Guides
Housing Guides
Our moderators review thousands of housing posts every day. These guides collect what we've learned about finding a place through Facebook groups, choosing roommates, signing a first lease, moving to a new city, spotting rental scams and staying safe while you search.
How to Find Housing Before You Move to a New City
When to start, how to pick a neighborhood from afar, remote video tours, verifying landlords and applying from out of town before your move.
Read the guideHow to Find a Roommate You Can Actually Live With
Where to find a roommate, what to ask before you commit, how to split rent fairly by room size, and what to put in a roommate agreement.
Read the guideHow Facebook Housing Groups Work
How Facebook housing groups work: joining, membership checks, post review, why posts are declined, searching, contacting posters and staying safe.
Read the guideRenting Your First Apartment: Applications, Leases and Move-in Costs
What your first apartment really costs, the documents to prepare, getting approved with no credit, lease clauses to check and protecting your deposit.
Read the guideOff-Campus Housing for Students: A Semester-by-Semester Timeline
When students should choose roommates, tour, sign and sublet, semester by semester, plus budgeting, summer leases and study abroad.
Read the guideRenting as an International Student
How international students rent in the US without an SSN or credit history: documents, guarantors, safe payment and temporary housing.
Read the guideHow to Find an Apartment in Facebook Housing Groups
A step-by-step guide to finding an apartment, room or sublet through Facebook housing groups: which groups to join, how to search, what to put in your post and how to verify a landlord.
Read the guideHow to Write a Housing Post That Gets Approved
What Housing Rocket moderators check before approving a post, the details every listing needs, copy-and-paste templates for rooms, sublets and roommate searches, and the reasons posts get rejected.
Read the guideHow to Find a Sublet or Roommate on Facebook Safely
How to screen a roommate or subletter you met in a Facebook housing group: verifying profiles, video calls, written agreements, safe payments and the red flags that mean walk away.
Read the guideDetect Facebook Housing Scams
Learn the red flags of fake Facebook profiles in housing groups: mismatched names and URLs, suspicious likes, and accounts that join dozens of city groups.
Read the guideHow To Avoid Housing Scams
Practical steps to avoid rental scams: meet the landlord for a tour in person, verify who actually controls the property, and recognize fake tours.
Read the guideScammed Online. Now What?
Scammed by a rental listing? Here's what to do next: contact the police, report it to Facebook and the group admins, and file complaints with the FTC and IC3.
Read the guideThe Top Craigslist Housing Scams
The most common Craigslist rental scams, including fake landlords, fake listings, and identity theft, and how to recognize them before you pay a deposit.
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