housing dilema....

[iamgrape1119]

I'm a sophomore at UF (GO GATORS) and my mom just bought me a townhouse. The thing is that she doesn't want me to live alone, she wants me to be safe. We have one room for rent and we want to charge $500, which is cheap comparing with $550 and $600 around us. It's totally furnished and everything...but so far no one called...my mom's paying $1500 mortgage on it every month, so it's better is I can get some kind of rent. At first we only wanted to give it to a female roommate, but now, since no one's replying, I'm considering co-ed. However, my mom is strictly against it...what should I do?

 

[Beauty Mark]

Well, since your mother is paying rent, you have to abide by her rules.

How does your school work in terms of housing? Is everyone squared away for housing now or do they let it linger until the next to last minute?

I would also consider Craig's List and any housing boards your school has. Word of mouth works well.

 

[whiteflorals]

I think perhaps you could talk to your mom about the reasons behind her concerns for co-ed. My mom used to be against it as well for safety reasons but now I'm actually living co-ed with some of my guy pals and we always look out for each other. It took me a while to convince her that these are trustworthy people who would make great housemates, and our housing arrangement is working out really well too. In looking for housemates, what I feel is really important is that you should be searching for people whom you can easily relate to and talk about sensitive issues. Because when a group of people are put together in such proximity, living habits clash and sometimes the tiniest differences in lifestyle can create unnecessary discomfort between people. What we agreed on was that should any of us annoy each other in any way, we would always bring it out in the open and talk about it. This avoids any growing grudges and we've had a great time learning about each other as we roughed through all the issues we've had too. HTH

 

[MxAxC-_ATTACK]

well now isnt the time people at college are looking for roomates considering most of them are about to go home for the summer. I bet as soon as the school year starts up there will be TONS of people looking for a room

 

[Hilly]

hmm...perhaps fliers around or even loweing your proce by $50.....making some money is better than making no money.
Are utilities included?

 

[faifai]

Trust me, I would KILL to live in a townhouse for only $500 a month! Since it's the end of the semester, it'll be slow. As soon as August hits, you'll definitely get a response.

 

[kaliraksha]

I think more importantly than making income for rent is finding and adequate room-mate. I have had terrible room mate situations (aka my last room mate moved out while I was gone one weekend, didn't tell me, and stole a bunch of my stuff). Your mom knew she might have to pay the mortgage as her financial responsibility at times if there was no one occupying it so I would hold out until it's someone you want to live with. I'm sure you can talk to her about your concerns for a safe room mate you are ok with living with.

 

[Bernadette]

Look into a foreign exchange student.

 

[astronaut]

I know I'm not going to be much help, but I wanted to comment. 1500 for the mortgage? That's goood! My apartment's already 1200!

(san diego, bahhhhhh)