For you being a new graduate student, making the selection of the course and the college are just first of the many decisions you shall have to make in the time to come. Sooner or later, you would have to look around and locate accommodation for you. Some people love to move around for locating student housing, but some, of course, find it a stressful task!
In Ann Arbor, I have learnt many useful things regarding the market for rental apartments for students. In this piece, I shall be detailing a few pointers to help students in finding affordable Ann Arbor student apartment on rent.
Before moving forward for house hunting, you must make up your mind regarding the following considerations.
When Are You Planning To Move To College?
You ought to be planning at least 3 months before the date you plan to move. In Ann Arbor, it is the norm that landowners pre-lease their apartment complexes. Hence, you might be put on a waiting list before your lease is confirmed by the owner if you don’t plan early. The earlier you get placed over that list more are the chances that you get your preferred accommodation.
Although, the scene is entirely opposite in the case you want to rent an individual house. In Ann Arbor, the owners list their houses for leasing as soon as they are vacated. So, if you don’t want to wait for long after pre-booking the housing, you should go by this route of renting a house instead of an apartment. Additionally, it would be an advantage if you keep your rental application ready with all the necessary documents such as references and credit reports, etc. It would allow the owner to know about you so that he would be able to process your lease application sooner.
How Would You Be Going To Your College?
Vehicle parking on the university campus is difficult. The University of Michigan provides a lot of parking spaces, but you shall have to pay for that. Another problem is that these parking spaces are not located near the academic buildings; hence, you might have to walk a lot to get there.
But, by sheer luck, public transport within the city of Ann Arbor is pretty good and is free for students. For availing the free usage of public transport buses, you need to carry your student ID card.
Thus, it would be beneficial if you choose a rental home closer to the university campus, or within the ambit of the city’s public transportation line. In Ann Arbor, you would find plenty of buses going to the central campus, the north campus, and the hospital of the University of Michigan.
Do You Live Or Want To Live With Your Pet?
In Ann Arbor, there are a lot of houses and apartments which allow pets. I estimate that there is at least 50 percent of the student housing apartments which allow pets. Some also allow more than one pets, both cats and dogs! Although you might also encounter a few house owners which restrict specific breeds of dogs to be allowed to live as pets. If your dog falls in one of those breeds disallowed by the house owners, you wouldn’t be allowed to let your dog live with you.
You must start looking early for rental accommodations as choices could become quite limited during the college admission period due to high demand. But there is one exception to the pet policy set by student housing owners. If you can produce medical documentation that you need pets for service or support reasons, no property owner can say no to you.
How Much Can You Spend For Your Accommodation?
Obviously, it would be necessary to go as per your budget. You would not choose accommodation where the rent is beyond your financial capacity to pay. You must be aware of any utility bills which might be clubbed with the monthly rent.
Also, you need to ask the apartment owner if you need to pay any additional fees for pets or vehicle parking, etc. It is my recommendation that you choose a student housing where heat charges are included in the rent. It is because winters are very harsh and long in Ann Arbor. If the heating charges are included in the rent, then you can warm your dwelling all through the winters. You don’t have to worried about the expansive bills that you might have to pay.
Plus, an additional factor in affordability is, if you could alone afford an apartment or you need a flat partner to share rent with you. For this, you can use University of Michigan’s off-campus housing web-portal and some other online resources available in Ann Arbor.
I sincerely expect that my write-up would prove beneficial for the students willing to take admission in the graduate courses at the University of Michigan. I wish students luck and fun in their moving experience!
