Living

March 2, 2005 4:12 PM

My daughter is a freshman at UMN in Minneapolis and is beginning her search for an off-campus apartment. So far, she has seen only the huge industrial apartment complexes that have sprung up that offer a high-end dorm-like environment (at a stunningly high rentmay add). I know (and she knows) that it is not the kind of environment that she wants, but she is unsure of how to go about finding the right place. So, does anyone know the good sources for apartment classifieds around UMN? In Chicago, it would be the Reader. I don't know anything about Minneapolis.
posted by UncleJoe to home & garden (24 comments total)

You could try craigslist. http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hhh/ specifically.

What I did when I looked for a place (in Philadelphia) was pick a neighborhood I liked and wander around it. I found about 5 realtors offices just walking the streets and all were willing to show to me - some even on the same day. It gets pretty sweaty if it's warm out, but if she brings a friend, it'll be even easier.

Just make sure she has a checklist of things to look for/things to check out when picking the apartment. Examples of this include what utilities are included in the rent, whether or not she can have pets, etc.
posted by tozturk at 4:31 PM on March 2, 2005

City Pages is the Twin Cities' main alt-weekly, but your daughter probably knows that. When we lived in Minneapolis, we found our apt via the Star Tribune listings. We got a cozy two-bedroom in Uptown, but she may wish to be closer to the U.

BTW, UMN is not an abbreviation I've ever seen before. Minnesotans call the university U of M, which I understand is also used for Michigan, but there you are.
posted by GaelFC at 4:32 PM on March 2, 2005

The Minneapolis / St. Paul version of the Reader is City Pages.
I would also encourage her to start now by talking to people who currently live off campus. Many of the landlords near the campus may own many properties, and the good ones develop a reputation that should serve them well.
Does she know who she wants to live with? She could also spend some time checking out ads around campus - often three girls might find a house they want to rent, but they need a fourth to make it ecomonically feasible. That's a great way to find a place without having to do all of the legwork of putting together a group and checking places out together.
posted by Coffeemate at 4:34 PM on March 2, 2005

I can't speak to UMN specifically, but I went to another large, state U with the same basic problems.

We had an off-campus housing office, where apartment and house listings were posted. The same resources were also posted on a web site. The good thing about them, as a source, were that you knew that anyone who posted an apartment listing there was prepared to rent to college students (which is not a given in the newspaper classifieds).

There was also a housing counselor on duty who had a lot of information and resources.

I see that UMN has a similar office. Has your daughter checked that out yet?

Also try minneapolis.craigslist.com.
posted by Hildago at 4:36 PM on March 2, 2005

She can try the City Pages, but she's probably going to wind up living in Dinkytown or Stadium Village in any case. So the classified listings in the UofM newspaper, The Minnesota Daily are probably a better bet.
posted by felix betachat at 5:07 PM on March 2, 2005

Second the Minnesota Daily. Craigslist is also a good place to find informal roommate arrangements around the U, etc.

Housing in that area is quite inexpensive. She shouldn't have to pay more than $350/mo or so.

(The U of M is often called UMN because it's less ambiguous, and also because their domain is umn.edu.)
posted by neckro23 at 5:12 PM on March 2, 2005

Dinkytown is cool if you want the traditional college-town experience. If she wants to live away from dorms and collegey stuff, she might try finding a room or small apartment in the lovely Seward neighborhood, which is pretty close to the U (short bus ride; easy bike ride when it's not 30 below) but populated by a diverse array of young people and families. Added benefit: very safe.
posted by Dr. Wu at 5:19 PM on March 2, 2005

On-line, try the University of Minnesota Off-Campus Housing Service, which has a housing search, a roommate finder service, and an Off-Campus Housing Guide [pdf].

From my experience, however, the best option will be for her to pick a neighborhood and walk around, noting "for rent" signs. I lived in apartments around the Twin Cities from 1995 to 2002, and I found that was much more effective than looking through listings. I think I rented from a company called J.A.S. for most of the last few years -- first in Uptown, then in Loring Park -- while I was going to law school at the U, and had pretty good luck with them.
posted by subgenius at 5:30 PM on March 2, 2005

I lived in a affordable, roomy apartment in a decent neighborhood near the U of M's St. Paul campus. I had to take the direct shuttle (a ten minute ride) to the Minneapolis campus for most of my classes, but the trip was not an inconvenience.
posted by glibhamdreck at 5:46 PM on March 2, 2005

If she's open to random roommates, have her look for the bulletin board in the student center. I know the St. Paul campus has one (by the post office) that always has roommate wanted postings & sometimes sublet offers. I'm sure there's one in Mpls, too.

