Looking for a New Apartment?
CSU Provides Support
Feeling that it is time to move out of your parents' house or get out of the expensive dorms? Well then, you should check out the new CSU Off-Campus Housing website. The site is an easy way to find listings with varying distances from campus.
With over 100 listings, you may find your new home. Whether you are looking to live in the city, a close neighborhood, or even further out in the suburbs, there is probably a place you will find to be a possibility. The listings range from less than one tenth of a mile to thirteen and one half miles from campus. Besides the out of place listing for a property in Toledo that claims to be .8 miles from campus, the site is well put-together and inclusive.
Although the site does not always have as many pictures as rent.com and other apartment search sites, it does have more than enough information in regards to the properties. In addition, it has the search option to only look at properties that are situated less than a certain distance from CSU. Another quality of the website is that it lists features and utilities included in rent for each property that are important for students who are looking to live in an apartment for the first time.
This website is free for the university (so your tuition dollars are safe in this case) and provided by a newly established company. The President/CEO of Living Off Campus 101 LLC Michael Bumgarner said, "We build partnerships with universities across the country, and our job is to go in there and assist them in developing a new off campus housing website." So far, Living Off Campus 101 LLC has developed sites with five different universities, all in Ohio, and an additional office in Texas is in the works. At CSU, the site became live only a few weeks ago, and it is looking good with so many listings.
Bumgarner explained, "We are kind of the middle man between the landlords and the university." This is because the landlords can sign up online to be included on the site through Living Off Campus 101 LLC and the university just has to be willing to be in a partnership with the company.
Now, if you are thinking that you want to get an apartment, but you know you cannot afford it alone, then the new site can help because it has message boards that you can post that you are looking for a roommate. Also, you can post if you want to sublease your place, sell furniture, sell textbooks, or sell anything, really. Bumgarner said with respect to this feature that "we really worked hard with the university in making this a one-stop shop." The best part about this is that it is free for students, and you will not have to send your goods to your buyer since they will be at CSU as well.
Graduating college in 2007, Bumgarner has recent experience being a student trying to find great housing, and he said, "The student perspective was a big part of how we came up with the different features of this website." With someone so close to our place in life, he and his company strive to provide what the students want. If you are in the market for a new place, check it out.