WashU Apartment Checklist: Questions Before Signing

Before your student signs a lease, make sure they can answer these questions.

✓ Who handles maintenance, and how fast? 

✓ Has anyone who’s lived there left a review? 

✓ Is shuttle access available if they don’t have a car?

By Ben Flicker, Founder of Proximity

 

Summary: Most WashU students sign an off-campus lease without ever hearing from someone who’s lived in the building. This is a parent’s checklist of questions every student should be able to answer before signing, plus the context on WashU’s housing timeline and off-campus options.

Here’s a pattern that plays out every spring at WashU. A junior finds an apartment, loves it, signs the lease, and moves in before anyone has thought to ask even the most basic questions about the building, the landlord, or the neighborhood. It’s not carelessness – it’s just that nobody handed them a checklist. Consider this yours.

Where your student is in the housing timeline

WashU now requires freshmen and sophomores to live on campus, so for underclassmen, the question is which dorm, not which apartment. First-years rank preferences across six room types: modern or traditional, and single, double, or triple. Modern dorms are newer builds with suite-style bathrooms. Traditional halls have the classic corridor layout with communal bathrooms. Neither is better. It depends on your student’s personality and sleep schedule.

Rising sophomores rank the same modern or traditional, and single, double, or triple preferences, with one extra choice: South 40 or the Village (WashU’s primary housing area for sophomores and juniors).

Proximity’s campus hub has verified student reviews filtered by room type, actual opinions from students who’ve actually lived there. Find it at useproximity.org/CampusHub.

Junior year is when it gets more complicated. Sophomores rank specific dorms, but with WashU enrollment at its second-highest point in school history, more juniors are getting pushed out of their top picks. Many choose to go off-campus. WashU charges up to $19,500 per year for on-campus housing, up 15% in just three years. Off-campus students consistently pay $9,600 to $12,000 annually. The gap can be $7,000 or more per year.

Off-campus housing near WashU falls into four categories. Units by Delmar Loop are small, walkable buildings close to campus and the social scene. Loop complexes are purpose-built Delmar Loop apartments with amenities like pools and gyms, and are typically the most expensive option. Neighborhood complexes in areas like the Central West End or Clayton tend to have the nicest finishes, but they’re farther out. Shuttle access matters if your student doesn’t have a car. Scattered houses offer the most space and character, and landlord vetting is especially important here.

The financial case for going off-campus is strong. But the savings only hold if your student signs a good lease, in a well-managed building, with a landlord who actually shows up when something goes wrong.

The checklist

We surveyed 500+ WashU students on how they find housing. No single method dominated. Most sign a lease without ever hearing from someone who’s actually lived in the building. Before your student does, make sure they can answer these.

Have your student screenshot this or save it on their phone before their next apartment showing.

Questions for the landlord

• Who handles maintenance requests, and what’s the typical response time?
• What’s the policy if something breaks?
• Is the landlord local, or is this managed by a property company?
• Which utilities are included, and which aren’t?
• What does the lease say about subleasing? (if applicable)
• How much is the security deposit, and what’s the typical return amount?
• Is a guarantor or co-signer required, and who qualifies?
• What’s the building’s entry and security setup?

Questions for anyone who’s lived there

• How was the landlord when something actually went wrong?
• Is the neighborhood safe?
• Were there noise, pest, or building issues that weren’t mentioned upfront?
• How ready was the apartment on move-in day?
• Would they live there again?

Hearing from someone who’s actually lived there is the hardest thing to get in a standard apartment search. It’s exactly what Proximity’s verified student reviews of apartments near WashU are built for. WashU-specific listings, honest peer reviews of dorms and off-campus apartments, and a free personalized housing match for students who want help narrowing it down.

Get a free housing match at useproximity.org/matchmaking, or browse verified WashU listings and reviews at useproximity.org.

I’m Ben Flicker, a sophomore at WashU, and like most students here, I had to figure out off-campus housing the hard way.

When I started my search, I was bouncing between Zillow, Facebook groups, Apartments.com, and random landlord websites just to see what was available near campus. Listings were outdated, landlords ghosted me, and there was no way to compare apartments side by side on the things that actually matter to students — like how far it is from campus, whether semester lease terms were available, or if other students lived nearby.

The worst part? There were no reviews. No way to hear from students who’d actually lived in these places. I wanted to know whether the landlord was responsive, whether the apartment matched the listing, and what the experience was really like. You’d sign a lease and just hope for the best.

I talked to friends, classmates, and random WashU students and heard the same story over and over. So I built Proximity, a single platform where WashU students can browse off-campus listings near campus, filter by what actually matters, read honest reviews from other students, and make a confident decision without the chaos.

Proximity is the tool I wish existed when I started looking.