Alternative Evaluation: According to my interviews with Gainesville Students who lease off campus housing, price and location are the two most important aspects when deciding where to live. Usually, there is a tradeoff in Gainesville between being closer to the school and having to pay more money to rent. Depending on the students budget and specific desires, the student would go online and find options suitable to their search criteria. Once, that has been done, they look at peer reviews and ask friends and family for advice. There has been numerous times people have liked a property but because their friends told them it was not a great place to live, they never looked back. Your property must be appropriately priced, not too far from the school, and have positive word of mouth.
How/ Where you buy: This process is relatively uniform for everyone. If you wanted to sign a lease, you would go to the leasing office, tour the place, and then sign a contract. Most likely, the price would be non-negotiable, especially for places that are commonly sought after in the area.
Post- Purchase: Most of the time when students lease housing, they don't necessarily look for the positives of the home, only that there are not any negatives. For example, if your neighbors are quiet, the internet is reliable, and maintenance is quick and efficient, you could live in a low quality home and still be very happy with your purchase. Whats most important for college students is that everything works, and when they do have a problem, it is resolved in a timely manner.
Conclusion: In conclusion, students look for appropriately priced, relatively close schools with a positive word of mouth. Almost all students use leasing offices to sign a contract for a 12 month lease. As long as the students get what they were promised and do not get bothered excessively, they believe their purchase was a good one.
Good work. The interviews seem to keep backing up your idea. I rent and it is true that I only care about when things get fixed. I live a crappy place but at least everything works.
ReplyDeleteHi Josh,
ReplyDeleteAs someone who rents and would have a potential in being in your market, when looking for my place to live this past year, I just wanted to make sure it was close enough to campus and the rent was cheap enough. When searching for places to live, those were my two biggest criteria and I just used online search engines and property websites which was annoying and a hassle most of the time. So with your product I think you have the buyer behavior figured out which will help later on down the road.
I think that your interviews really helped define your individual vision for your future opportunity, and helped grow on previous feedback to create the most comprehensive analysis. I think maybe understanding different facets of buyer behavior will improve your perspective even further.
ReplyDelete