per hallway and a single TV lounge, the Millenials starting college in 2006 expect the full range of amenities in their accommodations; cable television, high-speed Internet and fitness centers are some of the luxuries they demand. So, studying student housing can provide an important lesson for developers and operators of all
multifamily housing. When today’s students graduate, they are going to demand the same amenities in their post-college housing–in other words, since today’s students are tomorrow’s apartment renters, the entire industry is wise to pay close attention to what today’s students are seeking in their housing.

Source: GlobeSt.com

Remarks: This article highlights an ongoing trend in American education culture. More and more kids are entering higher education environments every year, and the simple fact is that there is not enough room for all of them. This excess of young people puts a strain on overburdened college housing departments who expect the private market to make up the difference in available beds. This can be seen as a blessing and a curse for the surrounding community, but it offer amazing investment potential for those who are willing to take a chance. Student housing has a reputation as high risk based solely on the perceived attitudes of young people. While it may be true that investing in student housing carries some risk that is unheard of in other situations, the payoff can more than compensate for this fact.

October 15th, 2008 by AllStudentRentals.com

According to Michael Zaransky, co-CEO of Prime Property Investors based in Northbrook, Ill., and author of Profit by Investing in Student Housing: Cash In On the Campus Housing Shortage, the opportunity has staying power. “About 80 million ‘echo boomers’ will turn eighteen over the next ten years,” he says. As they do, they will head to college in record numbers, further straining their chosen school’s already stretched budgets, especially if it is a public university.

“After funding enrollment, research, and hiring more professors, there is not enough money left for building dorms,” explains Donna Preiss, founder and CEO of The Preiss Company, which rents, manages and develops investor-funded student housing. This is why many schools are relying on the private market to supply off-campus housing instead.

That is a good thing for Howard and her husband who own a rental building close to campus. “So far, our building has been a very good investment,’ adds Howard, whose business —managing student housing investments for other owners — is also thriving as students scramble to find a place to live.
Not only is full occupancy typical for student housing, says Zaransky, so is the ability to increase rents. The students show up regardless of local unemployment or interest rate levels, and they pay the going rate since they have to live somewhere — besides adding roommates can keep even increased rents affordable.
That this niche operates primarily on supply and demand is its key attraction to investors. Also key is its positive cash flow despite hefty expenses — real estate taxes, high insurance premiums (reflective of the reputation of student renters), utilities, repair, maintenance, advertising and fees for management services.
But not all college towns or investment opportunities are created equal. Like any investment, selecting a property requires some homework.

Location, Location, Location
The best properties are within walking distance of a campus, says Zaransky. They are also located where the kids are increasingly choosing to go to school.
“The southeastern and southwestern states especially draw the most kids,” says Preiss, who notes the northeastern schools are more likely to institute enrollment caps which limits their attractiveness to investors. Zaransky also warns against going where rental properties are already abundant, as in large urban areas like Chicago and New York, especially after the recent run up in property prices there. “The odds tip in an investor’s favor with moves to pure college towns,” he adds, noting that Boston is the exception to this.
To help identify prime campuses, Zaransky uses a ratio to relate the number of university-owned beds to enrollment, using data mined from registrars’ offices. “Nationally, this ratio averages about 30 percent,” he reports. But it varies widely. At Arizona State University, for instance, he estimates the ratio to be 11 percent meaning 89 percent of ASU students are renting off-campus.
That imbalance is precisely what Rick Steele, a Denver businessman is looking for. His son will be attending ASU this fall and Steele intends to invest in a condo for him. This is not Steele’s first attempt at making a student housing investment. He wanted to buy property when his older son was in school in Providence, R.I. But that market seemed to offer minimal price appreciation and most of the available property involved older boarding houses. “It did not make financial sense since they were in need of so
much maintenance and repair,” says Steele, who opted to pay rent instead. He finds the Phoenix/Tempe market much more hospitable. “It is so vibrant and the housing stock is newer,” he says.

