These people will be your upstairs neighbors.





Get on the top floor.

College town landlords write very one sided leases.
Watch out.

There are companies that never pay deposits back, and plenty of small owners that are honest. Rent from an individual if you can. If you do go with something managed by a rental company win a reputation of taking advantage of college kids, the place is probably shittier and roach infested.

Drive thru during the day and again at night on a weekend. Gives you a good indication if people are just hanging around with no jobs.

You mean, like most places with, well, students?

Some apartsmens even in college towns will have groups of people who wander around aimlessly all day in the parking lot if you catch my drift. Not talking of students.





 

I never lived in the dorms. Went straight into the fraternity house for 2 years then moved into an apartment. Most college town apartments are full of college students, so they are typically very similar.  Most have their own 'reputation' so ask around.  Mine was a cheapie but it was in decent shape. The only negative was we weren't on the top floor.  The people above us sounded like they were fucking jumping around like monkeys and bowling all of the time.  



Pro Tip:  Scout out the pool and gym if they have one. Shows what kind of girls live there.  Mine was perfect.

Take pics of everything. I mean, everything.

Shower head, carpet, faucets, water heater..... fucking take some time to snap 100 pics.

It may save you $1k+

I was an apartment manager in a past life. Trust me, they get wet when they see the smallest defect.

DOCUMENT EVERYTHING, OR REAP THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR SLOTH.

Off street parking. That is HUGE around here.

J-

Tag for later when I got more coffee in me.

ETA, ok here we go.  Note, I've been in the property management profession for 27 years which means you won't listen to a word I say but I'm going to try anyway.  Most of my experience is in conventional multi-family properties though I have had some experience with the student housing sub-market.  

Student Housing:  Where they rent "by the bed" and cater specifically to the college students.  You have two types of these communities; purpose built and a conventional property that has been converted to student housing.  Stay away from the later as they were not designed for "by the bed" renting.  The floor plan layouts and not very conducive to this but most importantly, the parking lots were not designed for every bed to have a car in the parking lot.  There are a lot of pros and cons to student housing and if you chose this rout let me know and I'll get into more detail with you.  

Conventional apartments:  Just what it sounds like, a standard apartment community.  

What to look for when choosing an apartment?
-Is it run by a professional property management company?  Most people don't think of this and just look at the name of the community.  Find out who the property management company is.  How long have they been in business, how many units do they manage, is there a local regional property manager, what kind of lease do they use (some use their own, the more reputable use an apartment association lease which in Minnesota is the Minnesota Multi Housing Association), does the on site manager have any industry designations? (Accredited Residential Manager or ARM from IREM, or Certified Apartment Manager from the NAA)
-say you find a community you like.  Reasonable rents, friendly staff, etc, what to look for before you decide to spend your coin?  Look online for reviews, apartment ratings.com, yelp, satisfacts, etc.  How many cars are in the parking lot during the day?  [unless it is close to the school and full of students who walk to campus a full parking lot is a sign that it is full of deadbeats and FSA types who aren't working].  What kind of cars are there?  People are what they drive.  Additionally, cars with flat tires, expired registration stickers, or in obvious disrepair means the onsite staff doesn't give a shit.  Drive the community around 7-8 PM and again around 2 PM (or whenever the bars close in your area).  

-When touring the property with the on site staff; are they friendly?  do they ask you a lot of questions about your needs wants and desires?  do they take an individual interest in you and your wants?  Ask them, "Is this a safe place to live"?  If they give you a canned response or some kind of non-answer, ask them if there is a website that you can look up crime statistics for the area.  If they say yes, this is a safe place or some other kind of affirmative answer, run away as they are fucking stupid.  

Have an understanding of MN Tenant / Landlord law for your and your landlord's rights and responsibilities

MN Tenant Landlord Law

And that's all you get with one cup of coffee in me.  If you have any specific questions, let me know or shoot me an IM.  

Oh, and I would typically stay away from single family housing.  i.e. rental houses  that's a hit or miss market with very little to go by to see if you have a good owner / manager or some slum lord.

Ask how many of the apartments are section 8 housing. I believe all complexes are required by law to have a few. But the less section 8 the better in my experience. Not all people who live off section 8 are bad but the majority of them abuse the system so they can sit at home and be nothing but an annoyance and burden on society all day. If you move in the wrong complex your chances of having your apartment or car broken into goes up, your probabily going to see and hear lots of arguments and fighting, lots of blue lights going in and out.

Your beliefs are incorrect Sir.  

Don't overthink it OP. Just pick an area you will tolerate and afford.

Parking situation, mail/package handling and garbage are things to ask about.

Don't forget to confirm the unit has a dishwasher and microwave. Make sure your cell phone gets signal in the unit. Shit like that its easy to overlook when you are being shown places.

Probably going to have to get a cosigner, since you may not have credit established.  Document condition it's in and have carpets cleans, fix walls, etc before you move out.  If at all possible be there during walk thru.

If you have to have roommates, have a written contract on who pays and does what, significant others and rules about parties.  If you have firearms, get a good safe and don't let people know of ots existence.  Don't leave valuables around.

What usually sucks is signing a 12 month lease.  Opportunity to stay during summer.  Sucks when you graduate.

That depends on where you are.

 

Leftist run communities will often bargain with developers on section 8, requiring it before letting them build.


Twin Cities is most definitely run by leftist fucks, so any changing of hands of complexes can be expected to introduce section 8.


It IS the law in some cases.  Likewise, some landlords will resort to that if they can't fill the place... a less likely reason unless the reputation is bad or the place is a dump in a college area.

ALL communities as premised by my SC friend are not required by law to set aside a percent of their community for Sec 8 housing.