Your first move to college is a big step, not only in that you won’t have to worry about curfew and parents looking over your shoulder 24/7, but because you’re taking on a whole new level of responsibilities. If you’re in a dorm, chances are you don’t have to worry about things like electricity bills and cable, but if you’re leasing your own place for the first time, make sure you’re well aware of what will be required of you from here on out. And the majority of what you’ll be responsible for with your new place is written up in the small print on your lease.

1) What’s the difference between renting and leasing?

There really isn’t much difference between renting and leasing. “Rent” is usually considered to be the amount paid in exchange for a lease, and a lease is “a contract by which one conveys real estate…for a specified term and for a specified rent.”  There are, however, different types of leases. A fixed lease has specifically set beginning and ending dates, while a periodic lease lasts for specific lengths of time, such as week-to-week and month-to-month. There are other types, but these are the most commonly used and the difference lies mainly in how long you’re able to lease the residence. Though proper notice can typically be given for the termination of your lease in either contract, it’s important to know what your rights are in case your situation changes and you need to move out early (or the landlord calls and says they need you to vacate in 30 days).

2) What are your responsibilities?

In the lease agreement, your landlord should list exactly what he/she expects from you in regard to bill payment, property maintenance, and other residential issues. Are you paying for all of your utilities or are they included in the bill? Will your landlord pay the water bill but not the electricity? What are your responsibilities to the property? Are you required to mow the lawn once a week? Do you need to water the outdoor plants? If the landlord expects any maintenance of the property on your part, this should be clearly included in your lease. And if you have any questions, be sure to bring them up before signing.

3) What are your privileges?

You should also be clear on what you can and can’t do around the property. If there’s roof access, are you allowed to use it? Are there parking spots available or do you have to pay for off-street parking? Are there any homeowners’ organization covenants that you should abide by? All of this should be included with your lease. If not, make sure you discuss these and similar issues with your landlord before signing.

4) How are repairs handled?

This might sound like an obvious question, but there are landlords who don’t come rushing at the drop of a hat if your water line breaks or the roof starts leaking. In fact, some of them require that you pay for a repair company to fix the damages and — if it’s found that the incident was not your fault — they then pay you back as part of your rent. Be on the lookout for language like this in your lease and if it’s not included, definitely ask your landlord how he/she plans to handle such incidents.

5) Deposits and definitions

Most landlords will require you to pay a deposit along with your first month’s rent to cover any necessary repairs after you move out. If you have a dog or cat, you might need to pay a pet deposit as well. Even though these are standard requirements on a landlord’s part, make sure you’re clear on what they would use the deposits for and under what circumstances you would you not get them back. What do they think is the difference between standard wear and tear and “damages”? Once you’re clear on what your deposit would have to pay for, give yourself a little extra insurance by taking pictures of the residence you’re leasing from top to bottom before you move in. If there are any existing damages, make sure that you document them. It will make it a lot easier for the landlord to see how you left the place compared to how you moved in.

Upperclassmen — Have you had scenarios where you wished you’d paid closer attention to the terms of your lease before signing? What are the worst ‘nightmare rent stories’ you’ve experienced?

Today’s guest article is provided by Kenneth McCall. He builds creative and innovative tools for customer seeking self-storage units. Kenneth is a managing partner at storage.com, which provides storage units in Cincinnati and in many other locations across the country. In his spare time he likes to get outside, ideally with a boat and water skis.

You’ve done it; you’ve taken the plunge and moved out. Whether you just graduated from college or you are making your way to campus, it’s onward and upward from here, and “onward” begins in a brand new city. No pesky parents questioning every decision you make, no curfew, no weekly chores around the house. No home-cooked meals waiting for you when you get home, no clean laundry folded on the foot of your bed, no HBO or Showtime—wait, what? Whether you are coming from a small town or a metropolis, settling into your new city will mean learning new things like where the closest grocery store is, the nearest gym, the best route to school or work. Here are five tips to avoid paying an arm and a leg for these things.

