Students who wanted to find out about living off-campus had their chance yesterday at the Off-Campus Housing Fair. Yesterday marked the Fair’s 20th year, and it continues to be beneficial to both students and Bowling Green Realtors.
“This is a service that students really want — they keep coming back,” said Georgia Folkins, interim program coordinator for off-campus student services. “It’s a way for students and agencies to meet in one place. It saves them [students] shopping time instead of going place to place they can just go around the room.”
There were a number of agencies at the event, but there were also other groups there to help students learn about off-campus housing. Student legal services, Office of Residence Life, the Bowling Green City Fire Department, Municipal Utilities and the Bowling Green Planning Department were all in attendance.
Information was also available to students from the office of Off-Campus Student Services. Rental Guides, lists of agencies, tips for moving off-campus, maps, a sample of a lease, an inventory list and a variety of other items were available according to Folkins.
Sarah Mares, a transfer student, said that the Fair is a good idea.
“I’m sure this will help me decide on a place to live,” Mares said. “I’m going to go home and go through all this stuff.”
Sterling University, one of the newest apartment complexes in Bowling Green, made its second appearance at the Fair.
“It’s been good today. We’ve had a lot of people stop by and ask questions,” said Becky McGraw, assistant manager from Sterling. “We’re simply encouraging them to come out [to the apartments] and take a tour.”
There are a lot of residents renewing their leases at Sterling, but McGraw said that there are still plenty of openings for students and that a wait list has been started.
Sue Clark, a maintenance secretary for Newlove, a participant in the Fair for a number of years, said that yesterday’s event was slow compared to past years.
“Maybe a lot of people aren’t out yet, or they’re in class, or it’s too cold outside,” Clark said.
For Newlove the Fair gets the word out to students about what they have available, but most students don’t sign leases until after the first of the year.
The Fair provides students with the opportunity to learn about all the Realtors that are in Bowling Green, which was the most important aspect for Linda Maenle.
“Well, there’s a group of us from my hometown looking for a house to live next year,” said Maenle. “There were only two Realtors that I’d heard of — Greenbriar and Newlove — I didn’t realize there were so many. We’ve found a lot more houses with the Realtors here today, our options have improved. Also, it is much more convenient for them to all be here, rather than us going around to all of them.”
If there was one improvement students thought could be made to the Fair, it’s that it should occur more than once a year. “Yeah, definitely, they should have this more than once a year,” said Maenle.
According to Folkins, doing the fair more than once a year might not produce good results for Realtors.
“I surveyed the rental agencies and went with the majority who said December. I think that this is the time of year most students sign their leases,” said Folkins. “The results might not be as good at other times of the year, but with changing times you never know.”
