Rent Updates » Student Housing

Saint Cloud State Off Campus Housing Resource Now Online

Michael Bungartz — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:01:44 +0000

In order to assist the Tom Martin and the Student Government at Saint Cloud State University in their venture to bring an Off-Campus Student Housing web service to SCSU students, we have developed a temporary solution for them in the interim.

Check it out at: http://www.rentupdate.com/university/st-cloud-state

SCSU Off-Campus Housing List on RentUpdate.com

This link will take visitors to a special section of RentUpdate.com, designed to be a resource connecting students with property managers around the SCSU campus. It will allow property managers to actively post available listings and for students to use dynamic search filters to find an apartment.

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SGA at St Cloud State University to build Off-Campus Student Housing Website

Michael Bungartz — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:35:11 +0000

Last week while browsing through industry news in student housing, I heard that the Student Government Association (SGA) at Saint Cloud State University was planning to begin development on an Off-Campus Housing website for students. The University Chronicle article (SGA Designs New Website), announced that the Student Government would be rallying students, school and community to create a sorely needed resource for SCSU students. The website will be designed to centralize local housing information and make it more accessible to the approximately 15,000 students that live off-campus.

I reached out to the Chair of Campus Affairs Tom Martin, who is spearheading the project for the SGA, to see if Rent Update might be of service in any way. After a quick trip to St Cloud, I had the opportunity to sit down for a short meeting with Tom. We discussed his plans for the project and the challenges that they faced in launching a Rental Listing Service. Challenges that we have faced as well, while building RentUpdate.com.

Our meeting was productive for both sides as I learned a great deal from Tom’s experiences, and hope I could provide a sliver of wisdom and insight from my own. I offered Tom and the SGA of St Cloud State University, Rent Update’s assistance in anyway to help them overcome the challenges they face.

We wish them the best, and hope to be of service.

MN College Students Fend for Themselves to Find Off-Campus Housing

Michael Bungartz — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:50:37 +0000

Recently we completed a study on the availability of online off-campus housing information provided by the colleges and universities that make up the Minnesota Post-Secondary school system. As we all know, off-campus housing is a vital component to a college education, not only for students who do not wish to live on campus, but for smaller schools that do not have on-campus housing options available.

After a few hours of online homework scouring the websites of the 100 Colleges, Universities and private schools in Minnesota…here’s what we found:

With almost endless housing information scattered across the web, such a small percentage of dynamic, search-able services provided by Colleges and Universities would be seem understandable. However, after reflecting back on my own personal experience in college, I recall having no clue where to start looking for off-campus housing. For that matter, up until my sophomore year, I hadn’t even thought about housing, let alone search for it. It was always just there.

So when it came time to take my college experience off campus, my fellow students and I went to first place we thought of for help, our school. Fortunately for me, I happened to attend one of the two schools in Minnesota (University of MN – Duluth), that actually maintained a list that I could search (Go UMD!).

So if most of us begin our apartment search when moving from on-campus resident life to off-campus, wouldn’t it seem natural that more schools would provide such resources and guidance for their students?