How can we help?

Listings are published by landlords or by current tenants subleasing under a master lease we’ve seen. We review landlord-submitted ownership documentation before a listing goes live, and listings flagged during review are held for follow-up. You can also report any listing that looks off.

Yes — your renter profile travels with you. Apply to as many as you want with one tap each. You'll see the status of every application in your dashboard.

Massachusetts cities treat anything shorter as a short-term rental, which has different rules and isn't what students need. The 32-day floor keeps every listing on Student Spots in compliance.

Yes — open the listing and tap "Message." Conversations live in-app so you're never handing over your phone number or email to a stranger.

Most leases allow subleasing with written consent. When you publish, we route a one-tap approval to your landlord with the subtenant profile and the master lease pre-attached. If your lease forbids subleasing outright, our flow flags it before publishing.

Your master lease (PDF or photo), proof of school enrollment, and a government ID. You upload these once and they ride along on every future listing.

Re-list in one click — we keep the listing draft warm with all the same details. If a subtenant breaches the signed sublease agreement, the audit trail gives you everything you need to escalate.

Browsing, messaging, and applying are free for students searching for housing. If you’re subleasing your own place, the listing fee is $99 ($49.95 for your first listing) plus a $300 completion fee when an agreement signs — never before. If you’re a landlord listing a unit, there’s no listing fee — you pay a 5% commission on the total rent only when a lease signs through the Platform.

No. Massachusetts has strict deposit-handling rules and we don't want to be a fragile middleman. Whatever your master lease (or new lease) says about deposits is what carries through.

For landlord-listed units, the first month (and optionally last month) routes through Stripe to the landlord's verified account around the day the lease activates. After that, ongoing rent flows directly between tenant and landlord — we don’t touch ongoing rent. For sublets, rent flows under your master lease.

Applying is free — a rejected application costs you nothing. The only optional pre-signing cost is third-party background or credit screening, and only if you choose to run it.

Student Spots doesn’t run background or credit checks itself. If you (or a Host you’re working with) want optional third-party screening, those services are available through the Platform with the provider’s fee shown before authorization (typically $25–$45 per check).

It's our first verification step — it tells landlords you're actually a student. We share your school email only within an active application — not for marketing or with unrelated parties.

Go to your profile → Documents and replace the old file. New applications use the latest version automatically; existing applications keep what you submitted at the time.

Yes. From Settings → Account → Delete account. We retain anonymized lease records for 7 years to comply with Massachusetts housing law, but your personal profile is fully removed within 24 hours.

Yes. Listings can't mention protected characteristics (race, religion, family status, source of income, etc.) — our publishing flow catches those before a listing goes live. If you ever see a listing that violates fair housing, the "Report" button on the listing page goes straight to our compliance team.

Your profile and documents are encrypted at rest and in transit. We share data with a landlord only when you submit an application, and only the fields they need (no SSN, no full DOB unless you explicitly opt-in for credit screening). See the privacy policy for the full breakdown.

Don't. Tap "Report" inside the conversation. Off-platform payment requests are one of the most common scam patterns, and we may de-platform landlords who try it.

Email us at help@studentspots.com or use the in-app chat in the bottom right. Reports about safety or fair-housing get human-reviewed within 24 hours.

In-app chat

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