Newer is better for today’s students, who prefer buildings with pools and saunas and view wireless Internet
connections as an essential. Preiss, for example, builds her units with bedroom-to-bathroom parity so roommates do not have to share facilities.
“I figure with what I would pay for a dorm or fraternity, at worse I may breakeven when I sell. If the property
appreciates, then it will help offset the education cost,” says Steele, adding “Either way, at least my son will have a nice place to live while he is there.” Steele’s attitude is a good one and realistic for parents who only expect to hold their ‘kiddie condos’ for three-to-five years.
“It is really too short a period of time to realize enough of a return after the expense of holding and then selling to make it worthwhile,” says Stuart Tsujimoto, a certified financial planner with the Financial Network in Torrance, CA. He speaks from experience, having bought a condo for his daughter while she attended San Diego State University. Tsujimoto, who bought the condo outright rather than mortgaging it, feels that after factoring in his expenses plus the realtor’s commission when he sold, he would have made roughly the same return on his money by investing in a mutual fund and making withdrawals to pay for rent.
But for those who intend to buy and hold after graduation, the experience seems to be more positive. Tim Hinz, a realtor with Keller Williams in San Diego has had a number of clients buy condos for their college-bound kids.

“So far everyone who did, held onto it or gave it to the child who assumed the mortgage payments after graduation.” Many, given the particulars of the area, may also be holding for a retirement use later on in life.
Preiss also says most of her clients view their student condos as long-term investments. Even her parent-buyers tend to hold after realizing how attractive the cash flow is. They simply have her, as the property manger, rent out the freedup ‘bed’ once their child moves on. In Preiss’s developments as in others, leases are written by the bed or directly with each roommate, removing the legal onus of having to enforce a lease from parents, investors or owner-students.
While buying a ‘kiddie condo’ can be advantageous versus paying rent or the dorm expense, especially if a parent can access a Federal Housing Administration program to help finance it. Dubbed the “Kiddie Condo Loan,” the program allows students — and non-students — to purchase a home with an assist from a blood-relative’s good credit standing and cash. The home must be considered the primary residence of at least one of the borrowers, but renting out space to roommates is allowed. If the child moves out after graduation, the borrowers would have to refinance or sell the property to pay off the FHA mortgage.
These loans only require 3 percent down and since they are considered owner-occupied, they qualify for all the tax advantages of a primary residence; whereas a condo purchased as a second home or investment property may limit the tax breaks and raise the interest rate offered.
In addition to not having to deal with dorm-life, the owner-child benefits from building a credit history, having a place to live, and potentially assuming the responsibility of being a landlord to their roommates.
Despite those financial incentives, Zaransky advises parents not to feel obligated to invest where a child is attending school. Actually, he sees no reason to link the investment to a child at all.
“It just needs to be a good investment — rents need to be rising in the area you choose, and there should be an opportunity for appreciation over time. If those factors are not present at a child’s university, then parents should invest in another town and pay rent for their child’s housing instead,” he says.
For those who cannot swing the purchase of a condo or multi-unit building as an investment, there is another option for cashing in on the student housing shortage. There are actually two publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trusts that focus on student housing. Each offers a generous dividend yield and allows shareholders to participate without having to deal with the responsibilities of ownership. They are:
• American Campus Communities (Symbol: ACC)
• Education Realty Trust (EDR)
Regardless of how one chooses to invest, with growing demand for housing outstripping its supply, the investment returns are expected to continue far longer than the four-to-five years a child spends in college.

Source: MSNBC

Remarks: College is an expenisive option for the majority of parents across the country. The combined costs of tuition, rent, books, utilities, insurance, and daily necessities can be overwhelming and quickly add up to tens of thousands of dollars a year. That being said, there is growing trend of investors that are realizing the potential of lucrative student markets, and realizing that while having your child in college might present a financial burden, there is no reason you can’t be smart about it and even have the opportunity to earn a little return on your investment. College enrollments are increasing at a rapid rate, and there is no slowing down in sight. The high school graduating class of 2009 is estimated to be nearly 3 million kids nationwide, a great number of which will be heading off to college in the fall. Universities are overwhelmed by new students, providing an excellent opportunity for the savvy investor. I have been in college for 5 years, and in that time the average price of rent for an off-campus place has gone up by nearly 20%, a figure that will only continue to rise. Rental markets are strong when the economy is strong and when the economy is in the toilet like it is now. Property ownership in a college town is rapidly becoming a much safer bet than more conventional real estate practices.

