S will be graduating soon and the working plan is to move to hours away to the metro Philadelphia area with the SO. What have those of you who have moved your grad done when it comes to finding an apartment? did you work with a realtor, look online, ask relatives? Did you sign contracts sight unseen? (visiting will be hard for them, but not impossible) .
We have a basic knowledge of what parts of the area are worse/better, but I’m wondering if I’m trying to re-invent the wheel and so looking for input. Their budget will be very limited, and they need to be near mass transit, but I’m kinda stumped as where to begin. My “job” is only to find possible leads and buildings, not to choose the apartment or anything. They are months away from that kind of certainty. They will be there at least 2 years.
We did this twice…once for DS when he went off to grad school in 2007, and then again last summer for DD who was moving to the greater Atlanta area for professional school.
Luckily in. Toy cases, we had friends who helped us in terms of neighborhoods and safety and the like…which real,estate agents can’t really discuss.
For DS, he actually looked on Craigslist, and found several prospects. He made the contacts, but unfortunately he was away that whole summer…so I went and actually made the choice. We had appointments to view four apartments…all with rental agents…all found on Craigslist. Our friends went and drove the neighborhoods for us and ranked them. This was so helpful. I went, signed the lease, gave the deposit, etc. it actually went smoothly. But I was not on metro Philly!
For DD, luckily I have good friends who live near where she is attending school. We got a list of apartments and they went on an outing to view them…and give us feedback. We started with seven places…all within proximity to the school. No Craigslist. After the first outing, the field was narrowed to the top three, maybe it was four. The metro Atlanta area has TONS of apartment complexes…and they also don’t do leases until 60 days before you plan to move in…very different than the cities in the NE. Anyway…when the 60 day mark was approaching…the friends went back for a second trip…I did FaceTime with them. We picked the top two choices based on convenience and cost…and let DH make the final choice. All of,the lease and stuff was done online. All of it. Lots of,scanning of documents, with emails,but really it was pretty easy.
Philly is probably more like Boston in terms of finding a place. Since I don’t really know…I won’t comment. But in Boston, an agent is the way to go…unless you know someone who is moving out. If one of them is going to school…or will be employed…perhaps,the school or employer has some housing info. Worth asking.
My D1 used Craigslist. It helps a lot if they can be in the city to meet with prospective roommates, though, assuming they are looking for shared housing (likely on a tight budget). Not sure mom meeting with them works… and someone who can come in person has an advantage. They might spend a weekend a month or so before they plan to move up there looking for apartments if they want a shared one. If they want their own apartment, it is easier – someone can go look at buildings ahead of time to narrow it down, then they can go for a weekend and make the final choice. Honestly, you can’t do a ton six months ahead except make a list of neighborhoods and possible buildings. (I know this from moving into an apartment a couple of months ago – buildings don’t know much about vacancies or move in specials until a few weeks before the date when you want to move, unfortunately).
My D looked online at craigslist, apartmentfinders and a couple other sites. She narrowed down to four or five places - then we went with her for a one day visit about 45 days before her move to look at the places. We didn’t know the area so I asked here on CC for suggestions for neighborhoods. After a long day of apartment hunting, she decided on the best one and we co-signed for her. Her apartment is in a large complex with a leasing office so we were able to sit down and go over all the docs with her and finish everything in one sitting.
Our kids handled all the logistics- usually starting with Craigslist and then a broker if necessary. Trust me- a college graduate can handle this.
The one thing you can do is to have your financials in order just in case the landlord needs a guarantor for the rent and your kid doesn’t make enough (i.e. makes enough to pay the rent, but not the ratio the landlord needs). So get ready to fax (for some reason none of them like email) your stuff if need be.
The logistics your kid can handle. The network of just graduated college kids is wide and vast- enabled by Facebook. They can figure it out. But your kid likely doesn’t have a credit history which may make signing a lease problematic- which is where you come in.
Agree with blossom - kids can/should do most of the leg work themselves. My D, who moved from Boston to NYC after graduation, and a year later from NYC to Wash, DC for grad school, found housing, rented a truck and moved herself (with a little help from her friends.)
For housing, your son’s best bet would be to let all his friends know he’s moving to Philly, whether through Facebook or whatever. All of my daughter’s apartment leads have always come through friends-of-friends.
And as Blossom wrote, we too had to co-sign on her lease. Twice.
Was also going to mention the possible need for parent as guarantor. If it is a matter of joining an apartment that someone else has leased, then that is different. Craigslist is good for the latter, an agent for the former, in our experience. The agency can clear our kids based on parental guarantee and that vetting is used for all apartments. Without an agent that vetting process happens with each apartment separately.
D1 has found all her living situations through Craigslist. In San Diego, she sublet from the main renter; and found a roommate and then, with that person, did the legwork to find a place to rent. For NYC, where she moved late last year, she found her first, short-term, sublet from home (my home); she and the renters talked to each other via Skype. She found her current room once she was in NYC and was able to go see places quickly.
D2 found her roommates via her college’s alumni Facebook group. The roommates were already living in NYC but wanted to move. They found a place using an agent. D2 was glad to have a place into which she could move in the brief interval (three weeks) between college graduation and the start of her job.
I signed D1’s lease as a guarantor. D2 didn’t need one because her income was sufficient.
