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Off-Campus Housing: Parents Beware |
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Written by Ken Bauer
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The three things that can make a great or grave rental experience are
the three L’s. And those 3 L’s are location, landlord, and lease. This
website will cover each of these separately.
The first thing to understand about location is that it is almost
always more expensive to live off, but near, campus than on campus.
While there is no doubt that there are more freedoms to be enjoyed off
campus there are also more liabilities because once off campus you are
dealing with not one landlord (the university) but many different
landlords and governing bodies. Let us show you some things you really
need to know before going any further with living off campus.
Different Locations, Different Prices
The reason for local housing being so expensive differs from rural to
urban colleges. If you attend an urban college than it is simply that
things are more expensive in the city. If your college is in a rural
area than the reason it is more expensive is simply that the local
landlords are making a killing. Let us explain.
If you live in a town with a population of 17,000 and that includes
about 10,000 students then you can observe that rent is much more
expensive in your town than a neighboring non-college town of 17,000.
There is one reason for this with two factors at play. The reason is
that demand for rental housing is more constant than in non-college
towns so landlords can charge more. The two factors bolstering that
reason are: the cost of living on campus (off campus housing uses on
campus housing prices as their starting point); and, what the average
income is of the average parents sending their child to school. If the
demographic average student comes from, or near, a large city like
Chicago then it stands to reason that parents sending their child to
college will not be shocked at spending $300-500 per month in rent per
student because it would cost at least that much where they currently
reside.
Financial Savings
So now that you understand that expense let us tell you how not to wind
up paying even more. The three secrets of real estate sales are
location, location, location. With that being said let us focus your
attention to the layout of your college and its relation to the
community’s housing prices. The category that is going to be most over
priced consists of apartments and houses near campus. Remember, just
because something is geographically close to campus does not make it a
great location for students. If you cannot park within a block or two
of your residence and have to climb three or four flights of stairs
once there, you could have just as easily driven another 10 minutes and
pulled up in front of your door, in fact, it would have been faster. If
something is a mile, or a couple of miles, further away but with
excellent and abundant roadways, bicycle or walking trails, or bus
routes leading to or near campus then it also is a great location for
college students.
This is the most overlooked way of reducing the expense of college.
Many parents and students look at tuition as the primary factor yet
ignore the (at least) four years of rent that will be paid while there.
Remember, only a few months of the year are too bad for bicycling or
rollerblading to class and the exercise will not kill anyone,
especially for $100, 200 or 300 less a month in rent.
Be sure to read the guides on leases because you will probably be
surprised to find out how non-binding many parts of leases usually are.
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