4 Step Guide to Finding a Student Home
When it comes to finding and moving homes, student moves are considerably less stressful than non-student moves. Student tenancy agreements are only for a year and no one will really judge you if you live in a grimy home because you're a student – it's what you are supposed to do as you can't afford anything else. Nevertheless, it is a much different process than finding a non-student home. Let this be a brief guide on how to find a student home. 1. FlatmatesBefore you go any further, you must find people to live with, unless you really want to live on your own. If you do want to live by yourself, know that this will be vastly more expensive than living in a house share. You could live with only one other person, or you could live with 10 other people. What you decide is up to you. Just don't choose your house-mates after the first week of freshers. You probably won't know them that well and you don't want to be committed to living them for a year if you end up disliking them or finding yourself having nothing in common with them after the first few months. There are plenty of student houses so don't go looking for one after the first month of being at University. After the Christmas break is the best time to start. 2. Be sure that your flatmates are working within the same budget as you are.If one house-mate is willing to pay £30 more a week than you are, then you probably are never going to find a house that you agree on. It is important to get together as group as decide on a budget together. This will settle future arguments before they even happen. Student houses vary in price from £55 to £120 a week. In London they will be a lot pricier. By far the most important thing for a student when looking for a home is the price. Be sure to also ask how much bills will be each month. The landlord, estate agent, or current tenants will be able to give you a rough idea. 3. Decide on what area you want to liveOlder universities will often have their campuses in rural areas, whereas newer institutions will often have multiple campuses scattered across the city or town that they operate in. If your campus is way out of the city centre then you have to decide whether you want to live near campus and commute to town when you need to, or live in town and commute to campus. What you decide on will largely depend on your outlook on university life. Are you there to study or to party? If it's the former, then it's best to live better to campus. But if it's the latter, then you have a choice to make. It is important to note that the closer you live, the more classes you'll regularly attend. 4. Decide on which room each one of you will get fairly.You don't want to have secured your student home and then have a falling out on who gets which room. It's never good to start living together with new people on bad terms like these. Before you find your home, be sure to have a fair mechanism of how you will decide who gets which room. If you all agree on before you even start looking for houses that names will be drawn out of a hat to decide who gets which room, arguments will be nipped in the bud before they even start.