Finding a roommate is a great way to mitigate the cost of rent and bills in your rental home. Learn how to find the best roommate, how to meet and get to know each other, and what to do when they move into your home.
Moving into a new house or apartment is thrilling, but it can be expensive. This is why many people choose to live with roommates, whether they own or rent their home. Roommates can help to alleviate the cost of rent or a mortgage. However, when you are looking for a roommate, you should try to find the best one possible. Searching for a roommate that matches your lifestyle, schedule, and level of cleanliness is essential to the success of your relationship. This guide will help you select the best roommate for your needs, including how to find roommates, how to determine if you will enjoy living together, and what to do when you move in.
Be aware that most landlords will still conduct tenant screening on your prospective roommate, so your selection may not be the landlord’s. Some landlords will find roommates of their own accord and place you together, meaning that you may not get to choose your roommate.
Don’t Always Room With Friends or Family
While living with your best friend may sound exciting, it can also be a recipe for building resentment. Friends who share common interests don’t always share common lifestyles, and if your best friend or friends have wildly different lifestyles from you, it could cause issues for you as roommates and potentially ruin the friendship.
If you need to wake up early for work or school, but your friend is a noisy night owl, the impact on your sleep schedule could cause tension between you and them. This same rule applies to cleanliness, social life, and many other aspects of sharing a home with someone. With this in mind, be honest with yourself and your potential roommates about your lifestyle. If you’re a neat and clean introvert who works swing shifts, perhaps your loud, messy best friend who loves their morning workouts is best left living with someone else.
This isn’t necessarily a guarantee that you’ll have trouble with friends, but it does need to be considered. Maybe you both sleep like rocks and won’t be bothered by the other being awake during your sleeping hours, or you can work out a set of rules you can both abide by to balance your lifestyles and needs.
Learn more: Managing Roommates: Landlord Tips for Co-tenancy
Look on Local Forums
Many major cities have Reddit forums or Facebook groups, where you can seek out roommates. Consider posting on one of these forums with information about your home, yourself, and your lease, and set up a time to meet potential roommates. When writing these advertisements, be sure you include plenty of information about your lifestyle and what you’re looking for in a roommate.
Some platforms exist online that specifically cater to finding good roommates in your area, such as Roomies.com and Roommates.com, but you may need the permission of your landlord before you list your room if you are a renter. You can also find people looking for a place to live on these platforms, where you can communicate with them, learn about them, and arrange a meeting. Additionally, if you’re a college student, your university may have a platform for you to find other students you can potentially room with.
Conduct Interviews or Meetings
Before moving in with your roommate, make sure you meet and get to know them. You can do this with simple meetings or a more structured setup, but everyone who would live in the property should meet and feel comfortable around one another. You should use this opportunity to develop a greater understanding of your possible future roommate or roommates’ lifestyle, personality, and occupation. Ensuring that you get along with them is important, as tension in a living situation can be incredibly frustrating and stressful.
Allow your landlord, if you have one, to conduct their own interviews and tenant screening processes. They ultimately have the final say on whether or not someone can move into your home.
Develop Ground Rules and Chore Wheels
When you have found a roommate, and they have moved in, you should start off your relationship with firm ground rules. These should be worked on together to develop a list that ensures all parties’ needs are met. This list of rules should address quiet hours, rules regarding groceries and cooking, housework, sharing of bills, and sharing of amenities.
A chore wheel can be made easily, splitting these tasks into manageable lists. If necessary, you could also create a standing list of chores that separates them into equal amounts of time and effort for each person. This should be another open conversation between you and your roommate. If you do run into trouble with your roommate regarding chores, reassess your split. Maybe you or your roommate has particular chores you like or dislike more than others, and splitting them in that way can be a good way to make it feel more manageable and fair.
Learn more: How to Make a Roommate Chore Wheel | Tips for Renters
Final Thoughts
Finding a great roommate isn’t easy, but it is worthwhile. A good roommate can make your living situation much easier and more enjoyable than a bad one, and in some cases, it can be better than living alone. If you become close to your roommate, you may even end your time living together with a lifelong friendship.
