Trying to find an apartment--

[kuyaBaka]

-- so some of my old roommates from last year and I were planning on living off-campus this coming school year to help cut costs from housing. Bunch of stuff is happening, and pretty much forcing any non-freshmen who live on-campus to pay quite a sum of money to live in the campus apartments (which really aren't all that great).

Myself have never really done something like this, so I don't really know what to look for. I don't really know how to begin or exactly what I should be finding. Are there any places I should check first and foremost to find the best deals/places? I don't know. Maybe any of you in the San Jose area know of good places near SJSU?

[Catharsis]

I'm not familiar with your area, but this is what I did when I moved to the land down under for grad school:

- checked student bulletin boards around campus. Some people post flyers there.
- searched the university accommodation website. Usually, student services allows people to post about vacancies or folks looking for a roomie.
- asked around. Sometimes the good apartments are not posted in formal channels. The best apartments are usually relayed by the friend of a friend who didn't want a total stranger using their house.
- web search. Not sure if your area has its own property rental portal. Maybe a nationwide ad portal like Craigslist?
- newspaper ads


Some tough lessons I learned the hard way:
- always ask for a contract. It's worth shelling out for a deposit. I've been kicked out once in the middle of finals week because they suddenly decided to remodel the house.
- ask about inclusions and exclusions: are utilities covered in the rent? How about Internet? if fees pile up, are you still comfy with the price?
- check if the place is Internet-ready, has heating/air conditioning, a phone line, washer/dryer, water heater, within your mobile carrier's strong signal range
- transportation accessibility. I like living near a bus stop, preferably one where passing buses go straight to Uni. I hate changing buses or trains midway. Too much hassle.
- are you near shops and other commercial establishments? It may not matter now, but when you get hungry at 12am and realize you are out of food and the nearest 7/11 is 40 minutes away, you'll be thankful for the nearby convenience store.


Hope that helped somewhat.
Also, please excuse the lack of capitalization. I suck at touchscreen typing.

[ForTheCity]

Well where are you originally from? Many of my friends who go to SJSU live in Milpitas, San Mateo, Etc and commute to school. I'm sure if you are originally from the silicon valley it might be cheaper for you to commute to school instead of living on campus.

If you want to stay with your roommates you could always check craigslist (even tho its sketchy).

[kuyaBaka]

I'm actually from the Fresno valley, 2.5 hours south. And one of my to-be-roommates is from the OC down in SoCal. So really, it's the best we can do. Luckily I was able to run into a flyer for a nice place nearby (it flew right in front of my feet). So far so good!

[Dani]

I'm actually doing the same now; looking for a place off campus to live at while I attend college ( though I'll be with random people dsfhdskjfhdsj ).

Good luck to the both of us. `-`

[Rhinehart]

Why is there a website for everything?