Ha - what a blast from the past. I just noticed that subgenius's first link is the first website I did for the U of M, about 6 years ago. I can't believe they haven't redesigned it yet!
posted by belladonna at 6:03 PM on March 2, 2005

Ok, I don't know where neckro23 was living for $350/month, my experience and all my friends' was you'd be lucky to be paying that living in a broken down half of a house with 4 other people. Things got much better when I found the fantastic Riverton co-op system. Riverton is run by students for students (with the help of an experienced nonprofit co-op management company), all of the policies are very tenant friendly. I was in Marcy Park, loved it, joined the board and eventually became president. My finacee did the same at the Franklin. It gave me some great experience to put on my resume and you can get big rebates on rent by doing things for the co-op.

Whatever you do, DO NOT live in any property owned by Jim Eischens, I had a bad experience and knew a bunch of other people who would say the same thing.
posted by TungstenChef at 7:36 PM on March 2, 2005

Is she still a virgin?
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket at 8:33 PM on March 2, 2005

Mean Mr. Bucket: What the fuck?
posted by Dr. Wu at 8:51 PM on March 2, 2005

If you're going to be in town on the 9th, try the off-campus housing fair.
posted by Utilitaritron at 8:55 PM on March 2, 2005

Sorry. To much damn wine. God!
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket at 8:56 PM on March 2, 2005

Too much mother fucking Pere Ubu!
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket at 8:58 PM on March 2, 2005

belladonna: What's even funnier is that I was about to recommend the paper version of that service -- which was in some residential building by the Weisman? -- but I realized I hadn't used it since 1998, when I went back to school and needed cheap housing near the U. You are super-high-tech by my standards!!1!

UncleJoe, the cheapest -- and most fun -- option for her would be to find a couple of roommates and rent a 2- or 3-bedroom apartment. I never paid more than $400 a month to live in the Twin Cities, and while I always had roommates, I lived in really cool places (a hundred-year-old house on Dayton's Bluff, a railroad apartment overlooking Liquor Lyle's, a cool little building looking down on Loring Park and the downtown skyline, and a hidden condo amidst Cedar-Riverside). Legwork is the key, though. That and the obvious problem of finding roommates who will clean up after themselves, buy toiler paper, and turn the stereo down at a reasonable hour.... I know Dinkytown is easy, but it's a beautiful area and there are a ton of cool places to live.
posted by subgenius at 9:38 PM on March 2, 2005

There may also be postings for roommates at other colleges in the area. Rooming with people from St. Thomas (boo!) or Macalester (yay!) would probably be pretty interesting.
posted by subgenius at 9:40 PM on March 2, 2005

I found my first place (a house for 5 people) through the U through the U of M housing. My second place in the Twin Cities that I found, I saw on apartments.com.

If your daughter doesn't care about being close to campus, I would recommend places in Saint Paul to save a couple hundred a month for a larger place in better condition. Most places are on the busline.
posted by Arch Stanton at 10:50 PM on March 2, 2005

Living with people from other schools may be interesting, but it may also be more trouble than it's worth. The U starts earlier in August, ends earlier in May, midterm and finals schedules are different, spring break will be at different times, etc. So when she's starting to buckle down, her roommates might have completely different priorities, and she might not feel like she can get stuff done. This also makes choosing a move-in date more difficult.
posted by Coffeemate at 6:17 AM on March 3, 2005

Does she have a car? Pick an area where she wants to live and drive around. In my experience, this is the best way to do it. The rental market is such that people generally stick a sign up in front of their building. There are some great brownstones in Uptown with great bus service to the U of M.

I also understand that St. Paul has many charming areas as well but I was always a Minneapolis gal.
posted by Lola_G at 7:00 AM on March 3, 2005

As it turns out, I have an apartment available for rent May 1st. I'll email the specs to you. Btw, Citypages is a waste of time for finding rentals. The Daily is okay for places close to campus. The best bet is word of mouth or the Star Tribune. Another good source is Lavender Magazine. There are a lot of landlords like me who will only advertise for tenents in Lavender.
posted by Juicylicious at 9:06 AM on March 3, 2005

Juicylicious, what experiences or thoughts lead a landlord to advertise only in Lavender?
posted by Coffeemate at 10:59 AM on March 3, 2005

The prevailing thought is that gay men take better care of the property. And for me, since I live on-premises I like to rent to men for safety reasons.
posted by Juicylicious at 11:16 AM on March 3, 2005