Hah, we are in the process of helping one of ours who just accepted a job but has been living and working near his college town this past year and on his own. He did most of the work, finding a place to live, taking care of paperwork and leases, banks, car insurance and all that. He even found his subleter for the last 3 months of his lease and worked through that with his landlord. Yahoo. For the first time he is going to live alone, so that helps. He pared down his “stuff” and we’re willingly and happily taking some time off (we ski so who doesn’t want to take a side trip to Colorado in the winter) to facilitate the actual physical move. Not moving his (large) bed kept him in a smaller uHaul and saved a bunch of $$ so we told him we’d buy him a new (cheap) bed as a celebratory gift for the new real adult job. Two down and launched, one to go but we’ve got another year and some 'til he’s off the parental dole and graduated. #2 is going to miss the skiing but oh well…he’ll have somewhere to go on his now paid vacation :-). as he says “I’m OK I’ll get paid to go on vacation.” Ahh youth!
When older d moved to Philly area for grad school she and I took a day and drove down and looked at a few apartments she had either found on craigslist or through grad school website about living in Philly. She went back again another time and rented an apartment, she bought some furniture from the guy moving out, had already arranged for a roommate from the grad school website and as the future roommate was coming from Europe, she did all the arranging for electricity, cable hook-up. I did the guarantor stuff over the phone with the landlord and sent what was needed next day delivery from the post office. We had ordered a new mattress/box spring at a Sleepy’s and when she was moving, we drove down in a car and U-Haul, picked up the new mattress/box spring and moved her and her stuff in. She kept the car and DH and I drove home in the U-Haul. When new roommate arrived they went to Ikea and bought lots of other stuff and did a large grocery shopping.
The next year she and roommate moved into a rowhouse in Philly and we drove down to help with the move along with then boyfriend. She and current boyfriend handled the move into their apartment where they live now. I did also still have to be a guarantor for them as well as did his family.
With younger d, also had to be guarantor. She has lived in 2 apartments since graduating college. One was found by friend and she agreed to live there with another girl. We ordered new mattress/box spring and this time waited for delivery. Went to IKEA and bought lots of stuff. Moved into current apartment with different friend. DH, older daughter and i helped with the move from one apartment to the other… hopefully our days of driving U-Hauls and hauling stuff from place to place are behind us. Oh yes, also am her guarantor here along with roommate’s parents. They handle all the arrangements for utilities and all of that.
The only thing I’ve ever done for my adult kids moving was to keep my eye out for listing on Craigslist & Padmapper for listings – and only as a 2nd set of eyes, just with the idea that I might see something they missed. I’ve actually passed on share-rental situations to my son two or three times over the years that worked out for good short-term rentals.
Kind of depends on local rental market. My d is in NYC, and my impression is that it’s pretty much essential to work with an agent there.
Be prepared to be guarantor for the lease unless your S has an established credit rating, a job offer, and good income from last year. We had to give copies of our last two years of taxes, pay stubs, pay for them to run a credit check, provide a letter from an employer, etc. It was intrusive bordering on offensive, but that was dealing with NYC so hopefully your experience will be easier.
In Baltimore, I simply paid 2 months of rent as a deposit for the kiddo’s apartment instead of going through the trouble of the colonoscopy-like cosigner verification process (as described by greenwitch). Inquire if this is an option, too (it was in small print on D’s application form, but I am good at reading small print, and I preferred that to “borderline on offensive” - YMMV).
DS looked online, and rented sight unseen. Then again, he had a very specific are in NorCal that he needed to be in, and knew which cities were no-nos due to high crime. His apt is fine, a bit dated, but in line with the other complexes in the vicinity. What killed me was the rent…over 3x what our first mortgage was in 1987.
For older s, a friend helped us locate a realtor who helped us look at options in the city where he was relocating. DS ended up renting from a woman who was a friend of the person he was going to work for (she had a B&B and several rental properties) so we did not need to sign anything. Would think if your DS has a job and can prove a confirmed job offer, he has guaranteed income, or the SO, if they are planning to live together, can do likewise.
For younger s, he did it all on his own. First job out of school was in the same city as the college, so that was a no brainer. When he moved to another state, fortunately he was offered some temporary housing for a few weeks, maybe a month or so, which gave I’m time to look at roommate options. I think he looked at options on the company website and also craigslist. Oh, and thumper, I was 4, but one got scratched off the list, IIRC
For S, we flew to DC with him months before he started work and accompanied him to look at a condo rental he found online. He liked it and offered to rent it. The owner was impressed that we were with him and agreed to rent it to him so we paid security deposit and first month’s rent. He had an offer letter with him from his employer, he showed it to his landlord, which confirmed he had a job and his starting date and salary. We then all flew back to our respective places. S later had movers move his stuff from LA to DC and he and D drove his car from LA to DC with some strategic stops along the way. He sold things he didn’t want to move and employer paid moving costs, as well as cost of driving his vehicle.
He has mostly bought new items from Ikea and wherever he fancies. He doesn’t think he will live there permanently, so isn’t spending a ton on furnishings.
I agree with most posters that there really isn’t much parents need to do except offer to be the guarantor if that’s needed. When my youngest moved to the PNW last fall, I did look up some apartments and they got on his list, but he ended up finding someone that needed a roommate on some sort of roommate matching site. After moving around a bit in college, there really wasn’t any need for us to help out. We did help our daughter move one time (she’s been out of college for a few years now) but after that she found friends or hired people.
Depending on where the kid is going, when his job starts, and where he plans to live, you may find that he needs a guarantor, and the guarantor is probably going to have to be you or your spouse. You may want to learn something about this ahead of time so that you won’t be caught by surprise if it happens.
I assume from @HImom’s description that her son did not need a guarantor in DC. My daughter did need one in the same city, despite her offer letter.
I think it was that the landlady was so impressed that we all flew over from HI and S’s salary was significantly higher than the rent. We didn’t need to be guarantors for S, but have had to be D’s guarantor, since she is still jobless.
- YMMV).