So I've been told that if you are looking to rent a house with friends for next September or the summer, you should start looking in January. Being a first year I have no idea on how to go about doing this. Should I just be checking Kijiji a lot? Or actually walking out to Westdale to look for FOR RENT signs? Also, how cheep to the houses come in Westdale? I don't want to spent more than I have to. The place was to rent out a house with friends but would it be cheeper to rent my own single room somewhere? What is your experience with finding a place to live?

http://housing.mcmaster.ca/index.php has listings. Granted this won't be all the houses available in the area, but it's a good place to start.

I'm not gonna go into detail with my off campus housing stories... I will just recommend living with people you know well and don't expect anything fancy

Also, there are places other than westdale that are quite close to the university. Don't just limit yourself to westdale.

I would start looking earlier than January. My roommates and I signed our lease in November last year and we have a house that is really close to campus, has a living/dining room and has been recently updated. If you wait too long you won't get a very nice house. We looked at a lot of really nasty houses before we found the one we live in.

We searched for houses on mcmaster housing site, kijiji and just buy typing "student houses for rent near mcmaster university" into google and by simply calling numbers on for rent signs.

As for living with people, I would strongly recommend living with a group of people that you know and have a similar personality too.

Originally Posted by starfish

Also, there are places other than westdale that are quite close to the university. Don't just limit yourself to westdale.

I really liked the looks of Westdale and its community. What are other good, close communities?

Can't find any posts on stuff for the summer. It's all November and January.

Most housing hunting starts around now. The rush is like in January. If you want "nice" places like west village apartments you should sign up asap. There isn't really summer unless landlord is desperate cause most places do 1year contracts

Just be sure that people living in the house are good crowd, like you dont want to live in the house behind Starbucks, there's a whole bunch of pot smoking hippies living there.

And make sure the bathrooms dont have mold and other organic materials.

Originally Posted by DanHiggins

I really liked the looks of Westdale and its community. What are other good, close communities?

Yeah most people would prefer to live in Westdale, but you also need to consider availability of housing, quality and cost. Also, how many people you want to live with, and all your other preferences. There are plenty of houses in other places though that you shouldn't ignore even if you would ideally like something in Westdale, because you could be missing out on a much better house in another area.
The other main areas are down Emerson and all along Whitney, that whole area south of Main St, and then Thorndale area North of Main St...both are west of the university.

Originally Posted by AngryBean

like you dont want to live in the house behind Starbucks, there's a whole bunch of pot smoking hippies living there.

I hear they throw the best parties.

Looking in the sanders area has a lot of pretty cheap, nice houses too if you dont look into westdale. We started looking in January and got a nice house, but look at a bunch since the 4th one we looked at was by far the best and thats where ive lived for the past 2 years

Originally Posted by AngryBean

like you dont want to live in the house behind Starbucks, there's a whole bunch of pot smoking hippies living there.

So I am not the only one smelling that. They should definitely be more discreet because there is a lot of people walking around there.