Go to content Go to navigation Go to search

If you want pee on your carpets, you don’t need a pet, your drunk friends will do just fine.

October 13th, 2008 by AllStudentRentals.com

Many individuals in rented apartments and homes long for some companionship. To this degree, many of them decide that it would be a good idea to get a pet. Guys want dogs because they think chicks will sleep with them if they have a puppy. Girls wants cats for whatever insane reason people would like to own the most pretentious and good for nothing animal on the planet. The bottom line is that, for whatever reason, people think that owning an animal while they are in college and renting a place is a good idea. That being said, let’s get right to the point: It Definitely Is Not, in fact it is a god-awful bad idea.

There are a lot of reasons why owning a pet is a bad idea when you are renting, and truthfully I can’t even get into all of them because I’m sure there are some that even I haven’t thought of. What I can do however, is share from my experience why getting a pet, especially a young dog, is ill-advised at best.

My first year of college I lived in a two-bedroom apartment with a buddy of mine from high school. Towards the end of the first semester, after our other friend had officially moved into our dining room for a small fee, we decided that it would be a fine idea to get a puppy that we could raise and teach to do cool shit and impress our neighbors. The idea didn’t materialize exactly like that, but I don’t actually recall how it came about, and it honestly doesn’t matter because no rationale would have been good enough to justify getting a damn puppy in a 600 square foot apartment with 3 people living in it. After several failed attempts to convince the people at the Humane Society that our apartment was a fitting place for a small dog, we decided to look elsewhere. Heres a tip: if the Humane Society, a group that keeps all of it’s animals in 3×4 foot concrete cells, tells you that your house is not good enough for an animal, take note of this fact, becasue they are absolutely right.

Long story short, we found a lab puppy for sale close by, bought it, and brought it home. Over the next 6-7 months, this dog completely annihilated everything we owned. It took several months for the dog to figure out how not to shit in the house, a period during which many feet suffered the wrath of poo on the carpet. It was absolutely disgusting most days, especially in the morning, when an entire night’s worth of droppings were left for the unlucky bastard who woke up first. I bought so much Simple Green that year I should have owned part of the company when it was over. Eventually, you get “used to” cleaning up the mess and the fact that your house always smells like fresh urine or feces, but the pitfalls of pet ownership don’t stop there. This dog loved to chew (he was mostly lab) on just about anything. Because he was unsupervised on occasion, he had his way with everything he could reach. Shoes, belts, socks, towels, several sections of the apartment carpet, t-shirts, a damn window sill, pieces of the drywall, the legs of the couch, sheets and comforters, wallets, keys, and the list goes on. Nothing was sacred!

Aside from the fact that raising a small dog will completely decimate your surroundings and almost guarantee you receive none of your security deposit back, there are other reasons to avoid getting a pet. 90% of leases have a No Pets policy that will result in an immediate eviction and a guaranteed loss of deposit money.

I know what most of you are thinking, “I don’t want to get a puppy for my apartment, that seems like a terrible idea anyways. I want a cat or a goldfish or a gerbil or a monkey.” You are absolutely right (half right at least)! If you want to get a dog, get a dog that is at least two or three years old, is housetrained, and is old enough that it will rarely destroy your stuff if left alone. It won’t be as cute as a puppy, but believe me it will be worth it.

I have never, and will never, own a cat. However, I have been in many houses where cats exist. I can say this definitively: Houses and apartments with cats STINK. It’s as simple as that, especially if the people who own the cats keep the damn cat box in the kitchen or something ridiculous like that. It is a horrible smell that no one should be subjected to. I know you love your cats, but their smell is horrendous. That being said, a cat is a better choice than a puppy, as much as I hate to say it.

As far as other pet choices are concerned, most of them are pretty tame, with a few exceptions. Anything that lives in a cage is not a huge concern and can be kept relatively clean. These are things like rats, hamsters, birds (although they are often irritating as hell), various reptiles, and things of that nature. Fish can be a problem if you have a very large tank as these are usually forbidden in most aparments/houses and are grounds for eviction. Other than that, these pets are a pretty safe bet.

