Questions, answers, and information about everything housing can go here.
Please let me know if you see anything that needs to be updated or any new information that can be posted/linked to.
Listings:
Area Facebook Housing Groups - Facebook group list compiled by u/fluffymoomin - Groups are listed with descriptions as well as safety recommendations. Not all groups are moderated well, be careful regardless of the group, moderators are human. Do not pay money to post in any facebook group. It's a scam. The ones that ask for money are no different, or worse than the free ones. Any reply asking you to message or dm them is likely a scam.
UofM offical off-campus housing site - You can now sort by recently updated listings. You can post listings or as a person looking for housing/roomates. They charge for property listings, but offer free sublease listings. Also people simply post in the roommates section that they have a place they are looking to fill as well.
Ann Arbor off-campus housing - This was the site that uofm used as their official site until it was replaced with the site above. One of the biggest gripes I had with this version is that commercial properties were updated every day, so sorting by new was tedious to find new listings as a bunch of the same commercial properties would be "updated" each day to be at the top.
Zillow (ann arbor) - Zillow
Roomies.com - Roomies.com you can search for listings and roommates by location. Even though it's apparently a national site, enough people locally use it that it's worth taking a look at.
Apartments.com - Apartments.com
ICC Co-ops - Inter-Cooperative Council page for Co-op housing.
Craigslist Apartment search - Usually spammed by the same area complexes over and over, which is what made craigslist so hard to use and forced people to facebook. There are still some listings here though, it just takes some scrolling.
Ann Arbor Observer Rentlink Housing Search
Resources:
By city ordinance I believe, private renters are supposed to have certificates of occupancy/rental permits from the city. You can search by address. (There will be lots of people who don't have this but it's something to check)
*Ann Arbor building rental and inspection services
Social media/community resources:
Past resources:
Remember to exercise caution when looking for housing. Lots of scammers out there. Check their main profiles if on facebook to see if they match the user who reached out to you. See if you can verify them anywhere else that they actually live in the area. Beware of people pushing you to send deposit money without showing you the place. Please refer to the PDF survival guide located at the top of the post. It can save you money and just as importantly time, not having waste time and effort to interact with scammers. Most instances of people telling you to message them as replies to your posts on facebook are scams. Make sure they have listings on the group, not just replies to people looking as comments like that can't be screened. Most legit people will contact you first and have a listing already in the group.
Remember never to give your uofm ID student ID number or a picture of your student ID to a 3rd party site for subleasing.
They can't even verify numbers are valid.
Disclosure could cause limited harm to individuals and/or the university with some risk of civil liability.
May be subject to contractual agreements or regulatory compliance, or is individually identifiable, confidential, and/or proprietary.
https://safecomputing.umich.edu/protect-the-u/safely-use-sensitive-data/umids-require-protection
Fall sublets will be uncommon. Most of the Winter sublets you've seen posted are people who failed to find a Fall-only sublet and are trying to recoup some of the un-used lease remaining. Be especially wary when searching for Fall-only sublets. Scammers count on people being desperate to bypass their warning senses. Some apartment complexes like Woodbury Gardens(2-15 and 21 month), and the complexes owned by Village Green(6 and 9 month) may offer shorter lease terms than 12 month. Be aware the shorter term leases will be more expensive per month.
Mckinley Properties don't allow less than 12 month lease but they offer a early termination option which costs 2x monthly rent and requires a 60 day notice. This could be just as good as a shorter lease. I'd confirm it with the leasing office but this should be for all washtenaw county mckinley properties.
The Ann Arbor city bus line can make some affordable locations more practical. Your student ID lets you ride free. A short bus ride can be not too much worse than a medium/long walk. Beware some buses run more commonly than others
If there are any resource additions or corrections let me know.
