Moving Out Of The Dorms – Step-By-Step Instructions – Finding A Place

With the end of the first full year for 2011-2012 freshman at MSU coming to a close, soon comes moving decisions. Are you going to move back home for the summer and then come back in the fall? Find a place now and rage all summer long and hope to remember when class starts in August? Either way you decide you'll need to, at some point, live in your first place outside of the house and dorms. Daunting yes. Finding roommates, a house/apartment, bills, how do you do any or all of these things? I'm going to walk you through the process as I know it. I am not a professional, but I will tell it like I have experienced the renting process in the 10+ different places I have lived in Bozeman.  I'll walk you through the process in this series called "Moving Out".

Step 1. Find a Place To Move Into

Craigslist, the Chronicle, Googling "Apartments for rent in Bozeman", any of these are ways to find places that are available. First though, some things to consider before you start looking.

1. Who are you going to live with?
2. How much can you AND THEM afford per month to pay for rent and utilities?
3. Now count how many people are going to be living together? (Suggestion: no more than 5. More than that and, in my experience, your in for a bad living situation. But I've been wrong)
4. That's how many rooms you need.

Now, just start calling the numbers listed on the listings of places with that many bedrooms that are in your price range.

When you start calling on places, its easiest to call several at once.  Lots of rental companies and craigslist ads have pictures of the units posted.  You can get an idea of how the place looks but you will always want to check the place out first hand in order to see if its up to your personal specs.  This process is sometimes awkward as you may be looking at a place while there are still people living in the place or they are in the process of moving out.  Have an open mind about it.

Step 2 in the process is calling on and looking at potential houses/apartments and what questions to ask landlords.

If you noticed I missed something, or have a comment about your own personal experience, please comment below.