1.        Take public transportation whenever possible.

This is vital, especially in big cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco. With gas prices inching close to $5 a gallon in some places, if you can do without a car, do without! In some of the larger cities, even parking can end up costing you hundreds of dollars a month, whether through the cost of a parking garage or the inevitable parking ticket. Buses, subways and streetcars are viable options when it comes to saving money. If the city you’ve moved to doesn’t have much in the way of public transportation, consider carpooling.

2.        Comparison shop for your groceries.

Often there are farmers’ markets or fruit and vegetable stands where produce is much cheaper than in a grocery store. If there is more than one grocery store in your neighborhood, find out which goods are cheaper at different stores. If you buy meat, avoid the frozen food section and instead find a local butcher where you can purchase some of the less popular cuts of meat for incredibly cheap prices.

3.        Abstain from cable in favor of wireless.

Almost anything you can watch on television, you can also watch online. With wireless Internet costing anywhere from $25 to $30 and cable television costing upwards of $80 through some companies, the amount you’ll save monthly by using websites like Hulu or Netflix for your entertainment needs is substantial—as in the cost of a night out, or a week’s worth of groceries.

4.        Don’t settle for just any laundromat.

In the same way that you have learned to bargain shop for groceries, learn that there is not only one laundromat—even if there is one that is very close to your apartment or house. Different laundromats have different prices for washer/dryer loads, and some even offer discounts or perks (free detergent) if you frequent their business on their middle-of-the-week slow days. Observe how many loads of laundry you do each week and decide if it would be cheaper to just drop your clothes off and have the laundromat staff wash/fold them for you to pick up later. Don’t forget to factor in how much that two hours a week is worth to you.

5.        Rediscover outdoor exercise.

Moving to a city doesn’t mean you have to give up exercise; nor does it mean you have to join an expensive gym. In some cities, a gym membership can cost well over $100 a month. Rather than pay this exorbitant amount, go to the public library and rent some DVD workouts to do at home. Or take up running and run outside. Even join a running club like the New York Road Runners to get the inside scoop on races, tips for running, etc. If you must have a gym membership, check out the lesser-franchised gyms for a better bargain. Gyms like Planet Fitness have memberships starting at just $10 a month.

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Moving to a new city is nothing short of an adventure. As you begin to learn the rhythm of your new home, do not be surprised if you find you’ve discovered your own money-saving tips. If you play your cards right and make financially sound decisions, this adventure will be the first of many.

Today’s guest article is provided by Melissa Woodson, community manager for @WashULaw, a top-tier online LLM in U.S. law and a premier llm degree offered by Washington University in St. Louis. In her spare time, she enjoys running, cooking, and making half-baked attempts at training her dog.

Going to college is far more expensive today than it was even a decade ago. In addition to the well-publicized increase in tuition costs, the cost of college housing continues to skyrocket despite the overall poor health of the national housing market.

Rents everywhere have been climbing since the housing market crashed in the late 2000s, while home values have declined by anywhere from 10 to 50 percent since their peak in 2006, even in vibrant college towns. This overall decline has gutted the nation’s real estate market, and the collapse in demand for housing has forced interest rates on new mortgages to all-time lows. Buyers with good credit can walk into a bank and walk out a few minutes later with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with an APR of under 4 percent.

Simply put, with historically high rent and low interest rates, the American housing market currently presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity both for first-time buyers and folks who in normal times would prefer to rent.

The average American’s rent is just shy of $700 per month. In college towns, where demand for rental housing is high, the cost of a four-bedroom house can easily exceed $2000 per month. That’s $500 per month for four tenants, none of whom are building an equity stake in their home.

The average cost of a home, meanwhile, is cheap and getting cheaper. In college neighborhoods, especially, the disconnect between rent and home values is such that houses are far cheaper than prevailing rents would indicate. Rather than throwing hundreds of dollars in rent out the window each month, wouldn’t it make more sense to purchase your own home and rent it out to your roommates?

To stimulate the market, many lenders have loosened their standards for first-time buyers. Assuming you have solid credit, you may be able to buy a home for as little as 5 or 10 percent down.

Say you find a four-bedroom home in a good area for $150,000, which is realistic in most college towns. With a 10 percent down payment of $15,000, your monthly mortgage payment at the prevailing 3.7 percent annual interest rate will be about $620 per month. Factoring in standard insurance costs and assuming an average property tax rate, your total monthly cost should around $900.

