Finding a Place

How to keep your friends and a roof over your head

Living off campus can be a great experience, or it can be a nightmare. To make sure yours turns out to be the former, you need to put some serious thought into where (and with whom) you live.

With a little planning, you can make sure that:

• (A) You don’t spend all of your money
• (B) You’re still friends with your housemates after the living arrangement is up
• (C) You have a good time

Of course, our job at MoneySmarts is to help you make the decisions to ensure A is taken care of. But rest assured, if you take care of A, B and C will follow.

Do you need a roommate or three? Yes, you do.

Splitting costs with a roommate is like having one of the best coupons around. One roommate is like having a 50% off coupon, 2 roommates are 66%, 3 roommates are 75%. You get the picture.

While the idea of having a place to yourself might sound appealing, the moneysmart thing to do is share your space. You’ll save money on rent and utilities—and probably have a better social life, too.

Utilities: the forgotten housing expense

Speaking of utilities, their costs and how you go about paying them can often stand in your way of B and C.

The first thing you should do when getting a place (with or without roommates) is to find out what, if any, utilities are included in your rent payment.

If there are some that are not included, ask the landlord or the people currently living in the place how much their utilities are on average (even if they don’t have them readily available, they should be able to get the numbers fairly quickly).

Add these utility costs to the rent payment when you’re comparing your options. That way, you’ll have a much better idea of what place is the most/least expensive.

The secret to keeping your place and your friendships

Before you sign on the dotted line, make sure you and your roommates decide how your bills will be paid—and who’s responsible for getting them to the right place on time.

If possible, ask your landlord if each person in your place can co-sign the lease and pay their portion of the rent directly.

This can significantly reduce the possibility of problems popping up. Plus, you can’t be evicted should one of your roommates decide to not pay.

If your landlord indicates that’s not possible and/or you still have utilities to account for, you should get your payment structure in writing. That way, if a situation should arise, you can be protected.

If you need help drafting something or are not sure what to include, contact Student Legal Services (if in Bloomington) or a faculty or staff member on your campus to see what advice they might have.

It’s not about the house: it’s the experience

Remember, there’s not a big correlation between the amount of money you spend on your place and how happy you are with your college experience.

It could be argued that there’s a negative correlation. After all, the more money you spend on your living situation, the less money you have to spend on everything else.

So make sure that you set a budget on how much you can afford before beginning your search.

And remember: just because you can spend a certain amount of money on a place doesn’t mean you should. Your budget tells you what the maximum amount is that you can spend on something, not how much you have to spend.

If you follow these tips, you’ll end up with the best of both worlds: a place you love to live in and friends you still love at the end of the year.