Let’s talk about snakes! I had a snake that was about 18 inches long when I lived in the same apartment with the dog. I bought it out of pity from a friend that desperately needed to get rid of it, and I thought it would be no big deal. I was wrong. It escaped almost daily from its cage, going missing for several days and at one point for several months. Snakes can be low maintenance pets, however, they hate to be in cages, and once they escape they are incredibly hard to find, not to mention that fact that most people are wary of partying at your house when there is a rogue snake holed up somewhere behind the fridge or something.

Ultimately, I think that having any pet in any rental housing situation is a terrible idea. I was almost evicted just two weeks ago because our landlord found out about my roommates dog living with us. Animals are expensive and dirty and are really only fit for the person who owns their residence, because then it is entirely their problem to deal with.

Finding roommates: The good, the bad, and the Ugly!

October 8th, 2008 by AllStudentRentals.com

Renting an apartment or house off campus is usually an exciting and new experience. You have the opportunity to be the master of your own domain, to make and break your own rules, and more than likely, the chance to do some really ill-advised stuff all in the name of enhancing your time spent in college. It seems like a no-brainer, until you realize the dark secret of renting: you have to find roommates.

Of course, this isn’t always the case. There are plenty of 1-bedroom apartments and studios all over most college towns. However, this is almost always a more expensive option, given that a halfway decent 1-bedroom within a mile of a college campus will cost you at least $600-700, assuming of course that you live in a relatively small town. In a more metropolitan setting, 1-bedroom spots could easily set you back $1200 a month, and many are more than that. Not to mention, you are responsible for the entire cable bill, internet bill, and electricity. Also, despite giving you a level of privacy that is pretty much unmatched, 1-bedroom apartments get pretty damn lonely.

Considering all of this, let’s just assume that you don’t want to go the way of the 1-bedroom rental. You will have to find roommates, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Living with other people is always exciting because you always have something to do, things are never boring, especially if you have a roommate that likes to get hammered and kick down doors (this is a rare quality to find, but it does make for some hilarious stories). Having roommates also defrays the cost of utilities, cable and internet bills, water and garbage (if applicable), and allows for greater socializing opportunities. That being said, let’s focus on what really matters: finding roommates that fit into your lifestyle.

Now, most people think finding roommates is easy. It’s simple right? You just move out with your best friend from high school or the kid you met in the dorms that was really cool and hung out with you every weekend. The truth is, it is impossible to know how someone will act as a roommate unless you have lived with them before, and if you have never lived with anyone, you have no frame of reference. Let’s discuss a number of things that should be considered before deciding to live with ANYBODY:

- Make sure you and your potential roommate are into the same stuff. This seems obvious, and I realize that you should have a pretty good idea of what your friends enjoy doing, but this can be very misleading. You might think that your buddy from the dorms likes to party, but it turns out that he likes to get blacked out every night and ruin your stuff, and you don’t find out until you two are living together. Everyone wants to have a good time, but you don’t need your roommate bringing shady characters over every weekend who probably steal your stuff and drink all your booze. So try to get a real understanding of what interests all of you share and whether or not they are compatible.

- Try to find roommates with similar goals. This kind of ties in to the one listed above, and it should be relatively obvious, but that doesn’t mean that it’s guaranteed. If you are relatively responsible, like to have a good time, but want to graduate in four years with a respectable GPA, find someone that wants to do the same. It is very easy to get stuck with the guy that is only in college because his parents won’t pay his rent otherwise, has a 1.01 GPA, and doesn’t own a backpack or a book. Harmonious living depends a whole lot on sharing a common vision with your roommates.

- Make the financials very clear. Again, this seeems like an obvious thing to consider, but anything regarding money will always cause problems. Make sure it is very clear who will pay what part of the rent once you move in. This seems easy, but little things will always screw it up. If your room is a little smaller, make it very clear that you don’t intend to pay as much. Decide ahead of time what the air conditioner will be set to so that there is no confusion when the bill comes due about whose fault it is (this seems nuts, but the cost of running central a/c is out of control). Decide before moving in what things will be paid for by all of the roommates. If you are getting cable or internet, make sure that everyone is on board, because you will undoubtedly have one cheap ass roommate who will refuse to pay because he or she “never uses the internet, or has a bad connection speed.” The excuses are endless, but the bills come every month, so make sure that these things are clearly laid out before you sign the lease:

- Who will pay what amount for each bedroom

- What amenities will you have (cable, internet, etc.) and whose name will be on the bill

- Decide on a common food situation. Food is one of the most common points of conflict for any household. Decide before you move in what the situation with the food will be. Is everyone going to share food? Are you writing your name on your stuff with a Sharpie? Does each person get their own shelf? These seem like simple issues, but fights over food are commonplace in most houses or apartments. I have seen actual physical fights take place over stuff like frozen pizzas and diet soda. It sounds ridiculous I know, but these are the things that occur every day when you have roommates.

