Every industry has its own language, and this one uses it on your lease. Here's what the words actually mean, in the order you're likely to meet them.
Jump to: Shopping & signing · Money & obligations · Living there & leaving
PBSA (purpose-built student housing). Private apartment communities built specifically for students: furnished, leased by the bed, heavy on amenities. What most "luxury student living" buildings are. Full explainer here.
Individual lease / by-the-bed lease. Your kid leases their bedroom; each roommate signs separately. If a roommate stops paying, that's not your problem. The standard in PBSA.
Joint lease. One lease, everyone liable for everything, including each other. Standard at houses and conventional apartments. The most important distinction on this page.
Prelease / prelease percentage. The share of next year's beds already signed. Properties track it obsessively. It's why "we're 70% preleased" is a sales line in October.
Occupancy. How full the building is right now, this school year. Different number from prelease. A property can be 100% occupied and badly behind on prelease, which is exactly when deals appear.
Heads in beds. The industry's own shorthand for its entire business model: every bed filled, every year, no exceptions. When you understand that this is the metric everyone's bonus rides on, every sales tactic you encounter suddenly makes sense.
Lease-up. A brand-new building's first leasing season, signing residents before construction even finishes. Lease-ups offer the most aggressive deals in the market, and carry one real risk: late delivery. Always ask what happens if the building isn't ready by move-in, and get it in writing.
Delivery / new supply. New buildings opening in a market. A year with lots of deliveries means more beds than usual competing for the same students, which softens prices everywhere. Worth a Google before you sign early.
Comp set. The nearby competitors each property benchmarks against, usually weekly. It's why prices across similar buildings cluster together, and why "we're priced below our comps" is a phrase you might hear on a tour.
Guest card. The lead record created the moment you inquire or tour. It's why the texts and emails start immediately. You're not in an inbox; you're in a sales pipeline with scheduled follow-ups.
Premiums. Add-ons to the base rate for specific units: higher floors, pool views, corner units, larger bedrooms. Two beds in the same building can differ by real money, so always ask what the premium is for the specific unit.
Bed-bath parity. A unit where every bedroom has its own bathroom (4 bed/4 bath). The PBSA gold standard, and part of what you're paying for versus an older unit where roommates share.
VIP rate / early rate. Discounted pricing for the first signers when leasing launches in the fall. Usually the lowest rates of the entire season.
Rate tier. Scheduled price increases through the leasing season. The advertised rate in January is typically higher than October's, for the same bed.
Dynamic pricing. The newer reality on top of rate tiers: many properties now reprice weekly or even daily based on demand, the way airlines price seats. Tuesday's quote may not exist Friday. Get every rate and special in writing with an expiration date.
Short-term lease. A 5- or 9-month lease term offered at many communities for an additional monthly fee on top of the base rate. Rarely advertised, genuinely useful for December grads, spring arrivals, and study-abroad semesters. Ask directly whether it's offered and what the premium is.
Look-and-lease special. A discount (waived fees, gift card) for signing within a day or two of touring. Real savings, but it's also an urgency tool; don't let it skip your homework.
Concession. Any freebie used to fill beds: a month free, waived fees, gift cards. Concessions blooming in fall = a soft market or a struggling property. Concessions in late spring = normal end-of-season clearance.
Model unit. The professionally decorated showroom you tour. Usually it's the only unit that CAN be shown: the rest are occupied, down for repairs, or not yet cleaned. Ask to walk the actual floor plan or view anyway (when a yes is possible, it goes to the families who asked), and fill the gap with resident photos on Google reviews and the campus subreddit, remembering that people mostly post the worst. More on the tour page.
Down unit. A unit temporarily out of inventory, offline for repairs or used for storage. One quiet reason the office can't just show you an empty apartment on request.
Renewal. Re-signing for another year in the same community, offered to current residents each September, often at the year's best pricing, on a short deadline.
