Renting Tips: Let The House Hunt Begin

I’m going to be honest, when I started university I believed that as a student you lived on campus…the whole time. I didn’t really understand that most students after their first year decide to move away from residence. No, to me residence WAS a students home…you know, kinda like when you were younger and you believed the teachers lived at school…for me it was the same with university students. Truth of the matter is though, at some point you’re probably going to need to move off campus.

So here are some helpful hints to find that delightful little place to call home:

 1. Housemates: Housemates can make or break the house no matter how perfect the actual building is. For this reason, keep your eyes open to potential housemates early on. See who’s neat, responsible, dependable, easy to get along with and of course meshes with your personality. These are kinda standard things to look for, but you’ll have additional preferences on your own lists. The important thing is that you find housemates you can live approximately a year with and not go ape on each other.

2. Pick A Budget: Once you’ve decided how many people/who you’ll be living with decide on a budge; see how much each individual is willing to pay. Here you have to be realistic and sometimes compromise. Some people may want to pay less and others may be willing to pay more for a nicer place or location. It’s best to give yourselves a range to work with and see if you can’t find something to satisfy everyone. 

3. Find The Area: Start to pinpoint locations you’d prefer to live in (taking your budget into consideration). Anywhere closer to the university will be more expensive but more convenient. If the transportation in your area is good or you have a car than proximity won’t matter as much. If you don’t know the area, take a bus ride or walk around. Or, ask someone at your university who knows the area well to tell you what locations are student friendly.

4. Start Early: Ideally you start looking for a house around now. I say this because you can’t expect your search to stop after 3 houses, it’s going to take you a while to find the right one, and if you start early you’re more likely to have this luxury of picking and choosing. To begin use craigslist (amazing site!), Kijiji, Facebook, newspapers, or heck, go to the areas you want to live in and look for “for rent” signs. Also, take pictures of the inside of the houses so you can look back on them later. Believe me when you start seeing a lot of places, they all meld together and you can forget which houses had what.

5. Ask Questions: Seriously, I took a clipboard full of questions regarding how the house was heated (gas,  electric, baseboard, floor), what responsibilities the landlord had towards the lawn (plowing and mowing), the terms of the lease, how old the house was, when the windows and roof was last replaced, if it was equipped with a fire alarm on each level AND a carbon monoxide detector, if the landlord lives close enough to call during emergencies, etc. Don’t feel shy about asking these things, it’s within your rights to know! After all it’s a large investment and if they haven’t stepped up to the plate to make it worth your while, walk away.

6. Analyze The Landlord: My best advice to you is really interview the landlord…I mean REALLY. In order to do this, you need to know your ish. Know your rights as a tenant (Google landlord and tenant board or go to: www.ltb.gov.on.ca for the government website). Landlords wont tell you everything you want to know, remember they’re sales men and women, they want you to live in their house and they will make you think it’s the deal of a lifetime. So ask a lot of questions and see if they give you the correct answers. If you have the opportunity, ask for the contact information of the individuals currently living in the house and ask these people what the landlord is like and why they’re moving. Generally other tenants will lookout for each other and will tell you straight up if something’s wrong with the place or if you should rent it or not…just make sure you don’t ask these questions in front of the landlord.

There are lots of things to prepare for and if anyone else has things to add to this list feel free! Don’t stress though, I know it’s a lot to take in, but once you see a few houses, the search gets a heck of a lot easier. So, get started! I promise it will be worth it in the end!