Subleasing: an untapped market
By Jaclyn Lipp, Staff Writer
May 15, 2007 | 9:13 p.m.
Subleasing an apartment or house over the summer can save homeward-bound college students a lot of money, not to mention providing a sigh of relief on the other end for someone frantically looking for a temporary residence.
From the looks of bathroom stalls in classroom building that are plastered with signs looking for roommates or hearing friends tell exasperated stories of failing to find a renter, it may seem as though Ohio University students don’t have much luck with finding subleasers.
Don’t lose heart, though. There is still hope for you to save that much-needed money over the summer if you go about subleasing the right way.
Read your lease first, genius
Some leases actually don’t permit subleasing. It is important for you to read your lease carefully before trying to sublease. It is also a good idea to contact your landlord to double check, as well. The Center for Student Legal Services is a great resource to help you go over your lease or to direct any legal questions about subleasing in general.
Communication with roommates is also ideal to make sure everyone is comfortable with the idea of subleasing.
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Interim program director Kevin Smith of the Off-Campus and Community Services Office offered one little-known resource for posting subleasing advertisements. Earlier this year, his office created a free online student subleasing guide that few people know about. OU students can post a comprehensive description of their subleasing option and browse through available housing. It also provides legal information throughout the entire process provided by the Center for Student Legal Services.
“A lot of the students are getting in trouble with their landlords or getting into these relationships with students that there’s no contract there… whatever we found has been able to help students live off-campus and adjust to the independent lifestyle and get them into the least trouble as possible is what we try to do as an office,” Smith said.
Other students have been successful by being aggressive and taking time to advertise through other avenues. OU junior Jackie Owen has an internship over the summer and decided to sublease her North Court Street apartment through the Web site, The Post and Craig’s List, another online posting site. She found that The Post was her best choice for advertising.
Facebook and just simply word of mouth may also help you find potential lessors.
As is a possibility with anything online, some people try to scam through e-mails about subleasing. Smith said his office has been alerted to a scam from an English person who claims to want to send a money order for more than the amount.
OU sophomore Ryan Dammann went through one such experience. He tried to sublease his house on Mill Street for the summer, but received some strange e-mail responses from people internationally. “[A man] agreed to time and rent and then he said, 'Well I can send you a check for $4,000… you take out the money you need and send the rest to this address' and I was just like…'Uh can I just handle the rent? Why are you sending me $4000? Why are you trusting someone with $4,000?' I don’t know if it was money laundering or what he wanted me to do,” Dammann said of e-mail contact with one person who contacted him from England about subleasing the house.
Come on, who stays in Athens for the summer?
Dammann expressed his doubts about actually being able to find people staying in Athens for the summer when he said, “You see all the signs all over campus and how many people are subleasing. I haven’t heard of many people who find someone to sublease - not many people come down to OU just for the summer.”
People are out there, it’s just a matter of looking.
Smith commented, “I think that there’s a market for [subleasing] that’s kind of untapped. I think a lot of the students may be likely to assume that there will be no one to take their place for the summertime, but the truth of the matter is that they’re leaving for the summer and they always have so they really don’t know what Athens is like in the summer."
He also added, "We have a lot of students that come for internship sites with the professors and faculty and across campus we have international students that come. We have lots of graduate students that want to come here early and they move here with their spouse or partner and they need a place to go, and so by simply posting that you have a place available, I mean anything’s better than nothing.”
Say cheese!
The Off-Campus and Community Services Office highly recommends taking pictures or videotaping the condition of the house or apartment you are subleasing before the lessor moves in. That way, it can be proven who is responsible for paying for any damage if it is later called into question.
Subleasing may take some time and effort to advertise and find a lessor you are comfortable with, but it’s a small price to pay. It may save you a lot more money in the long run and everyone knows we poor college students could use more of that.