Guarantor. The person, almost always a parent, who legally promises to pay if the student doesn't. Must typically pass income and credit checks. "Co-signer" is the casual word; guarantor is what the lease says.
Guaranty. The document the guarantor signs. Read it as carefully as the lease; it defines exactly what you're on the hook for and for how long.
Guarantor waiver fee. An extra fee that lets a student lease without a guarantor. Common option for international families.
Third-party guarantor service. A company that acts as guarantor for a fee. Compare its cost against the waiver fee before choosing.
Installments. The annual lease total divided into 12 equal payments. Not "monthly rent": if your student moves in mid-August, the August installment is usually still a full one.
Utility cap. The monthly utility allowance included per bed. Usage over the cap gets billed back, split among roommates. Summer AC is where caps go to die.
Damage waiver / DWP. A nonrefundable monthly fee replacing a refundable deposit, often built into the lease with no opt-out (some companies call it an IWP). It covers damage to the property, not your kid's belongings. Friendlier-sounding, frequently more expensive over the term. Full fee stack decoded here.
Renters insurance. The policy that covers what the damage waiver doesn't: your child's laptop, phone, bike, and personal liability. Basic student policies often run under $15 a month. Most claims we see are crimes of opportunity, an unlocked front door or a laptop left visible in a car, so pair the policy with the habit.
Credit reporting fee. A monthly fee, usually $5 to $11, for reporting rent payments to the credit bureaus. Marketed as "Rent Reporting" or "Credit Builder," sometimes bundled into a "resident benefits package." Can genuinely build your student's credit, but ask whether it's optional and whether late payments get reported too.
All-in cost. Base rate plus every recurring fee. The only number that should ever be used to compare two properties.
Roommate matching. The questionnaire-and-algorithm process that pairs strangers into a unit. The more honestly your kid fills it out (sleep schedule, cleanliness, guests), the better it works. Insider tip: let your college-bound kid fill it out alone. We watch students answer the way their parent hovering next to them wants, "no guests, in bed by 11", and then they're upset all year about a match that was never based on who they actually are.
Turn / turn week. The days between one lease year and the next, when every vacated bed in the building is inspected, repaired, cleaned, and re-keyed at once. Why move-in day looks the way it does.
Emergency maintenance. The after-hours line is for real emergencies: active flooding, no heat in a freeze, no AC in a heat wave, a lockout, a safety issue. Teach your kid the difference before move-in: a roach at 2am is not an emergency, it's a work order for the morning. Kids who learn this get faster service all year, because the office flags the residents who cry wolf.
Move-in inspection. The condition report filed at move-in. Twenty minutes of photos here is what protects you from damage charges a year later.
Relet. The property-managed exit: a new student is found for the bed, signs their own lease with the property, and once that lease starts, your student (and your guaranty) are released. Usually costs a relet fee, and the property must approve the replacement. Since buyouts rarely exist in student housing, this is the realistic way out.
LTO / lease takeover. Same destination as a relet, different driver: your kid finds the replacement themselves, often through campus Facebook groups or roommate boards, and the property transfers or rewrites the lease into the new student's name. Once the paperwork is done, your family is off the hook. Get the release in writing before your child hands over keys; until the property signs off, nothing has legally changed.
Sublease / sublet. The one that does NOT release you. The original lease stays in your kid's name and your guaranty stays live; the subtenant just pays your college-bound kid, who still owes the property either way. If the subtenant stops paying or trashes the room, that's your problem. Most properties prohibit subleasing entirely, and they prefer the clean break too: ending the old lease and writing a fresh one puts any later damage on the new resident. If you remember one distinction on this page: relets and takeovers end your obligation, sublets don't.
Early termination. The lease section that says what happens if your kid needs out. Read it before signing. In student housing the honest answer is usually: you relet, or you keep paying.
Waitlist. The line for a full property. Waitlists genuinely move in summer as cancellations and no-shows shake out, so joining one in July isn't hopeless.
Hit a term we haven't covered? Ask the insiders and we'll add it to the list.
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