Accommodation search

LegacyUser

Ok i never had to search for accommodation but its about time i did. I always lived at home except for a couple of summers where i moved into a staff house cause it was closer to work. But i didn't have to find that myself so now i am on my own and dont have a clue how its all done.

The reason why im doing all this now in my late 20s, im going back to college as a mature student and i have to move. I have my eye on a couple of websites and looking at renting a room in a shared house. It will probably be the cheapest option. Is 28 too old for sharing?

From people's experiences, is it easy to find a room? The reason im asking is there is a place advertised already. Great, i should ring them up and get it sorted now. But to travel 4 hours on a bus and back again just to view it and if it turns out i dont like it or whatever, i would have to search again and the 4 hour each way on the bus. I really cant be doing that every week.

Want to move in at the end of august, so is it too early to be looking now? If i was to move in at the end of august, when would rooms start being advertised?

Would there be more places advertised closer to the time i want to move in? Take a couple of days off then and viewing loads and do the one trip on the bus.

LegacyUser

Well, I'm (slightly) older than you, and I've been living in shared rented places of one sort or another since my late teens, don't plan to stop anytime soon. At least half of the folks I know are in similar position.

You don't mention where you're looking, but yeah, generally it's pretty easy to find places - lot of stock up for rent these days, and rents have come down a good bit. Arranging to move in in August at this point might be pushing it - folks usually want to fill empty places as soon as they can, and places are usually coming up empty at the time they're advertised or within a few weeks of that. Still, give it a try - folks who rent to students may be more willing to arrange things in advance of semester times. (Of course, if you're willing to pay rent from now, that isn't an issue anyway).

Beyond that, I'd suggest avoiding renting with couples if possible - they're usually more trouble than they're worth. I'd also advise never to rent with students, but being as you are one, ignore that bit. Don't ever share a room with someone - unless you're desperate and it's going for a tenner a week it's just not worth it. Other than that, not much to it really, check a few different places if you can, meet landlords and size them up, meet your potential housemates if you get a chance. If everyone gets along, so much the better.

Organisations like Threshold and your student's union will have lots more info and advice for renting folks, read up on it. If you haven't already used it, Daft.ie is an excellent site for finding rental accommodation, think they have some advice on there too.

LegacyUser

Thanks for that. Can anyone give me a guideline of what kind of bills i could have and how much they can be roughly. I want to get a budget sorted and get all my finances in order.

And what's with estate agents? I have seen them advertising on daft.ie with adds for student accommodation. Some of them has 3/4 bedrooms, with 1 person living there already. Does that mean that the estate agent are looking for the tenants? Can you take a room with them and they find the people for the other rooms? That seems dodgy?