Finding places to live can be a daunting task for students, as it includes a lot of research, time and effort in finding a place which is right for them.
Roommates Alicia Hoole, in her final semester at San Diego State, and Brandon Battaglia, who graduated last semester, want to give their perspective on the most common types of housing available to students.
Both agreed based on their experience over the years that apartment living and home living have their advantages and disadvantages.
The roommates said they currently live together in their own house, both experiencing what it’s like to live near SDSU’s campus.
“Having a house is more expensive,” international security and conflict resolution alumnus Battaglia said. “It’s dirtier and the landlord doesn’t want to do much about it because they are renting it out to college kids. They say ‘oh, you’re in college so I don’t want to fix it’ but it’s broken.”
Communications senior Hoole said trying to rent out a house was harder to do because everyone wants to find one to rent, making it difficult to secure a place.
In addition, rent prices are expensive. Hoole said she and her four roommates pay $3,400 in rent, but other homes can be more expensive.
Hoole and Battaglia said they also had a difficult time with the landlords. The pair said some of the places they went to visit, they felt pressured to sign the lease right away because landlords made it seem like they had no other choices.
However, Hoole said renting out a home came with benefits students can’t experience in an apartment. She said for one, students won’t have as much of a problem with freedom or problems with people living above them.
“You can customize your own place,” Hoole said. “You don’t have to deal with neighbors and too much noise.”
Battaglia said compared to the maintenance issues faced when renting a home, one of the benefits to living in an apartment he missed was on-site maintenance.
All the residents need to do is fill out a maintenance request online, and workers would be sent out to fix the problem. He also said many apartment complexes come with pools, something many homes around SDSU do not have.
Hoole said she used to live in Diplomat Apartments and would take a shuttle to school every day. She said she didn’t mind the commute, and it was nice to be living close to a grocery store. She said it was also cleaner compared to the home they live in now.
The biggest takeaway Hoole and Battaglia both said was making sure students think everything through and find the housing situation that was best for them.
They said there are pros and cons to each living situation, but the key is to do it with trustworthy people.
“Choose your roomates well before you move in with them,” Battaglia said. “Don’t rush into it at all. Finding the right place and not settling is really important.”