October 10th, 2008 by AllStudentRentals.com

Renting an apartment or a house while in college is generally a new and exciting experience. However, there are drawbacks, and I’m not talking about having to clean up your own crap or paying way too much for cable. The one common factor in every rental situation is the Property Manager. Property managers come in many shapes and incarnations, from the faceless property manager that supervises 300 units to the middle-aged guy who rents out his spare bedroom that probably has hidden cameras in it. Property managers are something that every renter must deal with, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

There are generally two types of property managers: the ones who work for a large management company that owns dozens if not hundred of rental properties, and the private landlords who simply own one or two properties and rent them out for the supplemental income. Both of these groups have their respective benefits and pitfalls, so let’s outline some of them here.

Large Scale Property Managers

These are the people that you are unlikely to see most of the time. Undoubtedly you will meet them when you first look at an apartment, and they will probably be there when you sign a lease. For the most part, these people will stay out of your business, unless of course you happen to break the rules. Large-scale property management companies have a much more well-defined and in most cases stricter policy for their renters. Some of these rules are basic, like no drugs, no pets, stuff like that. Some of them, on the other hand, can be much more specific to the point of seeming pretty damn silly, like no groups of people larger than 10 at the house at any time, quiet hours after midnight, no indoor furniture on the front porch, no waterbeds, no tiki torches or barbecues, and a host of other things. These rules generally stem from the fact that these rentals are the primary source of income for whatever large company you happen to be renting from, so it makes sense that they would want to be cautious.

As far as legal issues and responsibility are concerned, renting from a large company is usually beneficial to the renter. Large companies have established processes for rent payment, site maintenance, record keeping, and things of that nature. They won’t lose your rent payment and notify you nine months later, making you take time out of your day to go over year old bank statements just to prove that you wrote them a check because their half-ass bookkeeper decided to misappropriate some funds and not cover his tracks. If something goes wrong or breaks in your place, large rental companies are much more likely to fix these things in a timely manner and with the use of a professional. They are definitely more efficient than private landlords, however, they will not hesitate to screw you out of your deposit money when it comes time to move out. Large rental companies often have provisions in their leases that mandate carpet cleaning and painting upon moving out, meaning you pay for those things out of your deposit whether you like it or not, and quite frankly even if it is rather unnecessary. Their standards for move-out conditions are generally very strict and they are not afraid to ding you for every little expense, as well as professional cleaning which usually runs around $20-$25 an hour, depending on which cleaning company has a kickback deal with the property management company.

Despite these potential drawbacks, property managers are certainly the more reliable choice for any renter and probably the way to go if you want to avoid worrying about where your money is going each month or who is going to fix your garbage disposal.

Private Landlords

Private landlords are a dime a dozen and certainly have their advantages over property managers. Generally these people have other jobs that produce the bulk of their income, which usually results in their being much more laid back. They have more lax policies about the rent and the condition of the place you’re renting, which is a plus. You have a much better chance of getting a larger portion of your security deposit back from these people (on average that is, some landlords are crazy regardless of the number of properties they own) because they don’t have a strictly defined set of rules. They usually won’t get you for carpet cleaning or painting if it’s not necessary and they are more forgiving about things like small holes in the walls, landscaping, and less serious issues.

The problem with private landlords comes from the fact that they are private landlords. All you need to be a landlord is an empty house or apartment, there is no test. Some of these people can be incredibly disorganized in their personal lives, something that is reflected back on you the renter. Sometimes these people won’t deposit your rent check until the last 3 days of the month that it was for. They will lose important documents and accuse their tenants of not paying the rent, they might come by unannounced and see the dog that you weren’t supposed to have but lied about for several months, you might have to go to their house and deal with their weird kids while you sign papers. There are any number of things that you might encounter when dealing with private landlords, up to and including the nature of the people themselves. Like I stated before, you don’t need a special license or anything to become a landlord. As a renter, you could very easily come across a landlord that is a drunk or a drug user or has a gambling problem or installs cameras in the bathrooms of the house you rent. Landlords are as different as people are different, you just never know who you will have to deal with.

Despite the potential for getting a landlord that is a voyeuristic drunk, private landlords are generally not a bad way to go. The majority of the time they are nice people who will respect you if you respect them. Finding the right situation for yourself really just depends on what you are looking for. If you want a rental experience that is well documented and very professional, with a set of guidelines for accomplishing anything you need, than a large scale property manager is probably what you are looking for. If you want something that is more laid back, less official, with a person that would be cool if your rent is a few days late and won’t freak out if you build a fire pit in the backyard or get drunk and demolish that crappy shed that was supposed to be taken care of a year ago, a private landlord might be more to your liking.

