Students are always in the search for safe and secure off-campus apartments. The best way to begin that search is to check the trustworthy sites, but which one should you choose? It's easy to assume that any website with the words apartment near your school are the right resources, but that's not always the case. More often than not, your university has done previous research and decided to partner with the right platforms to provide the best search experience.

Here are some things to look out for to confirm that your institution has partnered with a platform that has listings near you:

Platforms tend to have the name of your university to show you they have apartments near your school, but this doesn't mean there is a partnership between them. When looking at platforms, make sure they are linked directly to your university's housing resources page and that they have a direct partnership. There's a big different between marketing to a university's students and actually working with the university. For example, when utilizing platform like JumpOffCampus, you can see they have a link at the bottom of their page directing you to the universities website ensuring the partnership has been established. Your university will be clear about where they believe you should be searching and what resources are the most trustworthy. 

This should be your priority when checking out new apartments. Sites such as Craigslist don't verify each listing, which increases the likelihood that you will run into a scammer. Ask how landlords are verified, whether listings are reviewed before they're published, and what happens when something looks suspicious.

At JumpOffCampus, we screen every listing before they go live and verify the landlord/property relationship. No screening process catches everything, but having that process in place is a much better starting point than an open marketplace. If the platform you use verifies their landlords, they won't be afraid to show you their process and how they're keeping you safe! Make sure to check out how JumpOffCampus verifies each listing that is posted.

A good student housing platform should be more than a list of apartments. Look for things like: 

✩ Roommate matching
✩ Sublets
✩ Student housing resources
✩ Scam prevention
✩ Lease and renting guidance
✩ University-specific housing information 

This is easy to overlook. The right platform should help housing teams centralize off-campus resources, manage listings, understand what's happening in the local housing market, and give students somewhere reliable to start their search.

Beyond the number of listings, the real question is: does the platform have a relationship with my university and will it make my housing search easier and smoother?

Platforms who want the best for students and institutions will make it known and provide the most accessible resources for a safe and durable experience. That's what we try to do at JumpOffCampus—connect universities, students, and local landlords through a safer, more organized off-campus housing experience.