Whitewater’s rental mangers and prospective tenants gathered to meet each other and exchange information at the Housing Fair in the University Center Hamilton Room Tuesday, Oct. 1.

The annual Housing Fair on campus gives students who are looking to live off campus a chance to have most of the landlords in the area in one place and in person, making looking for an apartment easy for those who haven’t done it before or who just aren’t sure what to do.

“It can be a little bit overwhelming for a sophomore or junior looking to move off campus,” said Alayna Mitchell, Whitewater Student Government’s Community and Communications Director. “This gives an opportunity for students to come chat with landlords and figure out what would be ideal for them. It’s a good opportunity where all the landlords are together and you don’t have to work hard to ask these landlords questions, they’re all right there.”

The fair featured a collection of 15 landlords who own and rent out apartments or houses in the Whitewater area and who use the fair as an opportunity to get their name out to students and to future tenants. These renters varied in size and name recognition from larger outfits like HSI Rentals and Stettler properties who own and rent multiple houses and complexes in the area to the maybe less well known renters like Patel Rentals and J&S Properties who don’t rent out as many units.

“We want to put the heads in the beds,” said Tina Hammerstad, Realtor for J&S Properties. “Being that we are new construction, we need these kinds of environments to get our face and name out there, because we aren’t a big HSI or something along those lines, but just a small family owned company.”

Students like junior Emily Peot also found that the fair made it easy to access landlords and talk to them.

“It’s nice to see everyone in one spot,” Peot said. “I think you can ask better questions when you see them face to face, when you’re emailing you can’t always type out what you’re trying to say, so I think it’s beneficial to talk in person.”

For those who missed the housing fair on Tuesday, the UW-Whitewater Housing website also supplies a list of renters in town with contact information and website links.