Off Campus Housing - What questions should we ask?

MommaJ
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:08:48 +0000

A year from now my D will be the first member of our family to move into off-campus housing. This thread has been amazingly helpful–I hadn’t even thought of many of these issues. (Bookmarked!)

I’ll add that we own an apartment very close to a college campus. When the family that had lived there for many years vacated, we could have had our pick of students to fill the place, but ultimately chose a family. We worried about a lot of things–that one roommate would leave and we’d have a hard time collecting the shortfall in rent from the others; that the place wouldn’t be kept up or would be damaged; that loud parties would disturb the neighbors. Kids aren’t ideal tenants, so if a lease seems to “protect the landlord” it’s because landlords need to protect their property and their income. Ask your kids what their dorm hallways look like on Sunday mornings and how many students lose their damage deposits, and you might have a little pity for landlords!