When my D rented an apartment for just fall of junior year (due to study abroad in Spring), she purposely chose roommates who were doing the same (they had a group of 8 or 9 friends who mixed and matched who lived with whom for junior and senior years) and they each rented bedroom furniture for the semester. It was more costly than buying someone’s leftovers (which she did choose to do for senior year) but it was more manageable than moving the furniture, storing, selling it, etc. Since the apartment rent was less than the dorm fee, it was close to a wash so I didn’t care.
Joint tenancy means that if a roommate wrecks the floor in his or her room, the whole group is liable. Watch out for this!
STORAGE UNIT The kids from far away tend to find each other and share storage units to throw furniture, personal items and other stuff between years or when campus housings close. It saves rebuying or throwing away. Kids throw away a ton but if they have a storage unit they can grab that free stuff others need to get rid of and store it over summer for next year. Sometimes you work out the abroad part where you can sublet from the abroad person and then switch when they go abroad the next semester. Many of the on campus housing are furnished with the bare minimum bed, dresser, closet, nightstand. You leave it when you go. The kids tend to get with those they want to live with the following year and work out the logistics themselves with parents helping at move out if possible. The previous poster with the selling and reselling to the next occupant is correct. That goes for fridges, furniture, and beds. Lots of people will sell it so as not to move it and then you can as well
Son’s first, shared apartment, came furnished. They all contributed things like dishes, silverware (some of son’s share had been appropriated from the dorm food service…), toilet paper, cleaning supplies et al. Later son had a solo unfurnished apt for which we rented the truck and gave him some old stuff. Every end of semester/end of lease time (leases run one day shy of a year- tons of homeless students for a day while emptied places are cleaned/prepped for new tenants) there will be a lot of discarded furniture et al curbside- the city plans on extra trucks for trash day.
Definitely be aware of lease terms. Son’s first management company was, per him, notorious for withholding parts of security deposits. But, knowing kid (and he was gone OOS when lease ended- not there to clean) and the state of that apt on one brief visit I am not shocked. In son’s city parents were required to cosign as well. The students decided who owed how much of the rent based on single/shared room et al and management took the payments from each individually- found out they kept track of those who paid on time and those delinquent. Water was included but one person took on the electric bill and another the cable bill and those individuals had service in their name and the others needed to pay them. You have to trust the apartment mates to pay their share and to do their share of cleaning. So many tales.
Priority # 1. Lease terms. Be sure you and your D know them and the others also know them plus they agree on handling things. This includes rent, utilities, cleaning and household rules (above and beyond those in the lease- campus area rentals had many noise clauses et al not found elsewhere- they know their population!).
Priority #2. Furniture and household goods. Furnished/unfurnished…
Not to worry about- even if your D is inexperienced with the process there will be others at her college who know the local ropes and can offer help/advice. Curbside finds, thrift shops… whatever is done.
I never expected adding apartment living to son’s college experience would be a good thing but times change. His school now has a culture where most upperclassmen live off campus (changes from my day- especially with better/closer options)- perhaps closer to their classes than some dorms are. Needing to cook and clean- not my place, not my standards. Overall it became a great way to ease into independence- being familiar with school when adding extras. Sharing responsibilities before going solo also was good. Had worried about son remembering to pay bills but he did- and gained a track record for the future. That absent minded kid matured well.
I think you mean jointly liable, where everyone who signs the lease is liable for the entire amount of the rent, any damage, the security deposit, etc.
Joint tenancy is a way property is titled which means each owner owns 100% of the entire property and there is a right of survivorship. An owner cannot split his portion or transfer it. This is a common way for spouses to own property.
At some schools (my reference is Ithaca NY) the rental student housing comes furnished with basic furniture, similar to a dorm.
Rental student housing owned by the college comes furnished. Like college owned apartments and suites. Are you saying all off campus landlords provide furniture in Ithaca NY? I don’t think that is true.
cnp55 is correct about rentals around Ithaca. Almost all of them came furnished with basic stuff. Both of my girls lived off campus last two years at Cornell. The renters had to come with their pots and pans, utils, etc, but landlords supplied tables, beds, sofas, etc. Cornell and Ithaca college didn’t own those rental units. I think many college towns have fully furnished units.
All rentals were minimum 12 months rental, so my kids were able to move some of their personal furniture to the new apartment before they came home We only moved their personal stuff home. Their friends from far away, stored their sweaters and winter clothing at dry cleaners and some at storage units.
At the end of 2 years, my girls “donated” all of their furniture to the school to be used by whoever wanted it.
Some schools do a “flea market” type event at the begunning of the school year and sofas, rugs, lamps, all find new homes.
DS (who has stayed on campus) has split the cost of storage units with several friends. Mostly personal belongings, but things that make zero sense to bring home.
I think every campus has its own culture and ecomomy around this, and your D may be better plugged into it at her school than any of us here could be.
As someone who lived on campus only one year, I can tell you that every stick of furniture I owned had been “re-homed” by graduation.
@oldfort that’s terrific for those attending college in Ithaca. It must be the expectation for renters there.
This is an interresting thread. My DD lives off campus in a furnished appartment and it’s only slightly more expensive than an unfurnished appartment in the same building. My DS at a different school will be moving into an on campus apartment next year, he has the choice of furnished or unfurnished. The furnished apartments are significantly more expensive. Thankfully there’s an Ikea near by that delivers!
