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October 14, 2015 - Image 12

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Wednesday, October 14, 2015 // The Statement
4B
Wednesday, October 14, 2015// The Statement

5B

HOUSING HEADACHE:

Renting off-campus at the ‘U’

by Emma Kerr, Senior News Editor

F

inding housing: the exciting, sometimes heartbreaking,
endeavor all University students partake in some form or
another during their time in Ann Arbor.

With only guaranteed housing for freshman at the Univer-

sity, many upperclassmen often engage in a adventurous search
for other housing options at the beginning of their sophomore
year. This presents a challenge that many students may not be
able to handle — especially in the first few weeks of a fall semes-
ter.

To find housing that is both close to campus and affordable

may seem impossible for some. And the increasingly competi-
tive nature of Ann Arbor housing means students are often
forced to sign leases earlier in the season each year.

The process is a major source of concern according to a sur-

vey of about 100 students who live off-campus conducted by
The Michigan Daily.

Business junior Sarah Mironov said her experience search-

ing for off-campus housing, after living in her sorority house
sophomore year, was high pressure and stressful. It also began
immediately after returning to campus in the fall, while she was
still adjusting to campus life.

“I feel like Michigan is a unique school in that, a) students

don’t live in dorms beyond their freshman year and b) the hous-
ing process starts incredibly early,” Mironov said. “Whereas my
friends at other schools start thinking about the housing pro-
cess toward the winter, even into the spring, for us we had to
start looking for housing during our first few weeks on campus.”

Yet the process doesn’t seem out of the ordinary to Mironov,

who signed a lease on Sept. 19.

“(The process) seemed pretty average for my whole group

of friends,” Mironov said. “I have some friends who didn’t sign
until October but I also know people who signed leases during
Welcome Week.”

Many students form groups and commit to properties under

similar circumstances. According to the survey, 41 percent of
off-campus students sign a lease 10 to 12 months in advance of
move-in.

When unable to sign a lease, some will resort to signing a res-

ervation, which ensures them first rights to sign the property if
the occupants at the time do not renew a lease. The reservation
and renewal system means many properties never appear on
the University’s listing site or even the sites of property man-
agement companies.

The City of Ann Arbor requires property management com-

panies and landlords to wait 70 days after the start of the cur-
rent tenant’s rental period before showing the property or
signing a lease with a new party. If the average rental period is
around Sept. 1, that means it’s not until November that student
should be even able to start looking at properties.

However, by not having formal tours of a given property, but

rather unscheduled tours at the will of current tenants, and hav-
ing signed intent to lease forms — or rather by ignoring the city
ordinance entirely — landlords and students, alike, avoid wait-
ing until mid November to firm up housing plans for the follow-
ing year.

Jon Keller manages hundreds of houses for rent in Ann Arbor.

He’s also a University alum, and with that perspective, Keller
said, his company has developed a particular understanding of
what it means to be a landlord for tenants who are primarily stu-
dents — though he’s seen many landlords do it the wrong way.

“We’ve worked with every landlord there is in town and we

know who keeps their word and who doesn’t,” Keller said in an
interview with the Daily. “I just feel bad for the kids who get
bad landlords.”

Companies who disregard the ordinance that requires wait-

ing until 70 days after the current tenancy start date to sign a
lease with new prospective tenants are fined by the City of Ann
Arbor. Because of the competitive nature of students’ search for
off-campus housing, however, many companies pay the fine and
continue to lease to students in the early fall months.

“A lot of landlords are just flat out disregarding this rule

because the fine is a thousand bucks and there’s never been
anyone fined that I know of. The fine is so proportionally small
compared to a $60,000 lease listing, that it’s really a cost of
doing business for some of these bigger companies.”

Keller added that though he does accept reservations, he

does not show or sign leases until after the 70 day period.

“Yes, people are signing left and right — just not with us,”

Keller said.

****

Last week, an unofficial off-campus housing fair was set up

on the second floor of the Michigan Union, and in attendance
were housing management companies, like Cappo Manage-
ment and Campus Realty, as well as the larger student-targeted
apartment buildings, like Landmark Apartments. About twenty
students circulated the room, others filtering in and out.

