padmapper.com

craigslist is actually pretty legit in college towns

Padmapper basically takes all the Craigslist ads and sorts them by various attributes so you can see where they are and also sort by bedroom, price, etc. The extra features buttons are kind of cool too because you can make it show you which properties are walking or driving distance from an address.

I'll give padmapper a shot.

Anyone want to rent a big house with me? These $1300-1400 per month houses look so much better than an apartment.

http://www.bankierapts.com/index.php?34 ... -champaign

0.9 miles from the law school.

http://chambana.craigslist.org/roo/2987544722.html this is where I'm going to be living. The landlord, phil, is a young guy who lives in the house. The other roommates are a ph'd student, a professional cellist, and a visiting professor (although I remember phil saying that this guy would be moving out, so that is probably who you would be replacing). Phil is a cool guy, and the house is awesome. What sold me was the size of the porch, deck, and yard. Very nice. Location is cool too, w green st. So it's close enough to the nightlife and campus, but far enough west to be removed from the noise.

Yup, that's why I started using Padmapper. I started with the law housing forum list of good housing companies and started to wonder what the other options are. The apartments are what they are I think, you get similar things with a lot of them. I like looking for a good deal, and the only way you'll find that is probably through an independent listing.

What is the law housing forum list of good housing companies? Do you mind posting where I can find it? I'm trying to find a luxury condo and hitting a lot of dead ends on the properties I like.

I know someone posted it somewhere, I can't find it!

.....that actually looks pretty nice
now the question is, do i want a roommate

When I'm stressed, I generally like being alone... so pretty much my whole first year I'm guessing... haha, but then again, that is what a bedroom is for.

I'm starting to realize I'm spoiled with my apartment search. A lot of these places look really bad.

If you log into the admitted students site there's a link to "housing forum" in the middle, bottom of the page. The good/bad lists are at the top of the forum. Alternatively:

bad:
http://www.law.illinois.edu/prospective ... aspx?m=757
good:
http://www.law.illinois.edu/prospective ... aspx?m=755

If none of that works I can paste it all in.

i actually went around looking at 1 bedrooms for a day after the ASD. only found two that i liked, one was too damn expensive, and one had an inflexible move-in date of the 24th (i'd really prefer to move in a week or two before the end of august, just to get my bearings)

It is not a generous market...

I'm trying to find someone with a higher end condo for rent and having no luck. Anyone know of any that I may be overlooking?

Price range?

I'd be willing to go as high as 1200 a month if condo is really nice.

You've probably looked at these, but I drove by Baytown (http://www.baytowne.net/champaign-champ ... apartments) and Windsor West and they looked really nice. 1 and 2 Bedrooms under your price range there. I think you can easily get a pretty nice apartment under that price point as long as you're okay not living super close. If you're looking closer to campus you might have to sacrifice. As with anywhere, it seems pretty tough to get all three of location, quality, and a good deal with apartments. In this case, mainly because I just didn't see much that was quality and in walking distance. Give that up and there are plenty of options.

I am going to visit those... but they are apartments and I'd prefer to be in a condo. Not ruling out apartments, just hate having so many neighbors because it is almost guaranteed one of them will be a problem. Plus apartments always have pathetically thin walls. No matter how nice they are.

I wish someone had a nice condo in a chain of them for rent for 1000-1200... seen a couple but they were recently rented.

You know of any big realtors that have a bunch of properties? There are hundreds in Champaign, I was hoping there was a bigger one I could call up and see what they've got.

I always thought the difference between an apartment and a condo was just in ownership? I thought you generally rented an apartment, but owned a condo, though I'd say that I'm currently renting a condo because an individual owns it, moved out, and is renting it for extra income. Pretty sure the name doesn't necessarily mean anything quality-wise.

eta: and I lived in a condo last year and it was definitely under the description of "apartment" by your definition. Walls were soooo thin, and I swear the people above me were smashing like 5 kids into their 1 bedroom, and they all were running around constantly.

No idea on realtors, though I feel like someone mentioned calling one in this thread or maybe the other UIUC one. I just went through that list I linked to as well as padmapper and did the legwork myself. Annoying, but turned out well.

You're right, but when I think of condos, I think of... trying to think of how to describe this. IF you watch the office, Michael Scott moved into a condo. So its like right out on the street. With an apartment complex, you usually go back into a large community and you're surrounded by people. Way more neighbors, way more packed in.

There might be no difference between a condo and an apartment besides ownership, so I guess what I'm trying to say is a smaller, less packed in place. Condos I always thought were just small houses that were basically combined together side by side.

Yeah, I get what you mean. I mean, no matter what I think you're going to have some neighbors unless you just rent out a house (which is an option even for 1bds, FYI). So unless you go that route, I think it's just a roll of the dice on the neighbor noise. I'd bet that Windsor and Baytown would be good bets though because they're more expensive, nicer, farther out, and so probably more likely to be lived in by grad students/adults and not undergrads. At least, that was my thinking. If I hadn't gotten the place I did I probably would've looked at those two options pretty closely. I think they'll fit your quality criteria.

Part of this is just my experience with apartments. I've lived in a lot of them and have had some really, really bad neighbors.

I had one neighbor who decided to cut the chords to my DirecTv and then give my satellite a nice kick, all witnessed by the neighbor to the other side because apparently my TV was too loud. My Samsung went up to 100 in volume and it was on 11... so yeah... a bit of an overreaction. I'm considering the house thing for sure... if I find a small one that is newer for a decent price, I'd jump on it. I'm really trying to think ahead here... knowing I'll be stressed, I'm hoping I can avoid psychotic neighbors that I'll have to call the cops on about damage to property.

Interestingly enough, when the cops came out after that incident, he told me... 'Kid, you gotta get out of apartments.' And he basically said it was a breeding ground for crime.