h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't know if this has been said before, but my student house (rented) has been passed from friends to friends for at least three years now. Its in an okay location, medium priced, I think the landlady is quite good, and we only have one slight problem with it.
It was good knowing the people who lived there before because we got access to the landlady before it went on the market, we got to leave stuff in there before our contract started because we knew the people who were moving out, and we got to know all the little idiosyncracies of the house because the people were our friends. Also because of the friend factor the price didn't get put up when we moved in
My advice to students is, if you know people who are living in rented accomodation already, find out if they like their house etc, and if its a good house ask for the landlord/lady's number as soon as possible. Make sure they were planning to be listed with your university's accomodation office if you get at them before they put the advert in, because the accomodation office would force them to meet various criteria, and obviously don't slack over checking out certificates for all of the appliances (especially gas).