Whether you're moving to a new city because you transferred universities or you're a sophomore finally able to move out of the dorms, nothing catches your eye quite like the ads many student living apartments put out all over campus with low rent prices, cool amenities, furnished apartments, awesome incentives like no deposit or a gift card for signing a lease, and pictures of people thoroughly entertained while living at that apartment complex. What if I told you that halfway through your year lease it all starts feeling like a scam? Here are some reasons I will never sign a lease with a student living apartment again.
Roommate matching
In three words: it's a joke.
Yeah, sure. It sounds like a great idea. You aren't responsible for finding your own lease buddies, you aren't responsible for their rent if they happen to leave early, and there's a nifty little survey that you can take so that the apartment can adequately match you with people who you will be living with for the next 12 months. First of all, there's no telling if the management even looks at the surveys. Apartments (especially student living) have tons of residents and each survey has 10+ questions on it. You're telling me that management efficiently sorts through every one of them? Likely not. Furthermore, anyone can lie on these surveys that ask if you’re a recreational drug user, party late at night, have pets, are a regular cleaner and what your typical study habits are. You’ll be lucky if you don’t’ get a set of roommates who are absolutely awful, your groceries will disappear throughout the semester even if your name is on it, none of the “community area” actually feels like you have a designated space, and you’ll wind up cleaning for four people even though you hadn’t been actually in the apartment for the entirety of the summer break.
Offices are typically neglectful
Sure, during your tour when you viewed the most up-kept apartment that they have and were told all sorts of good things about the unit itself before you realized your personal unit won’t look anything like this one, you’ll be told all about how the maintenance is top notch and that you can even report any maintenance issues online. It is not top notch and reporting online doesn’t save any time. Expect to wait weeks and sometimes even months to see any result for that leaking bathroom sink or wobbly, unaligned dishwasher. Oh and when you’re signing your lease, be sure to take special note to the renter’s insurance portion because even if you have renter’s insurance and your stove catches on fire, the office will make sure they replace your stove with an even more expensive model without letting you know first and without letting you use your renter’s insurance. Before you know it, you and your three roommates are paying $300 each for this new stove. You read that right: a $1,200 stove. If you have any additional complaints, don’t bother going to your management about it either because the most they’ll do is brush it off of their shoulder, tell you to deal with it and drag you through mud for months before actually finally helping you only after you threaten to use a lawyer.
After-hours security
Gated community with a little box for a security guard to sit in? Great! Don’t expect that to mean that you’re totally safe. Not only will you never actually see a security guard, but you’ll hear about random crimes happening in your gated community that were carried out by people who weren’t residents. No clicker to get into the gate? No problem! Just wait a little bit and then sneak in the out gate when people are leaving. After all, there’s not actually a security guard in the security guard box to stop you. There’s no gated community, but the office assures you that there is a courtesy officer who makes rounds to make sure nothing crazy is happening throughout the complex? Sit on your balcony or porch all night for a week straight, I double dog dare ya. You’ll never once see said courtesy officer make any sort of rounds.
Hidden costs
Alright, so the office workers will do a great job of highlighting the costs of rent and utilities for you failing to mention that you’re going to have to choose between flushing the toilet, watching Netflix, showering regularly, turning on lights and using air conditioning or heat unless you’re wanting to pay $40 on top of the $40 utility cap that you have every single month. Be sure you draw out a schedule for using water and electricity with your roommates that you were conveniently matched with, too. Not only will the office not show you a report from your electricity meter, they’ll be quick to reassure you that it’s charged to the whole building so have fun paying the overages. That’s not all, though. It’s really convenient to pay your rent online – especially if you use a credit card instead of your debit card, but be forewarned, the convenience fee is a ridiculous $15 on top of your rent and overages. One more hidden cost? Your wifi and cable is included in your rent, but you’re going to have to pay the bill for it monthly (providing that you, a broke college student, has the funds to do that) and then take the bill into the office so that they can credit your account back... if they even do.
But the reviews are so good
Actually, they aren’t. Download the app community rewards and all you have to do is sign in, say what apartment you live at, get to work on doing the monthly tasks, and soon you’ll be on your way to resident of the month plus a $100 VISA gift card. One of these tasks includes leaving a good review on Yelp or their Facebook page for the world to see. Sure, people are going to leave a good review for money especially when they’re starving college students!
Do yourself a favor — believe the few honest reviews on your student living apartments out there and don’t sign a lease with a student living apartment complex. After all the time, stress, headaches and hidden costs it’s worth it to just get an unfurnished apartment and work your way up from there. At the end of the month, it will end up costing less anyway.
