Assignment 7A - Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Housing Issues for Students in Gainesville, FL

• Opportunity:
• Every year, students at the University of Florida deal with housing problems in two forms: (1) their lease ends before the summer term lets up (2) they can’t find suitable short-term leases 
• The who: University of Florida students 
• The what: They need housing during summer term or need short term leases because they will not need to be in Gainesville for an entire year 
• The why: There are not a lot of housing options with flexible leases
• Testing the who: Though I cannot speak for other universities, I do know any college students in Gainesville have this problem. This includes University of Florida students and Santa Fe College students. 
• Testing the what: The boundaries of the opportunity are limited to those who need a flexible lease. For instance if someone is planning on living in Gainesville for a whole year and they have resigned their apartment for the following year, they will not get kicked out or have to pay for a term in which they are not in Gainesville. 
• Testing the why: This opportunity exists for a few reasons. For instance, apartments have a strict lease cutoff date at August 1st even though some people are still in Gainesville taking finals because they must prepare for the next set of lessees. The two weeks from August 1st to the start of Fall semester are critical for the apartments as they must repaint, clean, etc. This prevents them from being able to be flexible with the lease. I think the opportunity regarding students who do not need a one-year lease exists because apartments do not want to have the obligation to find students mid-year to lease. It is more profitable for them to make people be liable for a year. 
• Interview #1
• For this interview, I interviewed a freshman named Mark. He said that he has signed an apartment for next year but did have to commit to signing a year-long lease. Mark expressed that while this was not convenient because he will not need the apartment next summer since he already did a summer B term. He hopes to sublet but understands that this doesn’t always happen, so he is prepared to be liable for the rent payments. 
•  Interview #2 
• This interview was conducted with someone who is graduating this December whose name I will not be mentioning. He used to live close to campus for the past four years but relocated out by Archer for this year. He expressed that the situation is not ideal since he spends a lot of time waiting for the bus, but had no other choice since a lot of other places would’ve made him sign a year-long lease. The one he is living at right now, despite its distance, offers flexible leases. 
• Interview #3 
• I interviewed my current roommate who will be unnamed. She lived in a dorm last year and planned on doing her summer term this past summer. She did not want to move from her sublease to the apartment we signed this year, so she worked something out with the apartment complex that would let her move into the unit for summer and stay through this academic year. She expressed that though they worked with her on this for her convenience, she had to sacrifice some things. For instance, they did not clean the apartment or provide any staff personnel to help her move in as they would have if she moved in on a specific day. 
• Interview #4 
• For this interview, I made sure to interview someone who had a different perspective from us students. I interviewed someone who works in the leasing office of my apartment complex. During this interview, the staff (who will remain unnamed) reaffirmed my reasoning that they must have strict leases in order to clean and paint. 
• Interview #5 
• For this interview, I interviewed one of my friends who was kicked out of his apartment before Summer C ended this past summer, Connor. He said he crashed on a friends’ couch, but it was not ideal. Connor mentioned that his new apartment complex allowed him to move in a few days early but could not help him out during finals time. He plans on resigning to avoid this problem next summer. 
• Given your interviews, what do you know about the opportunity that you didn't know before? 
• The interviews gave me some new perspective as well as affirming some of my earlier beliefs. For instance, interviewee #3 was able to find a situation that best suited her situation that I did not know was a possible solution. Though it would only be suitable for that specific situation, it was an interesting alternative. 
• The other interviews provided some insight of problems that I thought existed. They reaffirmed the reason for strict leases as well as reiterated common problems regarding housing. 
• The interview that I found most valuable is interview #2. The person in that interview was able to find a short-term lease at the cost of convenience. So then the question becomes: “Is the added convenience worth the alternative solution?”