I’m James a final year Business Information Technology undergraduate studying at the Manchester Metropolitan University. Being a student often incurs balancing a heavy workload with other living requirements. Endless hours are spent in lecture theatres, seminar rooms and not forgetting the 24 hour library whilst consuming enough coffee to fill a swimming pool. At the end of a busy day nothing beats the comfort of the home environment, however to enjoy these home comforts the process of renting a property must be completed. This article aims to provide an insight into how students journey through the rental process, including property requirements and communicating with the landlord.
Requirements
As with most students I spent the 1st year of university in halls learning to support myself whilst completing the early stages of my degree. Just before Christmas the decision was made that I along with 3 fellow pals would look for a house for our second year studies. We started the ball rolling in early January listing the main requirements we wanted in a property:
* Location: a house within close proximity to the main campus, a comfortable walking distance.
* Study friendly bedrooms: adequate sized bedrooms with space for a desk and chair to enable studying at home.
* Kitchen facilities: with up to 4 people cooking at once the kitchen had to provide adequate storage, refrigeration and cooking facilities.
* Socialising: students are well known for socialising therefore a medium to large sized living area was favourable.
Finding a Property
Our search for a student home was carried out using technological methods. We searched on the internet using various property websites including: Rightmove.co.uk, Zoopla, Find a Property as well as location based student homes websites such as manchesterstudenthomes.com.
* For students this is likely to be the main port of call over the traditional method of walking down a high street.
After carrying out a search for a property we trawled through the pages of results looking for potential properties that matched our requirements. We found that some adverts did not include a picture of the property advertised which meant we didn’t consider it.
* First impressions of a property start with the appearance. This was an influential factor in making our decision.
The Landlord
We made a move into a new property ready for the start of final year studies with downsizing the contributing factor. I have therefore experienced renting a property from two different landlords.
* We did not meet the landlord of our second year student home, all communication was made through email when needed.
* However we did meet our new landlord the day after we moved into our third year property. Meeting the landlord was a great way to run through the inventory, exchange details and build a relationship for future communication purposes.
I believe that meeting the landlord is a great way to make a good first impression and lays the path to a successful renting process as a student.
Makeurmove offer an advertising service to student landlords where the advert is displayed on all major property portals including Rightmove Students. The advert is displayed as "NO AGENCY FEES!" to attract more viewings.
http://makeurmove.co.uk/expressRoute/let?product_id=2