- Determine the drug and alcohol situation before you move in. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it can become a huge problem among roommates who don’t get these things ironed out beforehand. If your potential roommate smokes pot, or likes cocaine, or drinks like an angry sailor, and you don’t, this is something that could easily cause problems. This goes along with the similar goals idea, but it is more specific. Find out exactly what your potential roommates position is on illegal substance, and set some ground rules if necessary, like no smoking in the living room. If the person you are supposed to live with isn’t considerate enough to make some small adjustments, you probably didn’t want to be living with him or her in the first place.

- Set some ground rules. This goes along with the idea mentioned directly above, and as ridiculous as it seems, it is an absolute necessity. Decide before moving in what the rules will be for cleaning the apartment or house. If it is going to be every week, or if there will be a rotation, are important considerations. Make sure everyone knows that everyone is responsible for keeping things clean, because there will always be the roommate who refuses to clean because “I never use the kitchen” or “I don’t get water on the bathroom floor” or “I’m not the one who gets dirt on the carpet”. These claims aren’t always frivolous, but for the most part they are complete bullshit. Unless someone makes a mess that is entirely their own, that only they are responsible for, it is everyone’s duty to clean things up.

- Expect the unexpected. I may have taken this line directly from Roadhouse starring Patrick Swayze (best movie based on a professional bouncer ever made), but that doesn’t make it any less true. No matter how much you know about the people you are moving in with, there is always something that will surprise you. On more than one occasion, I have lived with guys whose mothers were like servants and cleaned everything for them. These people are always the dirtiest ones to live with; they just don’t know how to clean shit up and this leads to a lot of issues with respect and courtesy, as well as a tense and unpleasant living situation. Everyone’s attitude is different, and this will not become more apparent until you have been in your new house at least a month. You will find that some people believe that the dishes don’t need to be done until both sides of the sink are filled and piling over onto the counters. You will find that some people don’t think regular showering is a big concern. You will find that no matter how determined you are to claim all of your food as your own, someone will eat it when they are drunk or broke or just being a prick. Some of these things you just need to take in stride, understanding that no living situation is perfect. However, some of these things, if they happen often enough and are detrimental to the environment and yourself, need to be considered as potential reasons to leave the situation.

- Know when to fold’em. Getting out of a lease is not always easy, but it can be done. Confronting your current roommates about your desire to leave isn’t easy either, but if you hate them enough, it shouldn’t be a big deal. The hardest part is finding someone to take over your part of the lease, fortunately, in most college town, there is always someone looking for a place just about any time of the year. Landlords almost never care if you leave the place early, as long as you ahve someone lined up to fill your spot and everything is legal and accounted for.

Keeping all of these things in mind, looking for that 1-bedroom doesn’t sound all that bad, right? It’s true that living alone offers you more control of your situation, but renting an apartment or a house with roommates (whether they are your best friends or complete strangers) is always an adventure, and one that is definitely worth it. College is a dynamic time for most young people and things can change very rapidly and without warning. Someone you thought you knew before becoming roommates might have some debilitating phobia or psychological issue that only emerges once you are living together. It is truly impossible to imagine the kinds of  things that can happen, however, if you are a relatively easy going person, most of these things are easy to move past, and many times even easy to avoid.

The housing squeeze

October 2nd, 2008 by AllStudentRentals.com

Steve arrived at my apartment by bike, with one backpack slung over his shoulder and another thrown across his chest — the essentials of his Vancouver life to transplant into Victoria.

The magnetism that attracts students to their place of study, with dreams of new beginnings each September, hasn’t worn off for my friend despite the fact that he graduated last spring. This time, he came with job interviews lined up, and hopes of beginning a career.

I told Steve he could stay at my place for a while.

