What Should You Know as a Student Renter?

Posted on 01/10/2015

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You are all grown up and moving away to start your new life as a college student. There are plenty of responsibilities that come with that, and one of them is knowing where you will reside and how to deal with that. In fact, that should be your major worry and main issue to deal with long before any lectures start, especially if you are going somewhere far from your comfort zone in the family nest. But when renting as a student, tenancy is slightly more different than the usual. You get different prices and different environment than if you moved to live and work, and eventually settle down somewhere. And here is what you need to know about that.

• Know your budget.
Unless you are among the rare examples of working students who already live by themselves and handle their taxes, you will have to rely on your parents’ finances to thrive, so you need pick a place where you will not become a burden to them. You should know that there are a lot of fees even as you enter the new residency: a first month’s rent, a rent’s worth of security deposit, and a tenancy registration fee for the security of the deposit. Make sure your parents can handle these bills, and think about getting a part time job yourself to alleviate as much of the costs as possible. Moving house is a costly business, after all.

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• Renting a house or a flat.
You can go with either, but you should be aware of the pros and cons for both. If you rent a house, for instance, you will get more personal space, but at a bigger cost. Of course, it would have to be a shared house deal with more people, and that means dealing with housemates, so pick those very carefully. Of you rent a flat, it will be cheaper, but you will have less space and shared rooms with a flatmate, who could very well abuse chores concerned with cleaning.

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• Do you need a letting agent?
Consider whether it would be a good idea to use a letting agent to do the house or flat hunting for you. An agent can come up with more options, but will ask for a percentage fee on the first rent as payment. And when looking for a place as a student, you should know that there are many people who offer good housing around colleges and universities. The options you can get are many, but with an agent you can sift out some of them. An agent can also be a key to finding a good moving company as he or she will be aware of the better and reliable local movers. Again, consider the pros and cons and decide if you need one.

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• Inspect all your options.
When you do find a place that looks nice, do a thorough inspection and see if everything works or if the landlord is merely relying on you being a desperate-to-find-a-flat student and offers anything, thinking you’d pay any price. Yes, those do exist, especially the ones who own flats near colleges. And then there are those who offer only rooms and no furniture other than a bed, a chair and a table, just like dorms. You need to be prepared if you end up having to rent such a flat, or to prevent yourself from getting one like that. That is why you need to take an on-hand approach and inspect every option you have been given and only then make your choice.

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Student renters are not uncommon, so you should have no problem finding a place and fitting in. But you do have to be smart and find a good place with good room-, flat-, or housemates so that you can live your college or university experience to the fullest. Now that you are ready with that, you can start getting ready for the moving van and for the relocation.