October 8th, 2008 by AllStudentRentals.com

As the University nears its goal of 28,000 students by 2010, more companies are constructing new apartment complexes in Tuscaloosa.
Students now have more choices for off-campus living. University Village, Boardwalk and The Bluff at Waterworks Landing are some of the newest apartment buildings available for rent by students.
Boardwalk, which is located off old Montgomery Highway, rents to students from Shelton, Stillman and the University.
“It’s only about 5 miles from the University,” said representative Jodi Enzer. “It is a straight shot from Boardwalk to the stadium. It’s close to Kmart and Wal-Mart, so they don’t have to go on campus to get groceries.”
Rent for Boardwalk is $515 per month. The cost increased $15 from last year. Enzer said students who renewed within the specified time did not have to pay the increased rate.
“We did raise rent, but if they renewed before the end of January, they were able to stay at the same rate,” Enzer said. “Rent will never go up during your lease.”
The monthly rent also includes utilities, cable and Internet, which is a deal Enzer said is not found anywhere else in town.
Those living in the Boardwalk can also take the Tuscaloosa Trolley to campus. Transit Manager Jimmie Cain and representatives of Boardwalk asked Kmart to allow students to park in the store’s lot.
“We couldn’t get a bus in to the complex, so we came up with the idea of having a parking lot at Kmart,” Cain said. “The people at Kmart were fine with it because they thought if students parked there, they would probably shop there.”
The trolley runs on the hour and drops people off in front of the President’s Mansion and picks them up from the Quad. Trolley fair is $2.40 roundtrip.
With all of its amenities, the Boardwalk may not appeal to students who want to live closer to campus. According to an article written by Bobby Degnan published by the Alabama Center for Real Estate, apartment prices are relatively high for close-to-campus living. The average price for a one-bedroom apartment is $570 and the average price for a two-bedroom apartment is $858.
The Bluff is managed by Ellis Trick Inc. Multifamily, the same group that manages the University Downs, Regency Oaks and The Reserve at North River. The Bluff is currently being leased by the University.
LaQual Walker, a transfer student, lived in The Bluff briefly. She said she wanted to live close to campus because there weren’t any spaces available on campus.
“My rent was $450 a month, which is kind of expensive compared to other places in the area,” Walker said. “The only thing that was included in my rent was water. The rooms are significantly larger than other apartments, but you can hear everything that goes on next door.”
ETI Director Jackson Wallace, who is in charge of management of the Tuscaloosa apartment communities, said the properties have a lot to offer.
“I believe it is high quality, and we value our assets,” Wallace said.
Wallace said as the cost of living increases the cost of maintaining the property also goes up. He also said that just because the rent at one ETI property increases does not necessarily mean they will all increase.
“We look at each individual property individually and specifically,” Wallace said.

“Mid-November is when we go through our renewal process.”
Some students decided to live farther away from campus this year. Degnan said there is a noticeable price drop in apartments across the river. A two-bedroom apartment averages $769 and a three-bedroom apartment averages $960. One-bedroom apartments are still close in price, averaging $613 per month.
Corbin Warfel, a junior majoring in business management, began searching for housing in the spring. He said he and his friends noticed that apartments that were closer to the University were as convenient as they were expensive, so they decided to move to the Northport area.
“We found a place further away from campus and we got a better deal,” Warfel said. “My rent is $350, so it’s even cheaper than the dorm I used to live in. It’s quieter and you don’t have to carry groceries across campus if you can’t find a place to park. You also don’t have to worry about [an] RA invading privacy.”

Source:The Crimson White

Remarks: In my opinion living close to campus is a must and was my main criteria when looking for off-campus housing. Although the cost can be more expensive the beneifts, including walking to school, and student neighbors, are definelty worth the added expense. In fact, you might even argue that you save more money by walking everywhere than if you lived farther away from college but had a cheaper monthly rent payment.