“Throw your bags near my bed,” I said, which, in my pecan-size bachelor suite, means anywhere.

It was only a week into school, but my apartment was already disheveled, and Steve immediately offered to do my dishes. He is a good house guest — the type of guy I would want as a roommate if I hadn’t recently moved out of a shared house for some space of my own.

Five years ago, I moved to Victoria like Steve, with only a backpack. In three days I’d handed over a damage deposit, securing a room mid-month in a punk house with two guys. I was 17, with no job, no connections in the city, not a desirable roommate.

Steve, who at age 25 holds a degree and was hired to work a full-time job on his first day in the city, should have no problem securing a place to live. Except it’s September and in the years since I moved here the vacancy rate for rentals in Victoria has slipped to the lowest in Canada at 0.3 per cent — as in, on average, eight months out of the year there is zip.

The season of zero vacancy follows the migration of the students, who are forced to look for off-campus housing because there isn’t enough space for them in UVic’s residence buildings or four-person Cluster units. These students’ newly-signed leases on many of the affordable rentals in Victoria mean that September may be the worst possible month for a home-sized hole in your heart.

Steve made a routine of sitting on the floor in the middle of my apartment with his laptop open to the housing listings on Craigslist. I peeked over his shoulder as he clicked through the blue links in the Rooms & Shares category.

“Females only,” he grumbled, clicking out of a listing.

It was one week into his hunt. He had just returned from looking at a house to share with a middle-aged mother and her 15-year-old son. While Steve wandered through the place, the kid stood in the kitchen scratching his balls and, well, being a teenager. The mother said over 60 people had responded to her online ad. He wasn’t likely to get the place even if he wanted it.

In a desperate moment Steve told me, “I’ll pretty much settle for anything.” Then, reconsidered: “No, I want to live with young people that I love!”

When Steve lived in Victoria last spring, it was in a socially-conscious shared house in Fernwood, where the windows were steamed up every Sunday for a local food potluck. It wasn’t uncommon to hear the roommates jamming in the living room by the wood fireplace.

He read aloud a new listing, emphasizing the words “private” and “available now.” The ad had been posted just three hours earlier. He dialed the number provided, but the room was already gone. Steve was told the room was rented within one hour of being posted. The vacancy rate returned to zero.

Though the abnormally low vacancy rate in Victoria seems daunting, it doesn’t necessarily mean no turnover. People still shuffle; they move out of the city, in with different people and to other neighbourhoods — some lucky souls even afford a mortgage and escape the rental market for good. But lately, moving between rentals has meant paying more for a similar place.

Al Kemp, CEO of the Rental Owners and Managers Society of BC, explains that the cost of owning a home in Victoria is increasing because of rising property taxes and increased utility costs, so rental owners pass that cost on to their tenants.

Last April, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Victoria was $900, just a couple hundred shy of the country’s highest average rent of $1,096 for two-bedroom apartments in Calgary, according to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The difference between here and Cowtown: we have rent controls.

B.C. legislation prevents landlords from raising tenants rent more than 3.7 per cent each year. So landlords have to wait for an apartment to turn over before they jack the price up to “market value.” Which, Kemp said, is exactly what they’re doing now.

When Victoria’s unemployment rate slid past Calgary’s to the lowest in the country last June, more people flocked here for temporary work. But the number of rentals didn’t increase.

According to Henry Kamphof, Senior Manager of the Capital Regional District (CRD) Housing Secretariat, Victoria loses about 200 rental properties each year due to demolition or conversion. However, only about 150 new rentals are added. He said bylaws that legalize secondary suites in Victoria are needed in neighbouring municipalities like Saanich and Esquimalt. He would also like to see governments go further by offering incentives for homeowners to put a suite in their house.

Some renters know how desperate people are to find a place. Steve found another new listing and when he called, the man on the line said he was showing the place now and Steve could see it if he came over immediately. He called Steve “bro.” I told him not to bother, but he biked over to the place anyway.

The current occupants were three bartenders. They didn’t pretend to be anything less than slobs. They knew the place was a hole. The landlord lived upstairs and is an alcoholic; he never returned damage deposits. The toilet flooded, the kitchen was usually a mess and all that was up for grabs was the shittiest room in the house — a room that no less than six potential tenants were staring at, along with Steve. The bartenders would decide the next day who would get it.

