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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

Students utilize the Web when looking for apartments

Web Extra

Benjamin Richards had 24 hours in D.C. to visit apartment buildings and sign a lease before starting classes at the GW Law School, so he scoured online apartment listings from his home in Georgia before making the trip to the District.

“I just didn’t have the time to roam around D.C. looking for places and making sure they weren’t run down,” Richards said. “(The Web site) apartments.com worked well for me because it has a very large selection of buildings. I came to D.C. and walked around checking out all the places I had previously scouted online. It certainly made my life easier.”

The Internet is a convenient and easily accessible alternative when searching for off-campus housing. Web sites such as Rent.com, Apartments.com, Craigs List, the Washington Post’s online classifieds and the Facebook Marketplace give potential renters the ability to pull up floor plans and look at photos. They can even personalize their searches for amenities like dishwashers and parking garages from the comfort of their desk chairs.

Hamza Ghaznavi, an undergraduate who lives in the Monroe House, had success finding an apartment on Craig’s List. Ghaznavi warns that there are some negative aspects of online apartment hunting. The pictures and dimensions in online listings can be deceiving and that the people who post apartments online tend to require fast responses, he said.

“The earlier someone starts their search, the better chance they have to be happier with a new place,” Ghaznavi said.

Many online apartment hunters reiterated the idea of starting the search early. Junior Erik Bergmann said that he looked for apartments online for five months before finally finding “a steal in Georgetown.”

Online housing listings have also proven successful for those trying to sell or rent out their apartments. Laurence Leamer and his wife Vesna recently listed their Claridge House apartment on Craig’s List.

“The last time we rented it, we put ads in the Washington Post and got no responses,” Leamer said. “Then we put it on Craig’s List and it rented within a few hours.”

Lisa Nanni, community manager of The Statesmen apartment building on F Street, found online listings to be a helpful advertising tool.

“We have used many different methods of advertising over the years,” Nanni said. “But we have found that the Internet is by far the most successful.”

In an effort to make apartment shopping more convenient and accessible to prospective residents – especially outside the District – The Statesmen offers complete online leasing on their Web site.

But online apartment searches are not for everyone. Matthew Feger, a junior living in The York, chose not use the Internet when searching for his off-campus apartment.

“The Internet is not the way to go,” Feger said. “It’s too impersonal. I wanted to talk to the people in person and check out the place. Pictures just don’t do some places justice.”

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