Cornell graduate and parent of Cornell graduate here. It’s true for the landlords with buildings located close to Cornell who rent to undergraduates. I lived in a furnished off-campus apartment, and so did my daughter, 35 years later.
Son is flight away and does not have a car. Luckily, many of the complexes near his college have furniture packages. It was easier to rent the package than deal w/ the hassle of furniture. I also told him he needed a place to live for his final 2 years of college as there would be no more moving things around. I also have a strong dislike for all the stuff kids/parents throw out at the end of the year knowing it will end up in a landfill somewhere. Obviously many people don’t even think about that, but I do.
DD would like to move off campus but I told her only if it’s absolutely impossible to get a place on campus. Rents are outrageous in that area and limited. If she can do traditional for 2 years and then college’s campus apartment, she won’t need furniture either.
Many college campuses have a large “tag sale” of these left behind items. Current students can purchase…as can others. The proceeds are donated to charity. Any leftover “merchandise” is donated to AmVets or some other organization who will pick up.
My daughter’s campus did this…it’s through some program…and they raised a lot of money for charity.
It was a great place for the continuing students to pick up “stuff” they could use as well.
My D has to move every 4 months because of co-op. She uses companies that will move and store her furniture while she is on break if she is in between apartments as she is now. She has also sublet her apartment when she is working or going to school in a different city. I give her advice, but she lives 5000 miles away. I am not flying out to help her pack, it wouldn’t be worth the ticket price.
Most students will not have cars at UW (Madison). Student parking options at one far away end of campus (where commuters would park), most campus area apartments won’t have much, if any, parking and it will be expensive. Campus and city buses, bikes and just plain walking are the norm. Most will not want to leave on weekends, no need to get away as there is so much to do.
Again, the students know a lot more about their school’s housing culture than we do. There is so much passed along.
I truly appreciate everyone’s replies! It sounds as though there are multiple ways this gets worked out and I imagine my daughter and her friends will learn how just like everyone else! It does seem as though it would be easier to just live in a suite-style dorm for the four months she’ll be on campus, but I guess she’ll figure it out! And actually, off-campus living might be a good preview for her housing situation when studying abroad (likely a shared flat with other students).
Thanks again!
I’m late to the party but my apartments (at Cornell) were all furnished. DD is at Purdue and it seems to be a combination of both furnished and unfurnished apartments. There is a huge resale shop in the area for students where you can get furniture on the cheap.
Yes, @IBviolamom, they do figure it out, but the finances are tight in our case, so I was very involved in initial guidelines. And since there is a glut of housing in DS’s college town, there would be no subletting to re-coup rent payments when he was not there, so we capped the absolute maximum we could work with.
So your daughter will certainly figure it out, but there is no harm with your gathering of information either.
We helped our dd this past summer as a sophomore. There are some extra hidden costs (moving, storage, setting up wifi, electric) and the logistics were a lot for her to handle alone. She did all of the early stuff and we were there when she moved in. We are 1,000+ miles away and she didn’t have a car. She chose an apartment right next to campus - older but location was perfect. Since she flies home she was not going to bring her dorm things home so she was already planning to rent a storage unit. She watched the student pages and purchased a solid wood bedroom set, desk, desk chair, vanity & stool, kitchen table and chairs from seniors graduating - spent about $500 total. She had a friend and 2 strong guys help her pick up and move the things to the storage locker - she paid gas and gave them each some $. She rented a larger locker for the furniture and shared with some friends who helped offset the costs.
We shopped sales all spring/summer and shipped things directly to her school mail room.We flew down a few days earlier then she needed to be there this August and rented a car. We went shopping for little things (cleaning supplies, food, kitchen basics) but also for a mattress set and couches or chairs. We went to a consignment shop in a nearby area where we found a beautiful coach/loveseat set in great condition (gently used, no smells, no pet hairs) for rock bottom price and purchased the mattresses new at Sams Club. Finding the furniture at the consignment was luck and we were prepared to have to buy new (but cheap) couches. It worked out much better because what she got was solid quality pieces for less. My dh rented a moving truck for a few hours and we first loaded the storage unit stuff, then to Sams Club for the mattresses, then went to the consignment shop for the couches. We hired movers for an hour to unload the van and carry the things up the multiple flights to her upper level apartment. That was the best money ever spent! Her roommate brought other tables, lamps, rugs, tv, and her own bedroom things since they were within driving distance.
Between renting the trucks, paying the movers (pros and friends), the larger storage unit for 3 months (for the furniture), buying the furniture and outfitting the apartment cost about $2200. She now has it for her 3 years while there. Her apartment is much less rent than the furnished apartments which would have been between $150-$250 more every month and certainly much less than renting furniture. She has resigned for next year so will not move out over the summer - saving on needing a storage unit, truck, moving help this spring and then again in the fall. If she signs again for senior year she is way ahead on costs. At graduation she will decide what can be resold, what she will keep, and what needs to be trashed. Her apartment is about $2,000/yr less than the suite style dorm she was in freshman year (not sure if they have increased the costs - if so, she would be even less) and since her apartment is right next to campus she is closer to many classes than in the dorms. When we visit we no longer need a hotel and she does not have to be out right after finals. Her room is much larger than the dorm suites (and larger bed) and she has a washer and dryer in addition to a bigger kitchen. We were not sure about it but it turned out to be a great decision.
We did have our travel costs for the 3 days we were there (travel, hotel, rental car, meals) that we did not add into the total but we enjoyed the extra time with her.