Community Housing

Housing Listings Access to the Rental Listings How to Submit a Listing Listing Policies

Community Housing: Housing Listings

The Stanford housing listing database at www.Places4Students.com contains all current housing opportunities listed for Stanford affiliates through the Community Housing office. It includes rental listings of available rooms, apartments, cottages, duplexes, houses, condominiums, townhouses, house-/pet-sitting positions, and work exchanges in the communities surrounding Stanford.

We welcome anyone in the community to submit a rental housing listing; however, access to these listings is restricted to current and incoming Stanford students, faculty, staff, postdocs, and visiting scholars and researchers.

Search for Housing Listings

There are two ways to access the rental listings. Current Stanford affiliates will need to use their Stanford email address to create a user account with Places4Students. When you get to the home page, click on the "Students" box in the upper right corner (you will log in as a student regardless of your status at Stanford) and register for an account. This user account will allow you to access the restricted rental listings through the Places4Students website. Incoming Stanford affiliates who do not yet have a Stanford email address will need to request a temporary user name and password in order to access the rental listings. In order to get a user name and password, incoming Stanford affiliates will have to provide proof of Stanford affiliation.

Submit a New Housing Listing

To submit a rental listing, please create a landlord account with Places4Students.com. Once the account is activated, you can create rental listings, upload photographs, update your listings, and deactivate your listings. The fees to list a rental are as follows: $25 for a single-unit general ad, $35 for a single-unit featured ad, $50 for a multiple-unit general ad, and $70 for a multiple-unit featured ad. You can list online at www.Places4Students.com or call 1-866-766-0767.

Community Housing: Access to the Rental Listings

Use of the of the Community Housing rental listings posted through Places4Students is restricted to current and incoming Stanford students, faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars, and visiting scholars and researchers.

To access the restricted sections of the site, current Stanford affiliates must use their Stanford email address to create a "student" account on www.Places4Students.com. Incoming Stanford affiliates must request a temporary ID through the Community Housing office. This temporary username and password is NOT a Stanford email address.

To receive your temporary user name and password, please send a copy of your proof of Stanford affiliation to the Community Housing office. You may e-mail it to studenthousing@stanford.edu.

Whenever possible, proof of affiliation must be in the form of a written document from Stanford University to you. Possible documents include letters of admission, job offers, and letters welcoming visiting scholars or researchers to a department, or Stanford identification cards. Exceptions would include forwarded e-mail messages that are clearly from Stanford, and medical resident matching sheets that show the dates of residency.

If you have any questions, contact the staff at Community Housing.

Community Housing: How to Submit a Listing

Rental Listing Service

Stanford partners with Places4Students to provide an online rental listing system to the Stanford community. To submit a listing and find a Stanford-affiliated tenant, you will need to go through Stanford's official rental listing service - Places4Students. This online service allows property owners and managers to create, edit, manage, and maintain their advertisements. Photographs can also be uploaded and attached to the rental listings. Everything can be done online, at your convenience. After a housing listing has been created, it will be reviewed by a Places4Students customer service representative before being posted.

For those who are unable to enter rental listings online or anyone with questions about how to list a rental, Places4Students has a toll free customer service number that you can call on weekdays: 1-866-766-0767.
Hours are from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday (Pacific Standard Time). The Places4Students office is in Ontario, Canada, which is on Eastern Standard Time.

The viewing of rental listings is restricted to direct Stanford affiliates. In order to view the rental listings, a Stanford affiliate will have to register using a Stanford email account or provide proof of Stanford affiliation in order to receive temporary login credentials.

Cost to List with Places4Students

The fee to advertise for a 28-day period is as follows:

$25 - single-unit "general" advertisement
$35 - single unit :"featured" advertisement
$50 - multi-unit "general" advertisement
$70 - multi-unit "featured" advertisement

Payment can be made online by MasterCard or Visa, or by money order. However, please note that paying by money order can delay the posting of the rental listing, as payment must be received before the ad is posted.

Create an Account

In order to place your rental listings, you will need to register as a new landlord through the Places4Students web site. Simply click on the "Landlords" box in the upper right corner of the home page, and go to "Register." Once you are registered, you can add, modify, and remove your listings online. You will also be able to track how many times your rental listing has been viewed by Stanford-affiliated prospective tenants.

Listing Categories

There is no separate Work Exchange category. Work exchanges should be listed under the category of housing that is to be provided, but "Work Exchange" or "Partial Work Exchange" should be included in the listing title.

Listing Policies

All listings and property owner/manager policies and practices must comply with landlord/tenant laws and fair housing laws. Any property owner, manager, or landlord not in compliance with the law may be banned from listing rentals through this service.

To access the restricted sections of the site, you must be a Stanford affiliate. Current Stanford affiliates must use their Stanford email addresses to create a "Student" account on www.Places4Students.com.

Community Housing: Listing Policies

Modification of Existing Listings

You may change your listing as needed to reflect current availability and circumstances. You will modify your listing through your Places4Students landlord account online.

Non-Discrimination

Community Housing is a Fair Housing Advocate. Listings may not contain discriminatory language or implied meaning. All rentals listed through this office must be open to students, faculty, staff, and visiting scholars and researchers at Stanford University. Community Housing reserves the right to edit, reclassify, or reject any listing.

Guest Policies

Community Housing office policy is to not accept listings for rentals where overnight guest or visitors are not allowed. Reasonable limits may be in place, but must allow quiet enjoyment of the property which the tenant is renting as his/her home.

Cancellations

Please do not cancel your listing as rented until you are sure that it is rented (i.e. you have a signed rental agreement and have received any security deposit). You will cancel your listing through your Places4Students online account. Once you take down the listing, you will not be able to re-post it without paying a new listing fee.

Refusal of Listings

Community Housing reserves the right to refuse listings submitted by landlords who establish a pattern of conflict with tenants or refusal to comply with landlord-tenant law, standard rental housing practices, or Community Housing office policies.

The office maintains a file of letters from tenants detailing problems and complaints about their landlords, as well as any responses from the landlords involved. Depending on the severity of the alleged problem, a landlord may be de-listed immediately or after up to three letters of complaint have been received.

The reason for this policy is that Community Housing exists to assist Stanford affiliates in filling a basic but very important need (finding housing) so that they may be free to pursue their academic endeavors. We must not knowingly place them in situations which will hinder their progress.