20 Things To Keep In Mind While Hunting For Your First Off Campus Apartment

11. Are they going to require a cosigner on the lease?

If so, are your parents going to be willing to sign it?  Cosigning means they’re on the hook for rent or money for damages in the event that you can’t pay for it.  They may or not be cool with that.

12. Where are you going to do your laundry?

If the apartment has an in-unit washer and dryer, that’s great…but pretty rare.  You might have a public facility for all the residents in your apartment.  You might even have to go to the laundromat.

13. Are you going to be able to study at home, or is the building too noisy?

This is a very important factor.  No matter how cool your apartment is, you’re not going to be happy with it if your grades drop off because the place just isn’t conducive for studying.

14. You should know, sharing one bathroom with your roommate(s) will probably suck.

Just know this ahead of time.  You probably won’t hate yourself for springing for the two bathroom unit…

15. What’s the management like?

Talk to some of the current tenants and find out.  Are they slow to respond to maintenance calls?  Is the office staff rude?  Do they enforce the complex rules or not?