Let’s assume that you’ll need to buy a refrigerator, washer-dryer and dishwasher for your new home. If you buy all new appliances, this may set you back $2,500. Let’s also assume that your home needs some plumbing, flooring, and shingling work. Together, these might cost another $7,500.

Thus, for the first year, your total cost of ownership will be about $20,800. After that, your costs will drop precipitously, although as resident landlord you will be expected to fix any problems that arise. Conservatively, that added obligation might add $1,000 per year to your cost of ownership, bringing it to $11,800 per year. Over four years, then, your cost of ownership will total $56,200.

This sounds like a hefty sum until you remember your three roommates! If you charge $500 per month, plus utilities, you’ll take in $1,500 per month, $18,000 per year, and $72,000 over four years. And now that the housing market has bottomed in most areas, you can expect the value of your home to appreciate slightly during your college years.

Your real estate agent typically takes 6 percent of your closing costs, so if you wish to sell the house after graduation, you’ll need just a 1.5 percent annual growth rate to break even on your investment. Instead of throwing your rent money out the window, you may profit tremendously from your decision to buy a house during college!

About The Author

Today’s guest article is provided by Rachel Oda. She is a financial blogger who encourages students to think about buying a house during college to take advantage of the historically low interest rates. Ms. Oda crafted this article on behalf of the team at personalhomeloanmortgages.com, who help home buyers find affordable mortgage products.

Many students abhor the first of the month. Not because of class schedules, having to remember a new month or some pagan ritual, but because of the dreaded monthly rent check. Many students are under the false impression that the annual lease signing is their only opportunity to reduce the rent and that the rent itself is based on some mathematic calculation worked out between the landlord and the bank. Neither is true. In fact, you can hit your landlord up for a rent reduction at any time. But how and why would they agree to such a thing?

Your Situation

The first thing to do is to understand your lease and your tenancy. Have you signed a year lease? If not, or if you are in the month-to-month phase (or nearing renewal), then obviously your situation is open to negotiation.

Even if you are two-months into that twelve-month lease, are you a candidate to extend that lease? Are you a sophomore, expecting to be enrolled for your junior year? Do you pay your rent on time? Are you considerate of the property and your neighbors?

Late rent, extreme wear and tear, problems with neighbors are all quite costly for your landlord. Property owners factor these costs in to the long-term business plan for the property. If you’re reducing the expenses below the norm and are in a position to continue to do so, your landlord may very well be amenable to amending your current lease and offering you a lower rent.

Of course, you can trust in your landlord’s altruism, or you can go take the next step, which is to gather additional data to support your case.

Understand Your Rental Market

The rental market can vary greatly depending on where you are attending school. In some towns, the rental market is almost entirely dependent on the college’s student-body population. Other schools may be in the center of major metropolitan areas, in which case the rental market is likely driven by more macro-economic housing trends. Granted, rental properties near a college may act as a microcosm of the large market, swayed by the student-body population, but overall the effects will be muted by the macro-economic forces.

Understanding the rental market for the area in which you live is one of the keys to realizing rent reduction. If you live in an area that is largely dependent on student renters and enrollment for next year is on the wane, you’ve got leverage. If you live in an area that is largely driven by the macro-economic housing environment and house prices are falling, as is the case in many parts of the world today, odds are that more homeowners are choosing to rent their properties than sell them at a loss; you’ve got leverage.

Understand the drivers for your specific area and then collect facts. Not just about the general rental environment or about enrollment, but actually price some properties in your area. This can quickly be done on a weekend. Or, contact a local realtor. These people understand the market and likely have no affiliation with your landlord; a 30-minute conversation could quickly glean useful information such as the average rent per square-foot and the number of rental properties available in the area. Concrete information is obviously more influential than conjecture.

The Ask

Armed with an honest self-assessment of your tenancy and supportable market data, the next step is to arrange a time to discuss. Luckily, for most, there’s a prearranged monthly meeting that takes place to exchange funds (or something similar that can easily be turned into a discussion about rent reduction).

