A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog post with a few tips on how to find a good place to live off campus. I covered things you should look for as well as things you should generally avoid, but I doubt I covered everything. (If you're interested in my previous housing post, you can find it here.)
Three University of Michigan Graduates and one IU graduate are on a mission to make finding off-campus housing a lot easier. They’ve created a website called Cribspot (found here) where you can find just about every rental and sublease listing close to campus. Their goal is to bring together as many rentals and sublets as they can into one location.
So here are a few things that make Cribspot pretty awesome:
Wide Variety of Housing Already PostedFirst and most important: because Cribspot has almost 1,000 individual locations (so far), it makes finding a place to live a lot easier. You won’t be jumping from website to website trying to find a place that meets your specifications.
Easier than Google, Safer than CraigslistYou can search by price range, number of bedrooms, type of housing, or by how long you plan on renting the space. Just specify on the tabs above the map of Bloomington and only the dots that match the specifications stay on the map. It makes narrowing down possibilities less stressful than opening and going through a million tabs. Not to mention that Cribspot will be a lot safer than Craigslist. When looking at specific listings for rent or sub-lease, you will be able to verify the leaser’s identity using social network websites and/or university email.
Price heat mapIt’s basically a map of Bloomington that shows where housing is available and how expensive or cheap that area or housing is. The more you zoom in, the more specific you get into that area. It makes it easier to find housing at your price range.
Crime Heat MapThe map isn’t quite finished yet, but the idea is to show where crime happens most often or least often around campus. It’s helpful and your parents will probably be relieved to know you didn’t accidentally sign a lease in the most crime dense part of town.
A Whole Lot More to ComeCribspot has come a long way since its creation a few months ago in September, but it’s still a work in progress. They’re gathering data around Bloomington (and other college towns), so that you can easily make an informed decision. They’re even creating a guide to help you along the way in case you really don’t know what you’re doing (like me a few short months ago).
Point in case, if you still haven’t figured out where you plan on living next year, check out Cribspot. Having everything in one place will take away a lot of the stress from finding the perfect place to live.
If you're looking for more information about off-campus, check out these blog posts!