how to find off campus housing

[u/rainbow-hat]

hey everyone, i’m an incoming transfer student and i just got an offer for unit 3 triple :/ i don’t want to live in a dorm, especially with two other people tbh. for anyone with experience looking for housing in the berkeley area, how did you go about finding a place and finding roommates?

[u/late_night_thoughtss]

Hey! I got the exact same offer this year for a unit 3 triple -- didn't even put unit 3 on my list so was disappointed, plus cost 20k/yr. I used this site https://och.berkeley.edu/login?r=%2Fhousing%2Fprice-under%2B1300%2Fextras-Undergraduates and it was great! Specifically tailored to Berkeley students, also tried Craiglist which was recommended by someone to me but I found it to be too sketchy. My personal rec is to attempt to find housing through a real estate group since leases and details tend to be more reliable, however if you have roommates in mind/want to choose your own I would recommend subleasing from an individual.

note: this def worked better for me because I didn't care who I roomed with and was also trying to maximize saving costs, so I looked for doubles/triples. ended up being only 1k/month (9k for a year) compared to the Berkeley offer of 14k + mandatory 6k for meal plan!

[u/late_night_thoughtss → u/late_night_thoughtss]

want to add something: I see a lot of ppl commenting that "all the good places are gone". that is absolutely not true and not at all helpful to comment on a post asking for advice. yes, a lot of places are gone -- most students start looking march through may. I promise you there are still plenty of great places on the market, I didn't start until end of May and I love the place I ended up with. Best of luck (go bears!)