Finding a Lease at UW-Madison

The future site of Irving and Dorothy Levy Hall, the new Letters & Science academic building, located at the southwest corner of North Park Street and West Johnson Street on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus is pictured in an aerial photograph taken looking north from a helicopter during a sunny autumn day on Oct. 22, 2023. Campus facilities clockwise from the bottom center include Mecha House, the Indigenous Student Center, Susan Davis House (blue), and Zoe Bayliss House (green) with Grainger Hall to the north and the Educational Sciences building to the west. Lake Mendota is seen in the background. (Photo by Jeff Miller / UW–Madison)

Finding a Lease at UW-Madison

International students and the early-hunt for housing.

By: Zhipu Liao

It is simple enough to find a new place to live and get out of town: pack your stuff, sign a new lease, done. But for sophomore international student Mandy Lu at UW-Madison, finding a new dwelling place became the semester’s biggest headache. In May, the lease ends, and she needs to find a new place before fall 2025, or she will have no place to live next semester. Different from many of the other local students, she cannot just jump in the car and drive back to her parents — her parents are abroad.

“I don’t have a plan B,” Mandy explained. “If I can’t find a new place as soon as possible, I will have nowhere to stay next semester.”

She began searching in March, browsing listings of off-campus houses, emailing landlords, and viewing locations in person. But each was over her price range or sold out.

“I probably sent 15 or so emails,” she said.

And received three back. The biggest obstacle for her is not familiar with the Madison leasing market.

“In my first year, I lived in dorms, so I am not familiar with anything about off-campus leases and sublets kind of stuff,” Lu said.

According to the UW-Madison Housing FAQ, students are encouraged to start searching early, even in the fall semester, if they need to sign next fall’s lease. Around November, most of the units that are near the university are snapped up immediately. As a newcomer to the system, that deadline is a shock. Even if you start early, there is no guarantee of getting a space.

A Cap Times story, “Out-of-state and international students face unique housing challenges in Madison”, describes how “international students often don’t have access to campus visits or local networks,” putting them at a disadvantage. For Mandy, it made the entire experience feel like a guessing game. “Everyone else had their older friends to show them the ropes. I just had Google,” she laughed. That’s where programs such as OpenHouse, which put everything in a single location, enabled her to be less confused

A February 2023 article in The Badger Herald explained that international students face more problems with actually obtaining an apartment: no credit history to base anything on, more paperwork to provide, or rejected applications because of no social credibility.

“Some landlords just see that you don’t have a credit score here and won’t even consider you,” Mandy said. “But we’re not U.S. citizens—where are we supposed to get a credit score from?”

It was there that a friend introduced her to OpenHouse, a platform that pairs students and apartments in an intuitive, app-like interface.

“It was like Tinder, but apartments,” she said. On OpenHouse, she could sort by price point, location to campus, and see listings by landlords and by students trying to sublet. “It was a huge time saver. I don’t need to email ghosts anymore.”

Most remarkable to her was the roommate-matching service. “It’s like dating but with people that you live with. You actually get to find out what they are like, what they enjoy, what their habits are like.” For Mandy, this has meant having a roommate that, like herself, is quiet and neat. “It’s really uncomfortable to have someone completely different than yourself. I did that once and I will never do that again.”

Mandy hasn’t rented yet, but she has two available houses right now and feels hopeful after all these months. “At least I’m not lost direction anymore,” she told us. “I still have a little bit of a path to walk, but I know where I’m going now. And that makes a tremendous difference.”

Source:

Mandy Lu, student at UW-Madison