With October finally making its appearance, the fall season can truly begin. With football games, Halloween parties and chilly nights, there’s a lot to love about autumn. On a more stressful note, October is generally the time when landlords begin opening up leasing for the next school year. With students scrambling to book apartment tours and signing appointments, it could be a wise decision to take a step back for a minute.

While this time of year can feel incredibly stressful, especially if your are a freshman leaving the dorms, make sure to take a breath. Even though it may feel like tons of your friends have already signed, there still will be plenty of options on campus once things settle. There are more important things, like midterms season and self-care, that means housing should not be made into a huge stressor at such an academically important time of the semester. Once you have the stress of school calmed down for a bit, apartment hunting will be a breeze, and you will be glad you waited.

My personal experience with signing for my first apartment was stressful, but I got through it. One of the girls I was meant to room with decided on other options in the middle of our search, so my remaining roommates and I had to tour about four different apartments on the fly. At that moment, I remember being stressed and panicked at what we were going to do. Looking back, however, I know we would not have found our current place without the sudden change. In the end, my roommates and I found a reasonably priced place that we loved, and it worked out for the best. At the time, it may not feel that way, but things will work out the way they need to in the end.

It is much better to take the time to find a place that you love and can agree on with your roommates rather than rushing into signing out of anxiety. That rash decision could end up putting you in a place with tons of problems.

When moving into your first place, added anxiety and maintenance is the last thing you need and can add additional stress between you and your roommates. Doing your research is much more important than just picking a random place early on.

I know plenty of people who signed for their apartments the spring semester or even over the summer. Summertime can have its own advantages to sign because realty companies massively drop rates as an attempt to fill their remaining units. This way, you could potentially be able to afford a more luxurious place that had originally been out of price range.

All in all, try to avoid giving in to the pressure to sign early if you are not ready yet. You might save yourself some headaches and rent money in the process.

Ava is a junior in ACES.

[email protected]