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I am a young adult looking for a room near the college I'll be attending. I am not experienced or good at looking for housing, and I don't really have the time to shop around because I work full time. Is there any way I can delegate this task to a realtor or someone else?

EDIT

I did find a service for helping me find a room to rent. I found it by trolling realtors on yelp and sending them messages asking if they could help me find a room. Only one said yes out of about ten. Her business called it an "apartment concierge service", but it cost around $1500, so I didn't do it. I ended up finding a place to live with craigslist.

michaelsnowden
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Many colleges have offices that can help students find off campus housing. They will have information about rooms being let by families, and about houses being shared by groups of students.

The biggest issue is that many of the best places were filled months ago. With only a month to go before classes start time is tight.

You can also look for electronic listings organized through a campus newspaper.

The advantage of going through university resources is that they will have more information regarding the types of students they are looking for. A house full of undergrads is different than a family house that rents only to young professors.

mhoran_psprep
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There are services, usually associated with real estate agents, that provide apartment search services for relocating professionals. I was very underimpressed when I was offered the use of such a service and did better on my own, but I did have the company paying for a hotel room while I searched so I had time to investigate alternative channels -- and in fact found and took a place being offered by a co-worker's father.

But if you're really looking for "a room" in a shared living situation, and you aren't already on campus talking to other students, I agree that the school's housing office, or the dorms and/or fraternity houses and/or independent living groups are your best bet.

In a college town most roommate openings get snapped up pretty quickly and are more likely to go to someone who is a known or vouched-for quantity.

keshlam
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