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The effects of Miami University's sophomore on-campus living requirement have dominoed off-campus and are now impacting local realty businesses, leaving many real estate agents with a number of unfilled properties.
According to Mike Everett, manager of CJ Management, realtors have few options of what to do with vacant rental properties. If he is unable to find students to lease out his remaining properties, Everett said he would have to start renting his homes to smaller groups and to families.
Miami junior Kelli Cripps, who leases an off-campus house from CJ Management, said the realty company has yet to find occupants for her house for next school year. According to Cripps, because none of her housemates are renewing the lease on the property for the next school year, her landlord sent her housemates a letter encouraging them to help find new leases.
"The incentive we got was a letter saying we would have a free carpet cleaning if we filled the house for next year," Cripps said.
Everett said he remembers a time when CJ Management did not find itself in this situation, being one of the more popular real estate agencies in Oxford.
Jason Reynolds, an Oxford realtor from milesquarehouses.com, owns 10 houses in Oxford and has been able to find renters for nine of them.
Reynolds said he feels he has had success filling his homes because he only owns 10 and all are in good locations. Reynolds said these factors have given him an advantage over larger realtor agencies.
However, Reynolds said he would still like to have all of his homes filled. According to Reynolds, Miami's new requirement for sophomores to live on-campus is a big reason why he has been unable to find renters for his last house.
"If I had freshmen to market to, I would have had it filled already," Reynolds said.
Reynolds said his past business strategy has been to sign a group of first-years to living in a house, guaranteeing their business for the next three years. Recently, Reynolds said he has begun to receive a few more calls of interest for his last home.
Everett said the nation's current economic state may factor into some students' decisions to commute rather than rent a home. However, Everett said he thinks the economy has had little effect on attracting business since he hasn't raised his prices in three years.
Everett said he feels the new policy imposes upon students who are old enough to make their own decisions about where they want to live.
"I hate to see the university dictate to students at that age," Everett said.
Sophomore Kelsey Horst said most students look for off-campus homes very early in the school year, which makes the house-hunting process all the more frustrating.
"It's pretty stressful because you're just getting settled into life on campus, and all of a sudden you have to think about a house for next year," Horst said.
