Living in the dorms is fun, introduces you to new friends and affords you the quintessential college experience…but typically after Freshman year most students are ready to head off-campus.

While dorm life does present some annoyances like curfews, shared showers and lots of rules, it doesn’t require any financial responsibility. So, when students are moving to their first off-campus apartment they aren’t always prepared for the obligations that come with apartments for rent. That’s why we are here to help.

If you are getting ready to leave the dorms for your first off-campus apartment, we have some great tips to make it an easy and seamless transition.

New Freedoms and New Responsibilities

Life is a balancing act and when you get new freedoms like living off-campus, they typically come with new responsibilities. It’s important that students are adequately prepared for the changes that come with managing life outside of the dormitory.

Since you will no longer be on-campus there are a few more things to think about and take into consideration:

• ·      Getting to Class: You will no longer be within walking distance so make sure to properly research how you will to and from class from your new apartment. Whether that is bus routes or driving times, get a handle on it so you aren’t chronically late.
• ·       Security: College campuses are some of the safest places and while most apartments for rent have security you may want to look into additional options. Be sure to ask about security measures for your exact apartment unit (security system, deadbolts, window locks, etc.) and what they also do for the community (patrolling, etc.).

Find a Roommate Before an Apartment

Nothing can damper the experience of living off-campus faster than a bad roommate. Since you will need to live with someone else to shoulder the financial obligations of an off-campus apartment it’s important to nail down a roommate before you nail down an apartment.

Whether it be a best friend, former roommate, childhood friend or classmate there is one main factor to determining a suitable candidate: can they co-pay rent and bills on time? 

Yes you want someone clean, nice, fun and respectful…but none of those qualities are as important as financially responsible. At the end of the day you will be much happier with a roommate who pays his/her share of rent/bills than someone who can throw a great party. Trust us.

Developing an Accurate Budget

The first step in finding apartments for rent is to determine what you can actually afford, which means developing an accurate monthly budget. As far as budgets go, living in the dorms was easy. There was no monthly rent payment, no bills and all costs were included in your tuition.

Moving off-campus is the exact opposite. Here renters are required to pay rent each month, on time or suffer expensive penalties. There are also other monthly obligations to stay on top of like utilities, Internet and cable. While some apartments for rent will include utilities in your total rent payment, it’s important to break them out when creating your budget.

To help you develop the best budget, fill in the monthly amounts (or as close to accurate as you can get) into each field then add together:

Rental Rate                __________

Electricity                   __________

Gas                              __________

Water/Sewage          __________

Cable                          __________

Internet                      __________

Rental Insurance       __________

TOTAL                       __________

You should also consider all of the fees you will be putting down at the beginning of your lease, and factor those into your budget.

Application Fee          __________

Security Deposit        __________

TOTAL                       __________ (Divide this number by 12 and add to the budget above)

Finding Apartments For Rent in Hattiesburg

Now that you’ve prepared, found a roommate and developed a solid budget it’s time to start searching for your first off-campus apartment! If you go to University of Southern Mississippi, or surrounding colleges, then you will be searching for apartments for rent in Hattiesburg.

We recently wrote a detailed blog about how to best find apartments for rent in Hattiesburg, including the best online portals to search, it can be accessed HERE. If you need additional help please give us a call at 601.264.4622.