Rage against renters

You’re finally moved-in to your house for the school year, which can only mean one thing — it’s time to start looking for a new one for next year.

It may seem premature, but with an average of 40,000 students on the Bloomington campus alone, the housing race can get pretty ugly.

Start now, and you can thank me later.

While we give Bloomington landlords a truly staggering amount of money and trust, the anecdotes about poor treatment from rental agencies continue to pour in.

Landlords quite simply abuse us, and there’s not much we can do about it.

I will, however, offer some tips on how you can be the best passive-aggressive renter Bloomington has ever seen.

Demand to see every part of the house.

Whoever is showing the house will most likely want to laugh off at least one aspect of the property.

In my experience, my landlord didn’t show us the basement giggling at how it has a dirt floor. I didn’t pursue it and was treated to a semi-flooded, John-Wayne-Gacy-esque scenario when I ventured down there our first night.

Ask how many properties the rental group handles.

The more properties they handle the less time they’ll have for yours. Throughout my rental experience, I’ve heard “Oh, we look after more than 60 properties, so we can’t find every nail popping out of the floor!” about 23 times.

If one rental group is looking after all these undergraduate-owned properties, that means no single property is getting the attention it deserves.

This also means that they’ll see you as money and money alone. If you choose a renter with fewer properties, odds are they’ll tend to the properties better and listen to you more.

Take notes on what is promised during the showing. Hold those notes near and dear to your heart.

We were promised that our vomit-carpet would be replaced with hardwood floors. The vomit-carpet is still there, but now Swedish Fish have joined the party, too.

Although you can’t hold the company to these promises, you can certainly make them feel awkward for not following through. But it will only look like a concrete argument if you have documentation or a date of the promise.

Ask why the rent is so damn high.

The person showing you the property will boast about how close it is to campus even if it’s in Martinsville. Ask how the rent compares to properties further away from campus.

Make sure they know you’re legitimate.

If you present yourself as a competent individual, you will have already upset their whole process.

Early in my renting process, I sent an elaborate e-mail to the rental group saying I respect them and their property, thus they should respect my housemates and me.

The letter got us a set of new windows for the house.

This might be the first time you’re renting a property on your own, but you’ve lived in a house your whole life. You know much more than you think you do.

Mine that knowledge, and demand better from Bloomington’s abusive rental industry.

­— sjostrow@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Sam Ostrowski on Twitter @ostrowski_s_j.