Some people look for apartments when they want to rent near uptown Athens, and some people look for houses. There’s a bit more to an 8-bedroom rental house than a 3-bedroom apartment unit, and you want to ensure you make the choice that’s best for you and your friends. You can find the nicest house to rent in the best location – like North Congress or Washington Streets – but if it’s falling down around you, your roommates are crap, and your landlord is more of a slumlord, that nice house will be more of a nightmare than a home.
Here’s our best advice for weeding through the hundreds of options for rental homes in Athens so your house feels like a home and not just a place you sleep while you count the days until your lease ends:
Our Top 8 Factors for Choosing the Right Rental House
1. Location, Location, Location
Just because location isn’t the only thing that matters when choosing a house off-campus to rent doesn’t mean it’s not important. Do you like the quiet and don’t have a problem with a bit of a walk to campus? Or is it really important to you to find a rental close to OU and uptown. In location, you also need to consider the neighborhood with regard to safety, parking situations, and general culture of the area.
The hills and the age of this town has made for a town comprised of a bunch of little “nook” neighborhoods. In some areas, things change from one block to the next. If you love house parties and bar life, renting a house on State or Carpenter Streets is where it’s at. But if you’re super-focused on your studies and aren’t a party-vibe person, a location a few more blocks away, like a student rental at Foster Place on Union Street, can make a big difference in terms of noise and available parking for rentals.
2. Reputation of the Rental Company
Athens has several reputable landlords who take care of their properties and do right by their tenants. But there are also a few who don’t. You need to vet an Athens landlord before you rent. Things to consider are:
Online reviews and references
Transparency about leases (ask for a sample lease)
Updated rentals with plenty of pictures on the listing
Policies about maintenance and repairs
The quality of the Athens rental company you choose won’t only affect rent and location, it’ll affect utilities (is the house energy-efficient?), quality of life (how prompt/thorough are they with repairs?), and your general mental health. Living in a rental house with a sketchy landlord can mean you’re not only stuck in a bad lease for a year, but you’re also stuck in an anxious state of mind.
3. Lease Terms and Incentives
What kind of incentives are included in the lease? Little things can make a big difference if you’re wavering between two different rental homes. Let’s take a 3-bedroom house as an example, assuming the location, condition of the houses, and rent + security deposit are equal. In each lease –
Which utilities are you as the tenant(s) responsible for?
Is parking included or available to rent nearby?
Does the landlord charge per person or per bedroom? (i.e. If there are 4 of you renting a 3 bedroom house, does the rental company charge you for the 4 people? Or just the 3 bedrooms?)
Is there a grace period on due dates for rent? Many landlords require rent checks to be mailed to or handed in at their office. Because of this, many landlords give a grace period of up to 5 or 7 days before late fees are charged.
If applicable, do they charge an extra fee for pets?
When signing a lease where more than one person is involved, are you 100% responsible as the signee? Or is everyone equally responsible for sticking to the conditions of the lease?
This list isn’t comprehensive, but meant to get you thinking about details of a lease on a rental home that could end up having big effects on your wallet and your experience in the house.
4. Amenities
This one’s about convenience vs cost.
If the kitchen has a dishwasher, that’s great – it makes your life easier and stops you from having to clean up your roommates’ dirty dishes. But it also contributes to your water and electricity bills.
If there’s a washer/dryer in the home, that means no hauling laundry to Stimson Street laundromats, but it also means scheduling who can do laundry when, and it will also add to water and electricity costs.
If the rental home has AC, which is kind of a must in these hot and humid Appalachian summers, you’ll stay comfy in August, but it’ll also add to your electricity bill, which many students count on being low in the summer to make up for how high it is in the winter.
But, let’s be honest, having a dishwasher, laundry and AC in an Athens rental home is kind of the life when it comes to student rentals. You’re splitting costs 3+ ways anyway; no one wants to be soaked in sweat all summer, and 0/10 people like doing dishes by hand. If a rental home has all these amenities, it also reflects on the landlord being quality.
5. Roommates
We’ve seen enough students come and go through our properties over the years that we’re confident in advising all potential tenants to (A) not sign a year-long lease with a perfect stranger, and (B) be careful about what friends you choose to live with. Students you don’t know, and even friends you think you do, might have completely opposite lifestyles than you. And that could mean anything from annoying bathroom habits and eating food that’s not theirs, to catastrophic issues like bringing 80 plants into the house and causing mold and moisture issues that will make getting your security deposit back a no-go.
Just like you should be careful about who you rent student housing from, you also need to take care about who you rent it with.
6. Parking
If you don’t have a car – great; this isn’t an issue. If you have a car, though – and more and more students do every year – consider the additional cost of renting off-campus parking when you’re calculating rent costs for the house.
You might think it’s really difficult to find parking when you choose a rental house close to OU campus, but it’s not so. While parking throughout Athens is limited, there is a decent supply of parking spaces available for rent central to Athens that will mean you can rent housing near uptown without also having to walk a mile to go grab your car. And like amenities are a landlord green flag, a landlord that saves designated off-campus parking spots for their tenants to rent is likely to be one of the best in town.
7. Outdoor Space
Is renting a house with a yard, deck, patio, or porch important to you? They exist – some even just a block or two from Court Street. In Athens, renting a house with a yard gives you flexibility in terms of having people over, playing corn hole, laying out, or just getting a quiet moment with your laptop and a coffee in the mornings.
Even if you can’t find a rental with a yard, we love a big vintage porch moment, whether it’s a quiet morning coffee or a Friday night house party. Or an apartment uptown with a back deck overlooking a view of Court Street? Tops.
8. Total Costs
Everybody’s got a budget to work with. And it’s more than just base rent costs, which is why the landlord, location, and lease amenities play a big role in making the right decision on the house you want to rent. You’ve got to tally in:
Security deposit and whether or not to split it with roommates.
Utilities: how many of them do you pay, how they’ll be split, and whether or not the appliances and heating/AC systems in the rental house are energy efficient.
Parking space rental.
Any pet fees if you’ve got a furry or scaly friend you want to live with you.
How weekly food and activity costs will eat into that budget, including gas, if you’re driving out to East State for groceries.
This list isn’t comprehensive, but these are all important things to consider in your budget, and they might spark some other ideas about costs you don’t want to overlook and then have trouble meeting rent once the school year gets going.
We encourage you to take all these things to heart. It’s well worth the time and effort, because it’ll end up with you and your friends living your best OU life in a cool Athens rental house close to uptown. Your living situation should enhance your college experience, not add stress to it.