Hi, I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right section or not, so forgive me if I made a mistake.

I'm a first year and I'm pretty concerned about off-campus housing for next year. I heard from a friend that advised me that getting a good landlord is just as important as a good house. I'm pretty stressed out about the entire housing thing, and I was just wondering, is there was anywhere for tenants to rate the houses/landlords and provide helpful comments to future would-be tenants?

Thanks.

Is there ever such a thing! Check out macSHARE, it's exactly what you're looking for. Here's the link: http://www.msu.mcmaster.ca/macshare/

Also, you can always try speaking with the previous tenants to see what they have to say. I would agree with the point that having a good landlord is a key part of having a happy year in your house. I have lived in my current house for two years now and have a terrible landlord who never fixes anything. It does certainly cause some unwanted stress that I would rather not have but I certainly do not feel like I'm lacking in resources to turn to to resolve the situation. I would check out the OCRC, off-campus housing resource centre. It's in the basement of the student centre. If you do have any concerns about what to do about a landlord, they can be very helpful in giving you direction. Hopefully you won't have to do that. The OCRC website is here. They have house listings on here as well as tonnes of information about what to look for when you're house hunting.

They have this program called something like the rental accountability program or something like that. Landlords who are signed up to this will guarentee you a happy landlord relationship. And if you do end up having problems with said landlord, they can be easily held accountable and all you would have to do is mosey on down to the OCRC.

Don't get too stressed out.. enjoy the search! It's kind of exciting in a way! New starts!!