But Steve wasn’t interested. He considered upping how much he’d be willing to pay for rent to $500 or maybe $600.

Bernie Pauly, UVic nursing prof and co-ordinator of a UVic working group on housing and homelessness, said that a growing number of people in the CRD dedicate more than 30 per cent of their income to rent, which puts them at risk of homelessness.

Pauly said the best way to keep rents affordable for low-income earners is by creating social housing. That is, housing operated on a not-for-profit basis or through government rental subsidies. The few complexes that currently operate like this in Victoria are only for people on income-assistance. In the ‘70s the government scrapped many social housing programs that could have helped workers in need.

Cheap rent still exists in Victoria but you have to be lucky to find it and accept the quirks that keep the price down — then stay put.

Tyrel, a UVic student who has been living in Victoria for two years, found his current rental last May — the time when many students leave the city and the pickings for shared housing is at its best. Tyrel decided not to go home for the summer so he could keep his place. One could hardly blame him; the rent is under $300 per month.

Tyrel shares a house in the Hillside area with five roommates, a number that breaks a city bylaw restricting the legal number of unrelated people sharing a unit to four.

Besides the crammed kitchen, there is plenty of room for everybody to spread out. There are several common rooms, including one with a pool table and another with a wide-screen TV. The place has been a student house for over a decade, and Tyrel says people often visit and tell him they used to know somebody who lived there or that they’d partied there before.

Some call Tyrel’s room the “Bat Cave” for its location in a dark corner of the basement. Former residents used it as a smoking room though its intended function was probably a closet or pantry. Standing at 5’11, Tyrel has to duck past the low entrance to his room (or knock his head on it when drunk). Inside, if he were two inches taller his hair would brush the ceiling. There isn’t room for more than a queen-size bed and a square grade-school desk that doubles as a nightstand. The room itself is smaller than a res room.

“It’s okay,” Tyrel said. “I chose this room. I don’t mind it.”

Steve left my apartment before he found a place to rent. His friend had an absentee roommate and agreed to let him stay in the abandoned room, then on a couch when the roommate returned.

I was glad to have my little apartment to myself again.

Every time I talked to Steve for the rest of the month he told me he was still looking for a place in earnest. He expanded his radius of interest, checking out a place in Burnside, despite not having a car. He looked at some apartments and shared houses far out of his ideal price range, but got no offers. He’s stopped laughing about the bad places. The hunt was serious.

Four days to the end of the month Steve contacted a friend whose family owns an apartment. While the building forbids renters, the two plan to fib and say they are brothers if ever confronted. A six-year age gap and matching blond hair makes the story believable.

Steve will move into a room that was an office in the small two-bedroom unit. With fewer connections, Steve said, he might be have been homeless this October.

Source: Martlet

Remarks: Sharing a room or having a friend live in a common space like the living room is very common these days. Rising prices in off-campus housing has made students in towns where the cost of living is high very resourceful. I have the luxury of living in a town where the standard of living is below that of booming metropolises. I share a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house with 2 others and we all split a monthly rent bill of $1300. This also include a common area with a pool and all new appliances, carpeting, and amenities. On the contrary my friend lives in a expensive area and goes to school in southern California, he pays $800 per month for a portion of a living room. I guess it all depends on where you live.

“Sisters” adapt to off-campus living

October 1st, 2008 by AllStudentRentals.com

When Jessica Hulings finally took a look around in the middle of moving in back in August, all of a sudden it looked like her new apartment had shrunk.

“When we saw the apartment for the first time it was huge, but when we moved in all the furniture it wasn’t as big as we expected,” Hulings (sophomore-mechanical engineering) said. “We definitely overestimated the space.”

Hulings’ roommate, Lyndsay Marks (sophomore-communication sciences and disorders) suddenly realized that there was only one bathroom.

“We had five girls … and there was only one bathroom,” Marks said. “I thought it wasn’t going to work out.”

Schuyler Merritt (sophomore-hotel, restaurant and institutional management) remembers when more than 150 people were walking in and out of her apartment during a party the first weekend of the semester.

“It was crazy,” Merritt said. “Our apartment isn’t even that big and we didn’t have enough toilet paper.”