October 3rd, 2008 by AllStudentRentals.com

Every year tens of thousands of bright-faced college freshmen leave the friendly confines of their parents’ homes and head off to college, with dreams of drunken hook-ups, sleepless nights before tests, and “independence” dancing in their heads. For many, the first year of college is a well structured and supportive environment, facilitated primarily by life in a dorm. You have everything you need, they tell you when to eat, where to shower, and what the rules are. It’s kind of like prison, only with slightly less rape, and thousands of empty liquor bottles that first-year students save as a testament to indecency (yes it is incredibly lame, but we all did it because it makes you feel grown up and defiant). The dorm is perfect place to make a quasi transition from life at home to life on your own. However, this perfect microcosm of college experience only lasts a year (unless you are one of those bewildering people that chooses to stay in the dorms 2, 3, even 4 years, effectively avoiding any actual responsibility for as long as possible). Once this year is over, it is time to make an important decision: where will you go now?

Let’s assume that there are four basic options when choosing a residence outside of the cinderblock bomb shelters that serve as most dorms:

1. A House

2. An Apartment

3. A Condo

4. Your parents’ house

While this may not indeed by every single option available, these are the four major players in the off-campus housing game, so let’s start at the top.

A House

There is no denying the fact that having a house near campus is one of the more exciting things about college. It is a symbol of independence, a place for you to be whatever you would like to be, and ostensibly, to do whatever you would like to do. It can become a social nexus that is comprised of your very own style and influence, a meeting place for your friends and neighbors and probably some hot chicks too. You are free to engage in whatever behavior you find fitting, and there is no one there to tell you that you can’t take bongloads in the living room. It is the ultimate sense of freedom that you can experience without actually having to worry about much more than your security deposit. Houses have the immediate advantage over the other options just based on a few simple things: there is no resident manager on site, nobody lives directly above/below/left/or right of you, you don’t have to see your parents every day and sleep in the same room that you have for the last 2 decades, etc., etc..

Unfortunately, living in a house is not all rave parties and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Houses, more often than not, are slightly to considerably more expensive than apartments, and certainly moreso than living at home. This extra cost is reflected in the higher rents usually attached to houses, larger security deposits, and small things as well. If your house has a yard, there is a good chance that you will be responsible for maintaining it, and if you don’t, landlords are not shy about hiring professional help and sending you the bill. Also, some houses don’t offer garbage and water services at no cost, another thing you must consider, especially if you have roommates that are terrible at paying bills (we once had garbage stacked up 6 feet high in our garage because of some unnecessary miscommunication with the waste management company). Living in a house also means potentially giving up some things that would generally be common in an apartment complex. Your house won’t have a pool or a fitness center, and you will be lucky to get a washer and dryer or a dishwasher. Central heating and air conditioning is not uncommon, but it depends largely on how old the house is and whether or not the landlord considers it a valuable investment, so don’t expect it.

Despite these minor setbacks, having a house is still pretty kick ass, and certainly something you won’t regret, assuming of course that you have cool roommates, but that is an entirely different issue and one that won’t be covered here.

An Apartment

An apartment is certainly a viable option for any young student. Apartments are plentiful in most college towns and can be had in a variety of different price ranges depending on what you need. Generally they are cheaper than houses, and available ones are much easier to find since the demand is much lower. Because apartments are more concentrated and present less risk to the property manager, rents and security deposits for most apartments are far cheaper than houses, on average. For all intents and purposes, apartments function almost identical to houses in that there are no established rules and you are free to do what you wish the majority of the time. It is a vast improvement over dorm life and a hell of a lot better than living with mom and dad.

Like houses though, there are some pitfalls to apartment living. Large apartment complexes almost always have somebody on-site 24 hours a day to enforce certain rules. This is no big deal if you are a low key person with low key friends, but it can certainly be a pain in the ass if you choose to engage in activities that are a little less wholesome. Also, you will have many neighbors in any apartment setting, and in less you are just a real prick, you will have to be somewhat courteous of these neighbors. This situation can also be a positive thing; apartment complexes put large numbers of people in relatively small spaces, which is an excellent way to meet people. This close proximity to your neighbors can also be a downside to apartment living if you happen to get stuck next to the struggling band, the techno fanatic, the aspiring DJ, the heavy walker, the loud girl, or any number of irritating potential apartment dwellers.

