A Special Note for Parents

Dear Parents,

Welcome to our Ithaca Renting Company Web Site! We hope that you will take some time to look over the information that we have posted here, in order to help your student son or daughter make a thoughtful decision about housing for the upcoming year.

By using the links on this web site, you will find drop-down menus to the leases, pricing pages, FAQs and our 324 individual units. Clicking on the photos for each individual building will take you directly to that particular building’s page, where you can find information about the specific locations, as well as floor plans and links to our Photo Galleries where we have thousands of snapshots of the apartments posted, or browse a by individual unit.

You may be hearing from your student son or daughter that the housing rush is on, and if an apartment for next year is not secured within the next 24 hours that there will be no apartments left and they will have no choices and that all the best choices will be gone. This is absolutely not true. This frenzy is self-imposed by the student population, and we hope that you will encourage your son or daughter to make a more deliberate and well-planned decision for next year.

We have space for over 600 students right in the most premium central Collegetown locations in popular locations. We believe that it is fair and reasonable to offer our current tenants an opportunity to renew their apartments and make their decisions about upgrading to other apartments within the Ithaca Renting Company portfolio before we offer the remaining apartments to prospective new tenants. This does take some time, and we are working hard to make sure that all tenants are contacted and that no one is overlooked. Our student tenants have just moved in to their apartments and have barely had an opportunity to get settled in to their new homes, so we do need some time to contact everyone and make sure that we have received all of the responses from our current tenants. All of the students here at Cornell are so busy with their academic commitments that this process does take some time to complete. There will be enough high-quality, premium location apartments to go around. If your student son or daughter is very eager to rent an apartment right away, we do encourage groups that are ready to start shopping during our Preview Week and to choose their new apartments on our Opening Day. The first students to choose their apartments do have more options available, but we will still have great choices in many locations even after our Opening Day!

About Preview Week Tours: about a week before we start renting apartment for the next year, we will begin having open tours to several of our most popular styles and sizes of apartments. These tours will be on Tuesdays through Saturdays in the afternoons, and will be at pre-set times selected by the Rental Office. The weekly tour schedule will be posted each week, and this schedule does change each week. The tours will typically go to the sizes and styles where we have multiple units for the students to choose from, for example Collegetown Plaza Studio, 2, 4, and 6 Bedroom apartments, Collegetown Court Studio, 3, 4, and 5 Bedroom Apartments, Collegetown Center Studio and 2 Bedroom apartments. For all other locations, where we have a more limited supply and we are unsure if a certain group may be renewing their same apartment, these tours will be offered later and on a less frequent basis. All tours meet at our Rental Office at 119 Dryden Road. Latecomers cannot be accommodated, and please note that especially during the first few weeks of tours, we do cap the tours at a maximum size of about 10 students per tour. Tours will go to one apartment at a time. It is important to carefully look at the tour schedule to see what times and locations the tours are offered. Students may come to more than one tour, and will sign in at our office for each tour they attend. They sign up at our office at the time of the tour, there is no pre-registration and the tours are first-come, first served. It is possible that students may see a different style of apartment than they eventually choose. Students are encouraged, but not required to attend a tour. Many students have friends within the buildings and have seen the apartments and buildings by visiting their friends and don’t need to go on our of our tours, or have seen the photo galleries and can make their decisions based on our extensive photo collections. We appreciate the fact that the students are very busy, which is why we have been adding as many pictures as possible to the photo galleries that are available to view 24 hours a day on line. All tours visit occupied apartments, and our tour schedule is set so that we offer a variety of tours to some of our most popular apartments. We want our student tenants to be able to live comfortably in their apartments with a minimum of disruption, so it is important to give proper notice of the tours and to limit the size of groups that we take to the occupied apartments. Because the apartments are occupied, we do not allow any sort of photography inside the apartments. We hope that you will appreciate the considerations we make to our current tenants, and think ahead to when your son or daughter may be living in one of our apartment units and enjoy a more professional and carefully planned program for tours to their future apartment.

About Leases: We encourage parents to stay in contact with us and ask questions! Especially for larger groups, we want to make sure that all group members and their families understand the lease commitment ahead of time. It is typical for parents to contact each other to discuss financial expectations for the joint and several lease that the students will sign. The students living in the apartments will sign the actual lease, and all parents will be required to sign a separate form which guarantees the lease for their student son or daughter. The group should consider other expenses and the payment terms before making a final commitment to any apartment. The start date of the lease should be carefully considered. All payments are expected in advance of the lease dates in quarterly lump-sum payments. Students planning to pay for their apartments with any sort of financial aid disbursements should carefully evaluate their financial aid package and amounts to see if off-campus living is even feasible. We do not offer alternate payment plans, monthly payment plans, and Cornell does not pay us directly for your apartments. Of greatest importance for students with financial aid are making sure the apartment chosen fits in your budget, making sure you do not choose an apartment that starts in June, as the payment dates are earlier and do not match up with your potential financial aid disbursement, and making sure that there is a source of money available during the summer months for the first quarterly payment which will be due. We also offer a 4% discount for any family who would like to pay for the entire year’s rent in advance.

About Opening Day: On our Opening Day, we start renting to new groups who are ready to make their apartment selections! Each group will need to make a payment of one month rent by check or cash (no credit or debit cards are accepted). All apartments are rented on a first-come, first-served basis. At the time an apartment is secured, the payment is due, but we can make arrangements to sign the complete lease within a few days of securing the apartment. That way, a group can secure an apartment as soon as they have their payments ready, even if a group member has a class or other commitment.  The first groups in line will have the most choices, but remember, we have a variety of units in our premium Collegetown locations for many different group sizes. Each group makes their decision based on very individual factors, including price, starting date, building, size, location within the building, friends in various buildings and many other things. All of these things are important to consider, and we have many different choices in apartments!

Important Dates:

Ongoing: Information gathering prospective new tenants and their families. Contact us any time!

September 4-11 Preview Tours. We will pre-select several of our most popular sizes and styles to start tours in advance of our opening day.

Thursday, September 12 Opening Day. We open at 9 am for groups to secure leases on new apartments. We will have a large quantity of units available. Groups need to be ready with their apartment selection and payment (check or cash only).

Starting September 13: Our regular full tour schedule will begin, and we will continue to rent apartments on an ongoing basis. Groups should look at our tour schedule to see when specific units are being toured (remember to always meet at our office for tours!), and be sure to consult parents and ask all questions before you make your final decision. Our tours are pre-set approximately one week in advance, so if you are trying to schedule to see a particular style of unit, please call well in advance.

We hope that this answers some of your questions, and that you enjoy your virtual visit to the Collegetown neighborhood and our Ithaca Renting Company properties here at our web site! Please contact us if you would like additional information!