These are just a couple of the situations that Hulings, Marks and Merritt, also known as the “Sisterhood of Keller St,” have experienced after they made the decision to move into an apartment for the first time this fall.

While there are many housing options in State College, the push to move out of first-year dorm rooms and into a multi-person apartment has been described by the “sisterhood” as a important decision that requires total dedication.

“You better make sure that it’s what you want to do,” Merritt said.

After living in East and Pollock Halls during their freshman year and during summer sessions, the “sisterhood” decided dorm life wasn’t for them and began looking into apartments.

The roommates said their experience living in dorms was difficult because it was hard for them to meet new people.

“We saw people on our floor, like once every two months during those mandatory RA meetings,” Marks said. “Here we have much more consistent friends, because we see our neighbors more.”

At that moment, two male neighbors walked into the apartment and requested to borrow some cups.

“Don’t pay attention to them,” Hulings said jokingly. “They’re just jerks.”

When the decision was made to move in together, the challenges were finding a place to live, locating roommates to help defray the costs and having to convince their parents.

Merritt said she heard about the opening of the apartment that they currently live in from her brother, who also attended Penn State.

“We were scrambling to find places and we were lucky that this one opened up,” Merritt said.

However, the process isn’t always this smooth. Doreen Strauss, president of the Off-Campus Student Union (OCSU), said the No. 1 issue it has is helping students find a place to live in a way that provides them with the best possible living situation.

“A lot of students don’t realize that they have rights and that they don’t have to settle for the conditions that they are in,” Strauss said. “OSCU helps with finding a place to live and our advisers have a wealth of experience.”

Marks said that next step was to convince her parents how important it was to apply for an apartment early.

“I knew some people who didn’t get dorms, and I didn’t want to get stuck without a place to live,” she said. Trying to beat the rush, Marks, Merritt and Hulings signed their lease without the two other roommate spots filled.

Once the parents were convinced, the next task became finding two more roommates. Some early options fell through, and the girls began posting on bulletin boards, telling friends and even posting on Facebook.com.

“We were determined,” Merritt said. “We told ourselves that we will find roommates.”

Eventually, they found two more girls. Upon moving in this fall, Marks, Merritt and Hulings noticed several differences in living immediately. For example, Merritt was happy about not having a bed that doubled as a table.

Marks was glad not to have to wear shoes to shower and Hulings was excited her wardrobe quadrupled because all of the girls wore the same size.

“I was nervous at first about getting along, but so far, so good,” Merritt said.

Even though making stylistic choices between five girls would appear a difficult process, the Keller Street sisters said it was easy to decorate and split the costs of maintaining an apartment.

“We all brought stuff that we just had back home for our apartment,” Hulings said. “It worked out really well.”

When it came time to divide up the utility costs, Marks said there was no quibbling over how much each roommate had to pay.

“We just split everything by five,” Marks said. “We also have a board that people can write how much they owe someone.” Currently, one of the roommates is in debt by about $20.

However, if a person is having trouble with their roommates, Strauss says it’s not as easy to get the conflict resolved off-campus as it is in the dorms.

“If a person is really struggling we can help them find another place to live, but we don’t deal with personal issues,” Strauss said.

“We want students to know that we are here for them and that we want to help them.”

The roommates said that having different schedules has helped to keep the living situation in balance so far. Everyone has different times to use the bathroom. On weeknights, however, the roommates have club meetings at roughly the same time and come together to watch the same TV shows.

“I know it sounds like we are lying about getting along all the time. But we really do, and I am glad we made this decision,” Merritt said. “Come back in the next couple of months and that may change.”

Source: The Daily Collegian Online

Remarks: This article highlights the importance of finding roommates who have a similar mindsite. Living off-campus does have its challenges, however, the goal of AllStudentRentals.com is to minimize these common obstacles that everyone encounters. Our comprehensive rental listing allows students to find the perfect situation for their living needs, including the specific number of bedrooms/bathrooms, and overall cost. Our Roomate Finder options also allows renters to post vacant rooms in houses and to search for roommates based on their needs. It is stated very simply above that the hardest task that the Off-Campus Student Union faces is finding students a place to live that provides the best possible living situation. Our goal is to partner with campuses nationwide in order to make this process that much easier and provide student renters with everything they need.