Help…I need somewhere to live!
Do I really need to rush about looking for a house?
Looking for a student house when you’ve just got to University can be daunting. Many letting agents’ ‘housing lists’ are released around early january, and if you just started university in October that can be as little as 2 months before you feel you have to find a group of friends to live with, and choose a property!
In reality there should be no rush – there will still be houses in March – but the best properties do go first so while you shouldn’t rush, do try and be prompt – if not you will get a house but it won’t be as nice as you want it!
Where to look for a house though?
Online Searching
A lot people start their search online for a property and then wilting their choices down to several that they want to see. The advantages of this process is that compared to traditional methods, it is a look quicker and you can search from properties across the whole city in a few minutes to find the ideal house for you.
The best way to start searching is to either:
1) Look on your university website for their recommended letting agents/landlords and get in contact with them (although this is no guarantee that this will be a good landlord, be sure to ask around on your university facebook and look online for reviews.)
2) Google letting agents in the location you are going to be studying, and then follow a similar process of looking for reviews of these agents, again current students will probably be your best bet.
University Housing Services/Student Unions
Your university housing service may be well placed to help you find a house – but the quality of these services do vary greatly between Universities. A good housing service will maintain a list of letting agents and/or landlords which they recommend/blacklist – this can be a good starting point for beginning searches, or to serve as a final check once you have found a house you like.
Bear in mind that Housing Services vary dramatically from University to University. Some have their own accommodation they manage on and off campus and may try and push you into this (in some cases this could be more expensive than the private sector), others advertise landlords through them (and usually provide some safeguards/code of conduct), and/or others have genuine advice centres. Unfortunately some universities see the Housing Service as a profit-focussed department (through the landlord advertising mentioned above) and thus do not run the Service to provide ‘impartial’ advice but to try and let as much university managed/advertised accommodation as possible. Other students should be able to give you a good idea of how good your Housing Service is.
Student unions may also be able to help – some are organised to do this, a small minority may take no interest though. Most SU Officers should at least be able to give you personal advice, and many will be able to help you with questions such as where does everyone else live, when should I start looking and so forth.
University Housing Days
Many universities also run ‘housing days’, typically in the first term of the year, providing advice on housing. Often other external organisations might be present, such as the police (home safety) and council (landlord accreditation schemes). At many housing days these organisations are joined by a few commercial letting agents (usually those recommended by the universities) – and so you can also begin your housing search at these days. Note that choice will usually be very limited, but you should feel fairly secure that the agent is at least pretty decent!
The High Street
Finally, you can just walk around the town centre and pick up housing lists. The quality of these varies between each city (larger cities generally of better quality) – the majority of lists now include descriptions and photos (though often black and white). This is the advantage of looking online – you essentially get all of these housing lists, but with more information, and from every letting agent, and can search through them to show only properties relevant to you.
And once I’ve found a potential house?
Once you’ve compiled a list of potential houses – whether from online, newspaper, or some other method – you need to contact the letting agent/landlord to arrange a viewing. In most cases they will take you on a viewing, but in some cases you may just be told to make your own way to the property.
At this stage, the method of search you picked above can really start to make a difference. Decent online listings will often have internal pictures of the property, so you can get a good idea of the property before you go to view it. That way you can ensure the properties you view you actually have an interest of living in!
When you go to visit a property make sure you ask all the right questions and look for any potential problems/issues.