My lease is up soon and I need a new place to live. I don't know much about the renting scene around here so does anyone have any suggestions on where to live or who to rent from?

I'd like it to be cheap and close to campus, but other than that I'm really not that picky.

as far as single apartments go, look into investment reality http://www.invrelinc.com or go to their office, its right next to tj. ive been looking for a onebed room apt for myself and their the only ones ive run into with decent rates

If you don't mind living with guys, head over to the "For Sale/Wanted to Buy" forum, theres a few people posting rooms for rent (I reccommend Fuzzy's, if he's still got room).

As far as rental companies go, avoid Investment Reality like the plague. I've heard nothing but terrible things about them (not getting things fixed, continually raising rent, being all around pricks, etc.). They by far have the most properties in town, though, so you can find things on the cheap through them.

Century 21 are good, but tend to be a little pricey.

Best thing to do is go to RollaNet.org or the Rolla Daily News (website or actual paper) and look for private people to go through. You'll probably get a nicer place for cheaper than you would through any rental company in town. That's what me and my gf did, and we found a nice two bed place for about 100 bucks a month cheaper than anything Investment Reality, Century 21, or any other rental company in town had to offer.

Yeah I'm renting from Investment Realty right now and they do tend to be a bunch of assholes about everything. But they do have a lot of really cheap places, so it's kind of hard to not rent from them.

I've lived with people before (guys and girls) and I've found that I like living by myself better (less noise, mess, distractions, etc.), but thanks for the tip and if I can't find anything I'll look into it.

Avoid Investment at all costs!

We had given Investment the exact date at which we were going to move out. We were moving our stuff into the new apartment, one car load at a time, and then we planned to clean. A week and a half before we were to move out, Investment called and left a message that they were going to show our apartment. Okay, big deal. Next morning, I arrive to take another car load, and there were movers in there, going through our stuff.

Investment assumed that since we still had stuff in the apartment, we must have run off without cleaning up! If that was so, why would we leave valuables in the apartment? All told, the movers stole over $10,000 worth of stuff. Investment told us several times that the movers had returned everything they took... and then it was "oh yeah, well, we found another box of stuff..." and said that is everything. Then we would find another box that Investment snuck back into the apartment after they said that was everything.

After we cleaned up, we requested to be present for the final walkthrough. Everything was clean, the apartment was in the same shape it was left in. They listed a huge amount of damage and told us they were going to charge us a lot of money to fix up the apartment - they were pissed that we were causing trouble. Well, the previous tenants left us a copy of their initial and final walkthroughs. We showed them the exact items that they listed as damage were on the final and the initial walkthroughs for the previous tenants. These documents were signed by Investment. They said the documents weren't legal because they weren't signed by the previous tenants while in the presence of Investment. So they said that we would still be charged for damage to the apartment.

We talked to a few lawyers, looked up the laws, and found that Investment broke several laws - any one of which could have their real estate license revoked. Those laws include: refusing to repair leaking windows which led to excessive mildew growth on the walls and windowsills (which they then tried to charge us to fix - but we had documented proof that we requested that to be fixed and their inaction led to the damage), they attempted to end our lease before its term without our permission (illegal eviction), they removed private property from the premises by entering without permission (strongarm robbery). Missouri law provides an avenue to collect recompense for these things by suing the landlord. The law actually states that the landlord is to pay TWICE the value of everything stolen to the people they stole from. And they can lose their real estate license.

All told, they returned most of the property but kept the most valuable stuff, like some heirloom silver from my family, some antique jewelry from my wife's grandmother, some electronics (very nice walkie talkies - these were left in the apartment after the final walkthrough, they accused us of leaving them in there and then asking for them back. WTF? We gave them the keys after the walkthrough in which they witnessed that we left nothing in the apartment!). They settled for a little more than the monetary value of what they stole, as well as giving us back our deposit (that's the first I've ever heard of someone getting an Investment deposit back) and not charging us for the "damage." In return, we would not take them to court (a laywer would have taken half the amount anyway - we came out ahead this way). We still have the option of having their real estate license revoked for another two years. I might, if they piss me off. We dealt directly with the owner - he's an asshole. He accused us of lying about the missing stuff. After the dozen times he lied about everything being returned, about the damage to the apartment, etc. Definitely and asshole.

I now rent from Monte Shields (I think the company is called like Shields-Diamond or Hermann-Shields or something). His stuff is a little more expensive, but a big much better. That and if there's a problem, he takes care of it quickly and professionally. I would definitely recommend Monte Shields for anybody renting in Rolla. If you have a roommate or two, it's definitely affordable and much better quality than Investment.

I would hammer the fuckers (investment). I would've got less money so they would have had to pay more... but I hear that I am an asshole.

They got hammered. Not as much as they could have, and probably didn't make a dent in their profits, but let's just say they didn't make any profit from us, at all.

Yes, Investment sucks. I also had problems with getting my deposit back. They did NOT clean the apartment prior to me moving in. (some chinese family had lived there before and the kitchen was covered in a disgusting brown grease from months of open-cookware frying foods and not cleaning up the mess it makes)
I then made a formal complaint about it, and my girlfriend spent hours trying to clean it up. By the time I left the apartment, it was in better condition and of course much cleaner than when I left. They gave me about half my deposit back, saying they had to hire someone to come clean my apartment.
I now rent from Joe Gorman, he works up at that key sports place, and owns or co-owns or something, a few properties, you might go and talk to him, see if he has anything opening up.
So far I have had absolutely no complaints about him, dont really see him too much unless one of my roomates forgets to pay rent or something. But his prices are very reasonable, and is pretty quick to take care of any problems with the houses, even non-critical stuff. He even reduced our rent a month when one of our roomates went away for a co-op, which turned into a job I guess and just stopped paying rent, so that really helped us out that month.

We rent from Monte Shields, he's not bad. They're not always the quickest to fix things, but for the most part stuff gets done (that's not too expensive), and we never hear from them, which is great. They are worth checking out. I know that he has a couple of places for rent at least, because one of his properties is right next to my place.

You might want to try Dale Wands too, we rent from him and he seems to be a great landlord so far. Laid back guy, we almost never see him, and he really dosen't care if your rent is a day late. You have to bug him a little bit to get stuff fixed sometimes, but besides that he is great.

How do I get in touch with these people? Especially Shields because I've heard a lot of nice things about him so far.

Right now it looks like I'll be renting the basement apartment over at 1204 Elm from Investment. No one knows anything about that place do they?

I can get you a number when I get back to school tomorrow, but his office is right across the street from the Fed Ex building on Twitty Drive. It's some rental storage place.