Off-campus houses here get signed roughly ten months before anyone moves in. If nobody has explained that to you, this page is the whole thing in order.
The order of events
You do not need a full group to start. If you have one, settling it early means you can take a unit together and choose your own roommates. If you do not, sign on your own — we will introduce you to the others before anybody commits. Either way, have the honest conversation about budget in October rather than in December.
Bring everyone who is signing. Open the closets, run the shower, look at where the cars go. Ask which bedroom is over the porch and which one gets the morning sun — those are the two things groups argue about later. A tour takes about twenty minutes and you should not feel rushed through it.
Every student signs their own lease, whether you came as a group of three or on your own, and each of you is responsible for your own portion of the semester rent and nobody else's. A parent or guardian co-signs. The term is the academic year — in before the fall semester, out when the spring semester ends — and a deposit is due at signing, held in a separate account. The first semester's rent is due at move-in rather than at signing.
Keys go out the week before classes start. We walk the house with you and both sign a condition checklist with photographs, which is the document that settles any deposit question eleven months later. Take your own photos too. Everyone who has ever rented anywhere will tell you the same thing.
Money
Rent is quoted per student, per semester, because that is the number you actually need in order to decide.
Worth knowing
Each student signs their own lease and owes their own portion of the semester rent. Nobody else's share is your problem. Most student leases in Cortland are joint and several, which means one roommate walking out mid-year lands on everyone who stayed — ask about that wherever else you look, because it is the single most expensive difference between two listings that otherwise read the same.
Our lease is the academic year, not twelve months, so it ends with the spring semester. Plenty of Cortland landlords will hold you to a full year. Compare the two on the total you will actually pay, not the monthly figure — three months of rent you do not owe is worth more than a small difference per month.
Overnight street parking is restricted in winter and the city does tow. Every house we rent has off-street parking, and we ask tenants to register their cars with us so we can tell you which spots are yours.
The ones we get asked most are answered in full, including the awkward ones about deposits and roommates who back out.