Living Off-Campus: Rental Options and Best Practices

Living Off-Campus with Roommates Can Be Great If You Know What You're Doing

When moving out of the dorms and into off-campus housing there are several options, each with advantages and drawbacks. The following suggests some precautions to take at the outset to keep yourself and your parents financially safer.

Living Off-Campus with Room-Mates - The Options

Whether your off-campus housing is an apartment or a house, one option is to rent a single room directly from the landlord. Alternatively, you can approach a landlord as a group of potential room-mates. In the latter case all the room-mates will likely be asked to sign a joint lease.

Finally, you could move into an off-campus place without a lease. You may sublet a room from one or more room-mates, either with or without the landlord's knowledge and agreement.

Renting a Single Room Off-Campus - Advantages and Drawbacks

When renting a room directly from the landlord you're only responsible for your own rent. If one or more of your room-mates leave, the landlord cannot come after you. If room-mates move out without replacement, your rent will not increase, but you'll have less noise and a greater share of joint areas (e.g. kitchen, laundry facilities, bathrooms, etc.).

On the other hand, if room-mates move out, you have no say in the landlord's decision on replacement room-mates. You may suddenly find a party-animal has moved in with you, making noise to all hours. Alternatively, the new room-mate may be a neat-freak who keeps bugging you.

To address this problem, you may offer your help in finding a replacement room-mate. Even if the landlord doesn't pay you for your help, you'll at least have some influence on who moves in with you.

If renting a room in the landlord's house, you'll probably find the terms extremely strict. However, any maintenance problems are likely to be addressed very quickly.

Renting a Home Off-Campus with Several Room-Mates - Advantages and Drawbacks

You may have banded together with some friends looking to rent an off-campus house as room-mates. Congratulations. Your group is likely to be more attractive for landlords of desirable properties.