Hello,

I have never rented off campus before. I was just wondering if it was possible to rent two to a room, and receive some sort of discount, to make it more affordable. Or is there a leasing policy against this? Any information would be helpful.

Thank you

Depending on the size of the place/landlord. I know some ppl who rent their bedroom in an apartment style and they sleep on couch to lower their rent.

You would just split the cost of the room with your roommate. A room that is $450 a month becomes $225 each and you would add it together and pay it to your landlord at the end of the month.

Depending on utilities the price could actually go up because there are two of you, and also you would have to run it by your landlord. I wouldn't recommend doing this, if you live further away from campus it will be a lot cheaper.

Originally Posted by kschwab

Depending on utilities the price could actually go up because there are two of you, and also you would have to run it by your landlord. I wouldn't recommend doing this, if you live further away from campus it will be a lot cheaper.

How much more would utilities really cost though? I'm pretty sure the increase in utilities will not offset the discount for each person sharing the room.

Originally Posted by kschwab

Depending on utilities the price could actually go up because there are two of you, and also you would have to run it by your landlord. I wouldn't recommend doing this, if you live further away from campus it will be a lot cheaper.

The raw value of utilities would go up, but then the increased value would be divided by an extra person, resulting in more savings.

Ex, if utilities for one person would be $50/month, adding another person won't double the utilities because you'd be paying for things like heating, internet, etc anyways, and things like water and electricity have a baseline fee...so maybe utilities would increase to $75/month, but now it's split by two people so each one would be paying $37.50, which is still less than $50.

Anyways, most of these rooms are quite small, so you'd have to find a decent sized room (unless you would be sharing a bed with the second person...but even so, you'd need room to keep your things). Also, if there are other people in the house, they might not like having an extra person to share the bathroom/kitchen with...like, they were told that they share it with x other people, and suddenly now there's another person.

What starfish said. You're not just renting a room, you're renting a share of the bathroom, kitchen, living room, laundry, etc which impacts the other tenants and their enjoyment of the property. More people also = more noise, etc and a whole other tenant to deal with which is why most landlords in my experience wouldn't be down for this sort of arrangement.

It depends on the size of the room. That's what I was told by my landlord. It would also depend on the landlord.