What some apartments lack in privacy, they make up for in amenities. Apartments almost always have things like dishwashers and central A/C, as well as laundry that is either free or a hell of a lot cheaper than any laundromat while saving you the trouble of dragging your filthy laundry across town. Many larger complexes have things like pools and small gyms, and all of them include water and garbage at no extra charge.

A Condo

See Apartment, but also consider that while there might be 100 condos in the same complex, each one is independently owned and many aren’t rental units, they are simply people’s homes. This can lead to a colorful mix of tenants that is part student, part low-income family, part single professional, part retired couple, and everything in between. This clash of different groups can often be taxing and personally time-consuming. The first apartment I ever lived in was next door to a condo complex that was visited by the police at least 4 nights a week. For this reason, consider the location of the condo complex (near campus, low income area of town, etc.) before you commit to living there as this might be the most important determinant of whether or not you will enjoy your stay.

Your Parent’s House

Although I would certainly advise against this option, it is still an option, and for a select few people, a damn fine one. Personally, I see living independently during college as something that is equally as important as the classes you take and the degree you get. Everyone needs to learn some responsibility and life management skills while they are still in college and relatively protected from the outside world. As far as I’m concerned, there is not better way to do this than to live on your own.

However, I do understand that the choice to live at home isn’t always a voluntary one. Living expenses are extremely high when considered on top of tuition, books, gas, food, and all of the other things that take our money. Living at home is by far the most economical choice of the 4 that were discussed here, and is certainly a welcome option for those that lack the necessary resources to move out. That being said, I would highly recommend that even though this is a possibility, that you avoid it if at all possible. Once you get out of high school and into college, you are exposed to an entirely different world where you are actually given the opportunity to manage your own life and not adhere to some nonsensical set of rules designed to keep you in line and maintaining the status quo. This new found liberation requires a new style of existence, namely, living on your own and making your own decisions. No matter how positive your relationship with your parents might be, it will undoubtedly be put under pressure once you make this fundamental change in learning establishments. For this reason, I would suggest that you exhaust whatever options necessary to move out, even if for but a short time, say one year of college maybe.

All preaching aside, living with the folks is a pretty sweet deal on the surface. You have literally no costs aside from your own personal necessities, you will more than likely have dinner made for you each night, theres a good chance you won’t always have to do your own laundry, and your parents will probably be a lot cooler than they were when you were in high school simply because they would begin to see you as slightly more mature and whatnot. Honestly though, I would still suggest getting away, it is something that everyone must accomplish at some point, and there is no better time to do it than college.

October 1st, 2008 by AllStudentRentals.com

The first week of my senior year was the most subdued New Student Week I have ever experienced. Oddly enough, it was also the first few days of living in my very own apartment. Woohoo? You see, now my time is spent having to actually cook (beyond Ramen and popcorn in my dorm or frat microwave, that is).

Why do we, Northwestern students, decide to live off campus? Because it’s cheaper or more convenient? So far, it’s seemed a hell of a lot less convenient: Apartments are farther away from class, foodless and you have to scrub your own shower.

It’s true: Living off campus adds a lot of unwelcome responsibility to the mix. “It’s harder to keep up with your chores and classes, [it] preps you for life,” said Vanessa Lee, a Weinberg senior. Cameron Gibson, a Communications junior, also has a hard time dealing with bills and chores, the “little stuff that [he’s] never had to worry about before.” As for myself, I have to admit, doing dishes, taking out the trash, furnishing your apartment, paying your cable, internet, utility bills… it’s all more overwhelming than you can imagine before move-in day. Laundry seemed like a pain in the ass in the dorms. But on your own, the responsibilities are like laundry on crack when everything else isn’t already taken care of for you.

But at Northwestern, where apartments are the antonym of dorms (and therefore the synonym of cool), moving out of university housing is just the way we roll. By senior or junior year, and sometimes as early as sophomore year, many of us find ourselves with our own pad west of Sheridan. “Once you’ve lived in a dorm or Greek house for two or three years, it’s time to move on,” said Lee.

Many people say it’s stifling to stay on campus beyond their sophomore year, and moving off campus is our way of declaring we’re ready to leave the babying environment of university housing. “There’s more freedom, more food choices” in living off campus, Gibson said.