The University’s Beyond the Diag program, an effort to pro-

mote the University’s engagement with off-campus students
organized by the Dean of Students’ office, sponsors yet another
fair on Nov. 4.

In an e-mail, Molly Labrousse, Beyond the Diag program

manager, described the University’s various resources, which
included a listing site, descriptions of each Ann Arbor neigh-
borhood, and the availability of staff members in the Dean of
Students office to help with any questions students may have.

In addition to both North and Central campus housing fairs,

the University offers an Off-Campus Housing website that
includes rental listings, but at the time this article went to print,
a search for a two or three bedroom apartment in the East Pack-
ard area yielded a meager five results. And some of the results
that appear are for leases that begin in May rather than the
standard September start date.

However, Engineering sophomore Brent Patterson said there

is still a lack of information regarding off-campus housing
options and companies as well as a variety of unhelpful Univer-
sity resources.

“I didn’t really like that — it was showing properties that

weren’t really relevant, out by Pinckney,” Patterson said.

He said he relies more on sites like Cribspot and Yelp to know

what houses were available and to get a sense for the reputation
of the company, building, or landlord.

****

The Daily’s survey suggests that many students are generally

happy with their housing once they find a property.

On average, students rated their experience with their cur-

rent landlord a 6.7 on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 signifying
complete satisfaction. Forty-one percent of respondents cited
unsatisfactory quality of the house or apartment as the primary
issue they had encountered during their time living off campus.

Other prominent issues students indicated in the survey

included unresponsiveness from their landlords, and unclear
or confusing lease agreements between tenants and landlords.
However, 33 percent of students said overall they had no com-
plaints overall about their landlord or property management
company.

For those that still don’t want to tackle the process, other

options are still available, such as Greek life organizations and
properties offered through Inter-Cooperative Council hous-
ing — also known as co-ops. There are seventeen co-ops in
Ann Arbor, sixteen of which are on Central Campus and one
of which is on North Campus. There are 65 different registered
sororities and fraternities on campus as of Oct. 6.

In the Greek system, housing policies and lease durations can

vary from house to house. Many of these organizations rely on
involvement and seniority rankings to determine room assign-
ments, and students pay rent via the organization.

Co-ops offer students flexibility in regard to the timing of

their housing decisions, as well as the length of lease, while also
providing for more affordable, hassle-free off-campus hous-
ing, according to Linder president Courtney Smeenge, an LSA
senior.

“Every house has a different field, but the guiding principle

among the coops is that it’s affordable housing for students
and no landlords involved,” Smeenge said. “It’s cool that way
because it’s an autonomous organization where house members
have control.”

Co-ops function on a first come-first serve basis, but they

offer single semester contracts as opposed to 12-month con-
tracts. Smeenge added there are often openings during the
semester and a wide selection of houses that may have open-

ings. They also have a waitlist system if students are hoping for
a particular house.

Rent typically includes utilities, food, and, of course, a room.

There are no unexplained fees and the house is managed by the
Inter Cooperative Council rather than a traditional landlord.

“You just have all of these different costs coming together

and then you’re buying food on top of that, so it’s nice here
because our rent is everything — it’s all in one package,” she
said.

Co-ops and Greek life housing present alternatives to the

self-driven, independent search for off-campus housing that
many, if not most students, will undergo at some point during
their time at the University.

There is a huge variety and selection when it comes to prop-

erty management companies in Ann Arbor — landlords range
from large companies owning or managing 50 houses to an
individual landlord who owns one, maybe two properties.

In the end, Keller, who rents many properties in the city,

said it’s important that students understand the commitment
they’re making when signing a lease and find a house that fits
their needs and budget.

“They don’t really know and they are willing to sign things

because they like a house, they think it’s pretty, or they don’t
read the lease — or worse, they sign with (a company) whose
lease is garbage,” he said. “There is certainly a naivety.”

LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily

Houses along Adams Avenue near Michigan Stadium

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