Howdy Aggie Parents and Aggie Interns!
I’m Grant Bynum and I am an admin for the group Texas A&M Aggie Marketplace. I’ve spent since 2011 working with campus recruiters of corporations throughout Texas. Recruiters ask my company to find their campus recruits full time and short term housing. I’ve worked with large and also medium sized programs and in many cities in Texas, including firms like KPMG, AT&T, JPMChase, Protiviti and more.
Often when you or your students get that fabulous internship job offer, recruiters leave it up to your students to provide your own housing. Recruiters don’t tend to have anyone on their staff to help with this process. But finding short term housing can be DIFFICULT and also very very expensive! Most housing solutions for interns and grads are more geared towards long term leases (12 months and above). And a quick scan of the web doesn’t really help much either. Websites are geared to help you find prices for long term housing only for the most part.
I am going to share below some of the solutions I provide to those interns and full time hires each and every year, including this one! This will help you find the best and safest housing quickly without with you on how to find the best fit housing for your internship! If you have any questions, you are free to TEXT ME. Aggies can also use the same service that I provide to the corporations here, and it’s always free for Aggies: Free Signup
INTERN HOUSING SOLUTIONS
Here are just a few of the solutions that might work well for you or your Aggie. It’s easy to find a high cost solution! But these solutions are geared towards finding a moderate cost for the internship and to also keep your Aggie in a safe area, so they don’t have to spend all of their internship money toward housing! No one wants that! 🙂
Solution 1: Unfurnished Apartments (Level of Difficulty: Easier)
If your Aggie’s internship length is atleast 9 or 10 weeks, it’s often the cheapest and easiest solution to simply get an unfurnished apartment in their career city. Roughly about 5 % of apartments (not many!) will offer 3 month housing in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, etc. This is also going to be true in cities outside of Texas. When you find these apartments that will do a 3 month term, you can take a look at their website prices but then expect to add a bit of a premium to that. For some apartments, that’s maybe $100 – $200 a month extra because it’s short term. That’s the ones I typically will target for interns. But note, other apartments will charge a HUGE premium for a 3 month term. Like maybe an extra $1000 or more a month! I would stay away from those personally, because the better deals are out there.
I look for apartments that are within hopefully 15-20 minutes max of their office location. It’s often difficult to find something walking/quick driving distance of their work especially if work is located in a popular downtown office that also is moderate in price. Those are the ones that will charge a fortune for their housing! So I go out just a bit so the commute is still manageable. If you need to be super close to the office, you can expect to pay a higher price. But often there’s city transportation that makes the commute more doable.
NOTE: This solution is even more doable if you can get a ROOMMATE for the summer! Finding a roommate allows you to even further split the cost. Finding a roommate is a terrific idea especially if your roommate is an Aggie – someone you can trust! You might have your Aggie sign up for this facebook group and post a roommate request for that city their internship is in.
IMPORTANT – Don’t let “unfurnished” stop you: Yes, they are unfurnished. They DO come typically with most or all of the appliances. But not furniture. But from dealing with interns since 2011, they often will choose this choice and then scrounge up some super cheap furniture for the summer. It’s not really hard anymore to do that. One trip to Target, or an Amazon delivery, will solve the furniture issue. And then they can even sell it at the end of the summer! Or there’s always local FB groups to get a couch and bed cheap. Further, there are furniture rental companies that will do cheap, 3 month rentals …and they even deliver and set it all up. My point is, it’s super easy to get basic furniture needed for the summer.
If you want an all furnished solution, it will drive your price up significantly…and it just isn’t worth it! Compare an example price of an unfurnished apartment in Dallas – maybe starting at $1300 a month on a 3 month term – to getting that same apartment for $2300 a month fully furnished…it just makes sense to get the unfurnished!
If you or your Aggie needs help with coming up with a list of those 3 month options in Texas, request that list here: INTERN HOUSING HELP.
Solution 2: University Housing Sublets (for Summer internships only)
This can sometimes be a valid solution if the internship is in THE SUMMER and there are universities nearby where your internship will be. That’s because many students will leave for the summer for other cities to do their internships and their student housing is available. These might work well if the timing of when the sublet is open fits the internship term.
But this solution is much harder to realistically do! And it’s a little dicey to be honest. Here’s what I would do to investigate if this would work for your Aggie:
- Identify the universities within 20 minutes or so of your Aggie’s internship office location
- See if the university has their own summer dorm rental program. Some do!
- If they do, then I would calculate the cost of the rental for the entire term.
- I would then compare that cost to the cost of a 3 month unfurnished apartment. If it’s reasonably close in price, then it might make sense to do this. Otherwise, if it’s more than maybe $300 more a month to do this, it’s not as good of a solution.
You can also explore off campus housing sublets. Students do offer these as well. But I would verify that the student has the legal right to sublet their place. Sometimes they do, but sometimes they don’t! It’s risky to try this solution if they don’t have the right to sublet, because your Aggie could get kicked out of their housing if the landlord finds out. Best thing to do in this solution is to coordinate it properly with the apartment’s office. Apartments may have no problem adding or transferring your Aggie on for the summer. That solution protects everyone.
Solution 3: Extended Stay Type Hotels
I’m surprised that students don’t check this out more often. There are well managed companies that will offer a fully furnished extended stay and they will usually fit the terms they need nicely. And once you request a term over 30 days, the rate will go down vs. what you might see on a website. Another great benefit of this is they are easy to cancel if you book it and then find a better solution. So this is a great backup solution if others don’t work out. A great example of a company to check out is: Extended Stay. Hint: Make sure the location is somewhat close to their office…and not in a sketch area.
Solution 4: Air BnBs or VRBOs
This is my least favorite solution, but occasionally it makes sense. It’s definitely not hard to check out to see if these options are available. If you choose this option, here is some advice I would use to filter out the bad choices:
- Price – Compare the price to one of the other solutions above
- Sketchy Area or not? – This is maybe the most important! It’s easy to sell a place as being in a great location on Air Bnb. Owners may often “embellish” a location or add a trendy location that it’s nearby. But in reality, the housing is located in a super sketch area. Getting a “good deal” on an apartment where you don’t feel safe is never worth it.
- Location compared to office work address– sometimes both of the above factors are good! But then the location of the apartment itself is just too far from work. You can have a great AirBNB, but then if it’s located 30 minutes from the office location, that will put your Aggie at a disadvantage – both in the commute and SOCIALLY. It’s important for interns to make friends with others in their group and being far away makes that difficult
S0lution 5: Other Aggies Homes!
We Aggies are very special and very giving. If you have a need for housing, you are free to post it in Aggie groups, including my own: Texas A&M Aggie Marketplace. You never know what solution another Aggie might have for you. I’m often so blessed to see that.
One thing you might also do is contact the Aggie Moms group in the city you are going to. That’s another group that is so giving and willing to share their time with you.
Part 2: City Specific Solutions – Coming Soon!
I will be doing a follow up article to get more specific on finding city specific solutions. Will be posting that hopefully very soon. Gig ’em!