Mark Underhill, Communications senior, who got his own apartment his sophomore year, has found that living in the real world lends itself to new levels of social liberation. “There’s no RA or security guard, less authority. My friends and I just wanted to get out of the dorms - [it] makes throwing parties easier, too.” It’s true: When you have a house or apartment to yourself, your social life can finally be in tune with your personality without the pesky constraints of university housing rules.

Maybe some of us move off campus because we want to assert that we’re freewheeling adults, under the ruse that it’s more “convenient.” But signing an apartment lease isn’t the key to maturity. Rather, it’s the experience of actually living on your own that turns you into an adult, whether you’re ready for it or not. Living off campus might not be more convenient, but maybe our compulsion to assert our independence ends up being good for us. If college is life on training wheels, living off campus is a bike with one of the training wheels screwed off. Then you graduate, and you hope that you have enough balance to ride it out.

Source: NorthByNorthwestern.com

Remarks: This article highlights what could be considered the most important motivation for most students to leave the confines of on-campus housing: Freedom. Living off-campus provides students the opportunity to take on some responsibility, to live whatever lifestyle they choose, without worrying about the repricussions often associated with on-campus housing. It is an important step for any student to take, and it can be a daunting and intimidating task. That is why AllStudentRentals.com allows potential student renters to search apartments and houses with dozens of different filtering options, making the search that much easier. Finding an off-campus apartment should be an exciting experience, and AllStudentRentals is dedicated to making it so, providing a site where students can find exactly what they need in a rental as well as valuable information for those who have never rented before.

October 1st, 2008 by AllStudentRentals.com

EUGENE — As classes start today, the University of Oregon is bracing for an extra-large freshman class by housing 400 new students in off-campus apartments, opening 3,700 more seats in classes and hiring more temporary faculty.

The additional students are stretching campus resources and sparking a faculty debate about how big the 20,000-student university should grow.

“We’re trying to fit them all in,” Scott Coltrane, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said Friday. “We are bursting at the seams, but so far we are doing OK.”

Like many freshmen who moved into off-campus Stadium Park apartments last week, Megan Johnson was disappointed at first to miss out on the traditional dorm experience — until she saw her spacious new pad.

The 18-year-old from the Tacoma area has her own room with a full-sized bed and large closet, a bathroom she shares with only one other student, a kitchen and a washer and dryer in a four-bedroom suite. The complex also has a pool, a sand volleyball pit, a fitness room, even a tanning bed.

“It’s like the luxury dorm,” she said, as she unpacked a box of shoes. “People are really jealous of the Stadium Park kids.”

She and other freshmen living in the apartments near Autzen Stadium said they don’t mind commuting to campus if it means they don’t have to share a cramped dorm room with a roommate and tromp down the hall to a communal bathroom.

But with 4,100 freshmen this year — at least 400 more than last year — university leaders say it will be a challenge to connect the off-campus freshmen to the academic and social life on campus.

Both Oregon State University in Corvallis and Portland State University also are expecting slight increases in freshmen this fall. Oregon State has enough dorm beds, but PSU has a waiting list.

UO is trying to make the off-campus apartment experience as much like living in dorms as possible. Eight staff members — two directors and six assistants — live there to supervise and support students. But the apartments are more private than dorm rooms and don’t have many large common areas, making oversight harder.

“The majority of our programming is geared toward getting them to come to campus, because that’s where the community is going to be,” said Robin Holmes, vice president for student affairs.

Still, she added, “We have to make sure that area feels like home to them.”

The university’s College of Arts and Sciences hired 60 new graduate students and 20 new temporary faculty to teach additional sections, labs and classes. That’s in addition to 26 new permanent tenure-track faculty.

All the available classroom and lab space is being used, and more classes are being offered in the early morning and in the evening. The large freshman class will be even harder to accommodate as the students advance and need to take more small seminar classes, Coltrane said.

The bigger question facing faculty: What is the university’s optimum size? The answer will help determine how many tenure-track faculty will be hired in the future.

Professors are weighing the opportunity for growth in student programs and research with the desire to retain the more intimate feel of a smaller campus, Coltrane said.

“There is recognition that we will grow a bit but keep it human-scale,” he said. “What that means, I’m not sure. And that’s what the debate is about.”

About 800 students who missed the March 31 priority housing deadline were initially denied campus housing. About half of them expressed interest in the off-campus apartments, and the university did not track what happened to the other half, Holmes said. Some chose to attend another college where they could live on campus, and others may have found other housing in Eugene, she said.

