By EMILY PAOLICELLI
Contributing Writer
Housing for college students is a competitive business. Colleges around Albany offer on-campus student housing options, but some students are taking matters into their own hands and moving into off-campus houses around the Pine Hills neighborhood.
Landlords like Chris VanDoren and Justin Schmiemann spend their time buying houses in Pine Hills, rehabilitating them, and renting them out to students who move off campus. VanDoren owns 11 two-family houses around Pine Hills, while Schmiemann and his partner own 27 apartments around the neighborhood. All of VanDoren and Schmiemann’s apartments typically fill up every school year.
VanDoren began working in the student housing business with a friend, and enjoyed it so much that he left his other field of employment and now rents to students full-time.
“Most of my houses were uninhabitable or nearly uninhabitable when we bought them, and I invest about $150,000 in each one, and turn these uninhabitable houses into the nicest houses in the neighborhood,” said VanDoren. “[I’m] really reinvesting in the community, and I’ve invested…well over a million and a half dollars of my own money…into the neighborhood, into the community.”
Many students move off campus due to concerns about the cost of living on campus.
“Room and board for living on campus is so expensive and I would save a lot of money living off. Also, I wouldn’t have to buy a food plan and I would buy my own food which also saves a lot of money,” said Cierra Maring, a freshman at the University at Albany who plans to live off campus in the future.
“I cook on my own…I’m not really subjected to what’s served at school,” said Jack Simon, an off-campus senior at the University at Albany who lives in the Pine Hills neighborhood. “[It’s] much cheaper.”
VanDoren and Schmiemann both list their rent prices as per student rather than per apartment to offer a clearer idea of what each individual would be paying. “I would say about $550 per month is the average rent,” said Schmiemann. “Utilities are about $40 to $50 a month, so I would say students can live in the area for $575 to $600 a month, all in.” VanDoren’s website lists similar prices per student for his available apartments. Both Schmiemann’s company, J and J Investment Properties, and VanDoren define a lease period as 12 months, making rent for the year about $7,200.
Monthly groceries for a college-aged individual is about $259 to $303, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. After taking estimated rent, utilities, and groceries into account, a student would be paying up to $10,836 for 12 months.
On-campus room and board falls at a higher price point: according to each institution’s respective website, the University at Albany estimates room and board for two semesters, or roughly nine months, at $13,882, Saint Rose estimates $12,714 for first-year students, Sage College of Albany at $12,508, and Albany College of Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences at $12,020. Each of these figures can vary depending on the type of housing and meal plan a student would select, which means that a student could potentially be paying much more than the figures listed for room and board.
Cost is only one factor; students live off campus for a variety of reasons.
“I think it’s the ability to really live like…adults, to begin that next phase of your life where you’re off on your own, where you’re responsible for your own place,” said VanDoren.
Living on campus normally entails adhering to rules, regulations, and restrictions from the institution where students live.
“I chose to move off campus because of the authority that’s enforced on campus, you can’t really do anything, you can’t cook without being in trouble if the fire alarm goes off, you can’t have any parties…you can’t really do anything, and that’s not really fun,” said Simon. “I can park wherever I want [off campus], I don’t have to get a parking pass or anything like that.”
Schmiemann recognizes that although students would like to be more independent, renting an off-campus apartment with friends is a large first step in the lives of many students.
“We understand that it’s a very big decision for someone who just went to college by themselves to now rent independently without…adult supervision in their house,” said Schmiemann, who has been renting to students for 10 years. “We send them a move-in letter before they move in, ‘This is what you guys have to do to set up utilities, this is where you make your rent payments to, this is who you call if there’s a problem,’ so we’re very hands-on in that manner, and we understand that this is the first time that they’ve done this and that they have to kind of be babied through the process.”
Schmiemann also mentioned that he reaches out to parents on an individual basis, and has a full-time property manager in the area five days a week, whose job is checking in on students and ensuring that everything is in working condition.
“I think it separates us a lot from other landlords who kind of just think they can rent to kids and then forget about it, because that’s definitely not the case,” said Schmiemann. “Students require…pretty intensive property management.”
VanDoren also advises students to be wary of who they’re renting from.
“They should really try and scout the reputation of their landlord…they should be shopping for landlords as much as they should be shopping for the niceness of their apartments,” said VanDoren. Websites such as RateMyLandlord and WhoseYourLandlord allow tenants to read reviews of potential landlords, and leave reviews of past landlords.
“There are student landlords that notoriously take advantage of their college students every year,” said VanDoren.
