In the age of the Internet, pretty much everything can be accomplished virtually. You can grocery shop online, read a book online, and house hunt online.

But, what about apartment hunting?

In Tallahassee, you either know the apartment complexes surrounding the campus already or can make a quick Google search to find out.

Need an apartment to sublease for the summer? In a college town, that’s truly not an issue.

Facebook postings alone are enough to simplify the search for a room in your desired complex without you ever needing to physically go out and look.

But, what if you’re searching for an apartment in an area that's hours, or even states, away from where you live? In an area where you know nothing about and you know no one who lives even remotely close.

And, in an area where there is no definitive “college town” to be seen.

How do you know which areas are safe and which are close to pockets of crime?

How do you know the traffic patterns and realistically how close you need to live to your job in order to get there on time?

And, how do you even find someone to room in an apartment with when you know no one?

Enter: the Internet.

Not only has the Internet gifted us with YouTube, it has also given us a plethora of websites aimed at just that: finding a room to lease.

Roomster and Sublet are just a few examples of possible websites specializing in brokering apartment room leases.

Throw in apps like Circle for Roommates and you’re almost guaranteed a surefire way to find an apartment room from the comfort of your living room.

But, wait, there’s a catch… or two.

Those lovely websites that lay out for you available listings, price, approximate location, and profiles of your prospective roomies come at a price.

You either have to pay to subscribe in order to view email addresses or phone numbers in order to contact the person about your interest in the listing, pay to send them messages through the website, or pay to simply “view more” information about the listing.

So, not quite as user friendly as it seemed at first glance, especially when compared to the free post on Facebook advertising someone looking to sublease their 3x3 in Catalyst.

Oh, and that app I mentioned, Circle for Roommates? Well, while it is helpful to swipe right or left on potential roommates, it is not helpful to know nothing about where their apartment is besides “Los Angeles”.

I don’t know if you’ve looked recently, but Los Angeles is pretty expansive and not even knowing the borough or proximity to other streets or highways presents a hugely inefficient way to find a room and roommate.

Granted, I understand that the app is designed that way to protect all parties involved, but it still is inefficient nonetheless.

So, now what?

We’re left with Craigslist and word of mouth to spread it around that you are looking for a room near X place.

At least, that’s what we’re left with from our good friend the Internet.

Instead of remaining in our comfortable virtual space, we have to take this show on the road to the good, old-fashioned way of finding apartments: walking around.

That’s right.

You want to find an apartment in Culver City in Los Angeles near your internship? You have to rent a hotel room for a few nights and literally comb through local newspaper listings and other local advertisements to find potential apartments.

Then, you have to physically go and visit said apartments and make sure you’re not being catfished and that it’s actually what you’re looking for.

I know, in the era of convenience and reliance on the World Wide Web to do the heavy lifting, apartment room hunting, of all things, remains strikingly similar to the way our parents went about it.

A little ironic that you can find more information on Zillow about a house than on Sublet about a room with a shared bathroom, but hey, that’s just how it is.