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Question by CentralSet: Renting a house as a graduate student (PhD); What is it like?
I have lived in student housing apartments / dorm rooms over the last 5 years.

First 2.5 years (including summers) I lived in a 4 bed / 2 bath apartment style dorm room.
Last 3 years (including summers) I lived in a studio apartment (~350 sqfeet).

I have become accustom to landlords not doing a thing about maintenance.

I start a PhD program in August of 2010. I signed a lease for yet again another student housing apartment this time a 2bed / 2bath individual leases.

Already I am hearing of the problems with this apartment complex. Reports of mold and water intrusion.

My stipend is only 21,000$ a year before taxes. Although I have no car payments. I do have expenses though (insurance, phone bills and such).

I also have a dog.

I want to just rent a house, get a roommate and live there for the following 5+ years after my new apartment’s (2/2) lease ends.

I keep hearing “most graduate students just rent houses”. How much of a hassel is it?

I am looking at houses that are for rent on this google maps / “real estate” search and they are running about 1000-1700$ a month for 3/2 – 4/3; I assume if I was to rent one, I would have to fill with a maximum number of tenants as the number of bathrooms and just setup the other room as a office.

How does it work? What if my roommate decides to leave… How is the lease setup? I assume it’s not possible to split it or maybe it is?

Best answer:

Answer by backandforth
If you’re looking for a place to share, you have 4 options:

1) Look for someone who is also looking for a house, and sign a lease with them, so you’d both be liable on the lease. Some landlords will agree to have each housemate have their own lease. That way, if one person breaks the lease or fails to pay rent, then the other person is not liable.

2) Find a place you like, then find a roommate, or multiple roommates, to fill the other rooms. The downside is that ultimately you are responsible for the rent and any damage the other tenants do. There are resources online for drafting leases, but they’re specific to every state. Just search for “lease” or “rental agreement” and your state. Make sure your landlord is OK with you renting out rooms (some aren’t, and will want the roommates to join you on your lease).

3) Look for someone else who’s looking for roommates. Check out the “room/shares” section of craigslist.com to see what’s available.

4) Live by yourself! Perhaps you can find a 1-bedroom apartment or a studio within your means so you don’t have to worry about roommates.

To protect yourself, the best thing you can do is to have all roommates on the lease, so you don’t end up having to foot the bill if they bail on you or damage the property. On the other hand, this means that you can’t kick them out if you don’t get along, since they’ll have just as much of a right to live there as you do. It’s definitely possible to split the lease; just decide on rent that’s fair. If it’s 4/3 you could still have 4 roommates, just 2 of them would share a bathroom (and pay less rent than the other 2).

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