{"id":41774,"date":"2020-07-02T07:44:42","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T11:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=41774"},"modified":"2020-07-09T11:32:19","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T15:32:19","slug":"dont-stress-house-hunting-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2020\/07\/02\/dont-stress-house-hunting-101\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Stress: House Hunting 101"},"content":{"rendered":"Stressed about back-to-school housing? This post is for you! I attended Housing Services\u2019 House Hunting 101<\/strong> presentation and here\u2019s what I learned. You can watch the recorded livestream here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nBefore you start your search it's important that you determine your needs (this will make your search significantly easier). If you don\u2019t know what your preferred living situation is, the links I\u2019ve added below will probably help.<\/span>\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s also important to know your budget before you start searching. If you\u2019re looking for lower prices consider looking East, West, or North of the city rather than downtown Toronto. It\u2019s also important to remember that extra costs such as hydro and heating can fluctuate from month to month based on your usage.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe rest of the post is sorted into the sections covered by the presentation by Housing Services.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\"Houses.\"<\/a>\r\n

Roommates<\/strong><\/p>\r\nTo find a roommate you can talk to friends and other people who might also be searching for someone to live with (family friends are a good place to start). You can also search on social media (some people already have a place and are looking for one extra person), or on the U of T housing roommate search<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nU of T offers a roommate compatibility test<\/a> and one specifically for Covid-19 circumstances. Once you\u2019ve found your roommate(s) it's important to have a discussion with them about house rules and how you will all be keeping up with Covid safety. U of T also has a roommate agreement form<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n\"House.\"<\/a>\r\n

Apartment Hunting<\/strong><\/p>\r\nAn apartment comes onto the market 60-44 days before the residents are expected to move in. If you are searching for a September apartment, then July 1st is when to start looking.<\/span>\r\n\r\nWhile having your own apartment can be exciting, it can also be overwhelming. Below are links to independent apartment-style housing AND you don\u2019t pay month-to-month. Leases range from 4, 8, and 12 months long. Some of these are also fully furnished (so you don\u2019t have to buy a new mattress).\u00a0<\/span>\r\n

    \r\n \t
  1. CampusOne<\/span><\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Parkside<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  3. Campus Common<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  4. Neill-Wycik<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  5. Tartu<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  6. Harrington Housing<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
  7. Homadorma<\/a> (living in a house with a family)<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nThe most helpful tool is probably the\u00a0U of T housing finder<\/a>.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\"Inside<\/a>\r\n

    How to Avoid Scams<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n

      \r\n \t
    1. Verify the property (Google Maps etc.)<\/li>\r\n \t
    2. Consider the price (does it seem plausible for something to be so low priced?)<\/li>\r\n \t
    3. Take a (virtual) tour. Make sure the viewing is live OR the person showing directly addresses you in the video.<\/li>\r\n \t
    4. Get your lease in writing.<\/li>\r\n \t
    5. Get Tenant\u2019s Insurance.<\/li>\r\n \t
    6. Don\u2019t pay more than you need to: In Ontario it's only legal for the landlord to ask for ONE month of rent and the price of the door key (which you should get as a return deposit at the end of your lease). If they ask for advance deposits you are not obligated to do so. Find housing laws here: stepstojustice.ca<\/a>.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nThe presentation covered way more than what I\u2019ve written here, but this is the info that I found to be most helpful. I highly recommend watching the full presentation<\/a>. If you have questions about housing find contacts here<\/a>.<\/span>\r\n\r\nRemember not to stress yourself out!\u00a0<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
      \n
      \nStressed about back-to-school housing? This post is for you! I attended Housing Services\u2019 House Hunting 101 presentation and here\u2019s what I learned. You can watch the recorded livestream here.\u00a0 Before you start your search it's important that you determine your…\n<\/div>
      Continue reading “Don’t Stress: House Hunting 101”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>
      Continue reading “Don’t Stress: House Hunting 101”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":376,"featured_media":41780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,1,58,82,67],"tags":[13512,356,15882,357,441,27716],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41774"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41774"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41854,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41774\/revisions\/41854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}