Since the Western University 2014 rental season is officially upon us, I would like to help Western University students find a rental home, student accommodation, or an apartment in London, Ontario for the upcoming year. Below is a short list of where you need to go to find a student rental home, and why you need to use the service.
1. Ask Your Friends For Their House If You Like It
I see this happening with a lot of Western University students recently. If you know someone and their entire group is moving out of the house, and you have a group who really wants the house, ask your friends for the Landlord’s phone number. In this scenario, you will have already seen the house, knows who lives there and the ins and outs of the house, and your friends who live there will be able to vouch for the Landlord.
2. Western University (UWO) Off Campus Housing
Western University Off Campus Housing has received a much needed facelift recently, and their ads are usually of higher quality because each Landlord/business must pay $10 to post an ad. This service filters out much of the noise available on other services and boils it down to owners looking to rent specifically to Western University ungraduated, international, or graduate students. The only issues with UWO Off Campus Housing is the fact that there are only 3 pictures allowed to be uploaded (and pictures can be deceiving), no videos are allowed to be posted, and the description of the properties are limited. However, this is still a great resource to start looking for a property.
3. Kijiji – London, Ontario – House Rental / Room Rental Ads
If you are a Western University student looking for a rental home or student accommodation on Kijiji, please be careful. Kijiji has some great built in features like the highly specialized search filters (price/bedrooms/location/keyword/etc.), allows 10 pictures and a video link, as well as a generous section to properly detail your ad. Also, since Kijiji is the most popular platform every landlord posts their ads on this service as well as it is free. Here is what you need to watch out for on Kijiji:
- Semi – Completed Ads: If the ad doesn’t have many pictures, or doesn’t have a detailed description of the property, bedrooms, prices, when the lease starts, what is included, etc. be very hesitant.
- Scams: There are several scams out there where (usually foreign and fake) people try to get you to email money transfer them a deposit without viewing the property and then not hearing from them again. Keep a close eye on anything suspicious.
- Noise: On Kijiji there is a lot of noise. Right now, there are over 1400 house rental ads in London, Ontario. Hundreds of those ads have expired, already are rented out, have an unresponsive landlord who won’t respond to emails, and some ads are reposted dozens of times. If you can filter out the noise on Kijiji, you will be able to set up showings at several houses.
4. Student Rental Companies That Rent Homes for Student Accommodation to Western Students (i.e. corerentals.ca)
There are about a handful of companies that rent homes, student accommodation, and apartments in London to students from Western University (and Fanshawe College). We don’t want to give them free advertising on this site, but you have seen the blue signs, green signs, purple signs, yellow signs, etc. all over the Western University bubble. These companies use the listing services above to help market their properties, but ultimately they have the contracts with owners to rent them out to students. Here is a shameless plug for our service at Core Property Rentals and Management, where we specialize in renting to Western University (UWO) students looking for homes for rent, student accommodation and rental homes in London, Ontario. We have our own properties and can show you any property that is available on this wensite.
1. Ask Your Friends For Their House If You Like It
I see this happening with a lot of Western University students recently. If you know someone and their entire group is moving out of the house, and you have a group who really wants the house, ask your friends for the Landlord’s phone number. In this scenario, you will have already seen the house, knows who lives there and the ins and outs of the house, and your friends who live there will be able to vouch for the Landlord.
2. Western University (UWO) Off Campus Housing
Western University Off Campus Housing has received a much needed facelift recently, and their ads are usually of higher quality because each Landlord/business must pay $10 to post an ad. This service filters out much of the noise available on other services and boils it down to owners looking to rent specifically to Western University ungraduated, international, or graduate students. The only issues with UWO Off Campus Housing is the fact that there are only 3 pictures allowed to be uploaded (and pictures can be deceiving), no videos are allowed to be posted, and the description of the properties are limited. However, this is still a great resource to start looking for a property.
3. Kijiji – London, Ontario – House Rental / Room Rental Ads
If you are a Western University student looking for a rental home or student accommodation on Kijiji, please be careful. Kijiji has some great built in features like the highly specialized search filters (price/bedrooms/location/keyword/etc.), allows 10 pictures and a video link, as well as a generous section to properly detail your ad. Also, since Kijiji is the most popular platform every landlord posts their ads on this service as well as it is free. Here is what you need to watch out for on Kijiji:
- Semi – Completed Ads: If the ad doesn’t have many pictures, or doesn’t have a detailed description of the property, bedrooms, prices, when the lease starts, what is included, etc. be very hesitant.
- Scams: There are several scams out there where (usually foreign and fake) people try to get you to email money transfer them a deposit without viewing the property and then not hearing from them again. Keep a close eye on anything suspicious.
- Noise: On Kijiji there is a lot of noise. Right now, there are over 1400 house rental ads in London, Ontario. Hundreds of those ads have expired, already are rented out, have an unresponsive landlord who won’t respond to emails, and some ads are reposted dozens of times. If you can filter out the noise on Kijiji, you will be able to set up showings at several houses.
4. Student Rental Companies That Rent Homes for Student Accommodation to Western Students (i.e. corerentals.ca)
There are about a handful of companies that rent homes, student accommodation, and apartments in London to students from Western University (and Fanshawe College). We don’t want to give them free advertising on this site, but you have seen the blue signs, green signs, purple signs, yellow signs, etc. all over the Western University bubble. These companies use the listing services above to help market their properties, but ultimately they have the contracts with owners to rent them out to students. Here is a shameless plug for our service at Core Property Rentals and Management, where we specialize in renting to Western University (UWO) students looking for homes for rent, student accommodation and rental homes in London, Ontario. We have our own properties and can show you any property that is available on this wensite.
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