James Carroll, a UO freshman from Los Angeles, was considering attending a California State University campus, where he could live in a dorm, until he found out he got a spot in an off-campus apartment.

“I can’t imagine moving in here today without a place to live,” he said.

Source: OregonLive.com

Remarks: We are seeing a developing trend where extra large freshmen classes are putting strain on university housing programs that are already suffering as a result of a gradual increase in the average number of college freshmen over the last several decades. While this might spell disaster for many campuses, it is an excellent opportunity for property owners and managers in many college communities. The demand for off-campus housing is growing at a rapid rate, and the importance of finding a comprehensive listing service is increasing right along with it. AllStudentRentals.com provides property managers with everything they need to make their properties available to a large number of potential renters, and it offers performance-based, competitive pricing, ensuring that each property owner is getting the most value for their investment.

October 1st, 2008 by AllStudentRentals.com

Boston University released its Annual Security Report online yesterday, providing three years of statistics on reported crimes occurring on- and off-campus. The report showed a drop in reported on-campus crimes — from 138 in 2006 to 74 in 2007 — but the University experienced small increases in several areas, including overall reported off-campus crimes, reported off-campus burglaries, and forcible sex offenses.

The number of reported off-campus burglaries increased from 4 to 9, and the number of all reported off-campus crimes increased from 4 to 14. On-campus burglaries fell from 117 to 62. Forcible sex offenses on campus rose from three to seven, five of which were said to have taken place in the dormitories.

Peter Fiedler, the University’s vice president for administrative services, notes that the statistics reflect the number of incidents reported to the BUPD, not the number of prosecutable incidents that take place in a calendar year, and that they do not include the results of follow-up investigations. He attributed the overall drop in reported incidents to the wider use of the CompStat crime analysis system, which BU Police Chief Thomas Robbins implemented when he came to BU in 2006.

“With the implementation of the CompStat model comes an increased emphasis on crime reporting,” says Robbins. “In order to effect change and reduce crime, the police need to gather timely information on crime and related incidents from the community. There has been a big push to get the word out to the community to report incidents to the police department. Some of this uptick in crimes reported can probably be attributed to these efforts.”

Fiedler says the new system has enabled the University to better study crime statistics on all BU properties. “It has allowed us to review all kinds of crimes,” he says, “and to look at their frequency from week to week or month to month and to then reposition our police officers in the most effective manner.”

The University reported a decrease in liquor and drug violation arrests; the number of liquor law violation arrests dropped from 95 to 21, and the drug law violation arrests fell from 56 to 10 — a change that Fiedler attributes to the drug and alcohol task force established by David McBride, the director of Student Health Services, when he came to BU in 2006.

“Previously, drug and alcohol education was not as focused and closely monitored as it is now,” Fiedler says. “Now, if a student is transported for medical care due to inappropriate use of alcohol or drugs, he or she receives follow-up care from a Student Health Services behavioral medicine social worker. That’s probably why we’re seeing the drop from 2006.”

Looking ahead, Fiedler and Robbins identify bicycle and pedestrian safety, increased communication between students and the BUPD, and a reduction in on-campus larceny as priorities for the coming year. Fiedler is currently working with other administrators on educational initiatives for bicyclists and drivers, and Robbins plans to continue the town hall meetings he held with students last year.

“The area that I think most needs improvement is our ability to connect with the University as a whole for information sharing,” Robbins says. “The best thing we can do as a department is get a free information flow, so we can track crime patterns and trends within the University. I’d like people to feel comfortable communicating with department members when they see them on the street.”

Source: BU Today-Campus Life

Remarks: It is true that living off-campus can be more dangerous than living on-campus, but it almost always dependent on where you choose to live off-campus. Every city has areas that are more prone to certain kinds of crime, and the best way to avoid these potential dangers is to be acutely aware of where you will be living when you move off-campus. AllStudentRentals.com not only provides a large volume of rental listings that cover every section of each university community, it also provides a mapping feature that allows potential student renters to find the specific location of each rental before making any commitment, facilitating renting areas that are considered more safe. This feature can also be used to gauge the distance from each rental to important locations like University Police, or areas of town with less concentrated crime statistics (these can be obtained from university or local police or many university affiliates).