Present the information honestly and confidently. Odds are, if you’ve gotten to this point in the process, you have irrefutable evidence as to why the situation makes financial sense for both yourself and your landlord.

A good tenant who pays a bit less in a rough rental market is a considerably better proposition than the alternative. On your end, what do you have to lose?

Today’s guest article is provided by Rachel Oda. She is a financial blogger who encourages students to take control of their financial future, which includes asking for rent reductions, purchasing renters insurance and creating budgets.

Are you going to be sending a student away for college this coming year? My guess is that if they are far enough away, they will probably need a place to stay (other than your house). Outside of tuition, room and board costs are the next largest expense associated with going to college. Since we have decided that this expense is just a fact of life for college students, let’s check out all your options when it comes to campus housing.

Residence Halls

Dormitories, residence halls, quads, suites, – no matter what you call them we all know them as the place on campus that provides beds, bathrooms, and lounging areas for students in large quantities. Some have elevators, some just have stairs, some smell like potpourri and others remind you of a musty old gym sock. Regardless of how hard you try to avoid them chances are that you will be spending at least one year in the halls depending on the residency requirement of your campus. Since residence halls provide unlimited electricity, heat, air conditioning, water (hot and cold), bathroom facilities, and usually toilet paper,it is not uncommon for colleges to charge students a premium price to live there. The best approach to avoiding these fees would be to become an RA. Since that is not in the cards for everyone, the next best approach is to not be afraid to make new friends and share a room with one or more people. If you plan on living in a single, you had better be prepared to absorb the extra costs. If you are willing to take on a roommate and live in a double, your expense will be dramatically reduced.

Greek Housing

Just about every college and university has some sort of Greek organization on campus. Fortunately for you, most of the fraternities and sororities have houses and they are jumping at the chance to rent a room out to you – assuming you make it through the hazing and get tapped for membership ;). My experience has been that fraternity and sorority housing is cheaper than university housing. However, after you add in dues, parlor fees, etc… the costs become a lot more comparable.

University Owned Off-Campus Housing

You have paid your dues (living in the residence halls) and now you have the chance to live in a “real house” with 4 or 5 of your best buddies. University owned housing is awesome because they take care of all the general maintenance and upkeep of the house and all you have to do is live in it. Some colleges cover the utility expenses but others expect the students to get the utilities transferred into their name and take responsibility for paying them. Before you take the leap and sign a housing contract with your college make sure you know exactly what you are responsible for. If you do have to foot the bill for gas and electric, drop a call to the local utility company to see what the average monthly expense was on the house in the past year. You may find that one house you are interested in has insulated walls and the other one is scheduled for that upgrade (deferred maintenance) in a couple of years. That little fact could play a big role in your housing budget.

Non-University Owned Off-Campus Housing (aka Slum Lords)

Every college town has them. These are the housing “opportunities” provided to students after the college owned housing has reached maximum capacity and they must release students to live in non-university owned housing. I would say that six out of ten landlords do a decent job of keeping their houses up to code and making sure that the student’s safety is the top concern. However, the other four are the ones that will take every dime you have by charging a crazy premium rent and providing a living environment that has been band-aided over time and time again throughout the years. If you decide to tread down this path, I would do so cautiously. Check references of prior students that have experience with that landlord. Ask the residential life office if they know anything about the property or the landlord. Inspect the house thoroughly and make sure to point out anything that you think may be a safety hazard (faulty wiring, leaky plumbing, broken windows, busted sidewalks/steps, etc…).

Buy A House!

This is starting to gain popularity with many families over the past few years. They are purchasing houses that are on or near campus and becoming the “not so slum lord” for students (including their own!). The return on investment is fairly decent because they are demanding a premium rental rate. Since the house has an ideal location (on or near campus) their probability of resale with a profit is highly likely. They utilize their student to help pre-screen suitable renters (no offense but I can tell you that girls have a far better track record than boys when it comes to rental damages!). If you have the resources, I would definitely consider this option when it comes to housing.

I hope this information helps you as you try to figure out the best approach to living on campus. If you think this article would be of benefit to someone else, please don’t hesitate to utilize the “Share Tab” below.