Renting in Greater Lafayette comes with its own share of headaches—namely, a large research institution on the west side of the river. (#boilerup) Enrollment is up 34% since 2014, and I can tell you rental options are NOT up that much. In fact, housing studies show that West Lafayette is 6000 units short of the demand.
So, if you want to rent in Greater Lafayette, what do you do? I asked some local friends and here were their suggestions:
- RV at the KOA campground
- Russell Property Management (Disclaimer: I’m related to the owner)
- Trulia or local management companies
- Hope you have triple income to rent, double deposit, and great credit. Everyone else is out of luck
- My daughter moved to Indy because she couldn’t afford to live here
- I’d tell them “I’m so sorry”
In a nutshell, the struggle is REAL! (As you can tell from these responses.)
A glance at a Reddit thread suggested Zillow, too.
A student rental thread on Reddit had some other suggestions, like Purdue’s off-campus housing website.
Something to keep in mind is whether you’re looking to rent an entire property or just a room. Many of the student housing rental companies rent by the room.
Some local property management companies include: Granite, Hunter, BK, Weidia, SmartDigs, Titan, Evergreen, Shook, Sorola Property Management, Sweet Home Management. I don’t work for or endorse any of these companies, for the record.
The ultimate suggestion, however, is that even if you can’t find something now, get on a waitlist! Take what you can for now and be ready to roll for next year. Most of the time, rentals for August are filled up by the December prior.
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