Spring semester is weeks away. Housing complexes are beginning to fill up and costs are increasing. College students can find it difficult trying to decide where to commit the next couple months of eating, sleeping and studying. Raterexburghousing.com is a website created to helping the decision-making process.

Raterexburghousing.com was founded in winter 2008 by two BYU-Idaho students, Matt Stephens and Eli Stevens, who “felt that student housing in Rexburg was too confusing.” Prior to Rate Rexburg Housing’s creation, the only source for information was the school’s Web site. That didn’t provide all the information that these two students were looking for.

Rate Rexburg Housing allows current BYU-I students to register using their school email address. Once registered, students can rate and comment on approved apartment complexes in Rexburg. There are six different ratings a student can look at: quality, location, parking, ward, management and price.

Students do not have to register to view what others have said about the approved apartments and houses in Rexburg. Just by visiting the Web site, students can compare housing and see a 360-degree virtual tour of complexes. Some apartment complexes allow students to purchase their housing contract through raterexburghousing.com.

Since its 2008 premiere, Rate Rexburg Housing has become extremely popular.

“We constantly get emails from students telling us how much they like the site and what they'd like to see from it in the future. We just want to be whatever it is that the students want with regards to housing,” said Stephens, a recent BYU-I graduate, “Rate Rexburg Housing embraces the idea that if there is something of value in the site, then the popularity and utility of the site will grow because people will care about it. A word from a friend is worth a thousand from an ad.”

Rate Rexburg Housing is currently expanding their Web site and working to make it an applicable resource to married students as well.

“We are currently gathering surveys for married housing by going door-to-door, collecting ratings from actual tenants living at those apartments,” Stephens said.

The site will also be adding a bulletin board feature. These new additions are currently being worked on and should be launched sometime in late June or early July. RateProvoHousing.com is also under construction and will be launching this summer.      

Rate Rexburg Housing is currently looking for semester long interns to help maintain the site and participate in future marketing campaigns. Anyone interested can email raterexburghousing@gmail.com for more information.