5 Steps to finding a perfect roommate
Sharing your house or apartment can be the best thing you ever do and open up a new social world but sometimes can be a nightmare if personality clashes exist. So – if you have a spare room to rent out these five tips should help ensure that you make the right choice in your new house mate or room mate and ensure that your happy house continues!
Step 1 – Get the word out!
There are numerous websites on the internet dedicated to classifieds listing and housemate matchmaking. Create a listing on one or more of them.
Before you do this, research the sites thoroughly as some may charge you certain fees, and more likely charge people to contact you so you may be wasting your time. On the flipside, many such as href="http://www.ihouseshare.com/">ihouseshare.com are free and will still do the trick.
Ensure that your house share advert is totally truthful. When you describe the house make sure you let prospective housemates know that the 42” plasma TV is included, yet the dishwasher is a bit dodgy and there is only one bathroom for everyone to share, and it is also in need of a little decoration.
If Billy in the upstairs room works night shifts and that Jenny spends most weekends at illegal raves, make that clear also. This is your ideal and best opportunity to attract the right people, yet also deter those who may not be suited for your house, saving yourself and others time and effort.
Step 2 – Make the call
The next step is to conduct what can only be seen as a telephone interview. Gut instinct will feature heavily here. Only you and your current housemates know who will fit nicely into your house share or flat share and a quick telephone will assist here.
A two minute call just to confirm a few answers about why they are moving, what they do for a living and their interests will help you gauge how good a fit they will be. You will be surprised at how effective this is and do not overlook it. Simply exchanging a few emails before step 3 could prove to be a huge waste of time.
Step 3 – Show them the round house
They have to view the house before they move in. That is a given and everyone knows this. However, make sure you’re selling the “personality” of your house share, not the house itself. Don’t hide anything & if you lied in your advert it will come back to haunt you.
If the house is a bit messy, then don’t clean it just to make them think you are all cleaning freaks. Just because people selling a property make it sparkling clean it doesn’t mean you should and this may cause tensions later on when things return to normal and pizza boxes are left in the kitchen for a week. If trains run underneath the house every twenty minutes making the walls shake, don’t whisk them out after fifteen.
Remember it’s easy to put your best foot forward online, but it’s much harder to walk the walk offline and honesty and clarity is always the best policy.
Step 4 – Meet in a bar or other social environment
OK – so you may be thinking that this is starting to get a little long winded and drawn out, but now is the time when you can really start zoning in on your new house mate. Think about it a bit, you are interviewing for a new housemate in your house. If you ran a perfectly harmonious company of 3 or so people, would you just let anyone join you and potentially upset the great atmosphere? Exactly – you wouldn’t.
It is really important to get this right, as there is so much to potentially gain – that great house dynamic, that new best friend, or simply that great new life-changing band, movie or even partner that they introduce you to.
So, take them to a local bar or coffee house. If they are new to an area this also gives them the chance to see the local amenities, and locate important bus or tube stops. It also provides the opportunity for you and your housemates to “screen” them that little bit more.
If you all currently live the work-hard play-hard lifestyle and nurse hangovers on the bus to work every other day, then now is the time to find out that they can’t stand drinking and go to be at nine thirty every night with hot milk. Or more simply if you all hang out in the same place every night and they cannot stand it, then you may as well end it there!
Step 5 – House Rules
So “House Rules” may sound like its straight from school, but there are often hard and soft rules that everyone adheres to, sometimes without thinking. It is important to make it clear that “this is how we do things” round here. This will reap its rewards later on and ensure that your new roommate fits in seamlessly and within no time it will seem like they had always lived there.
Explain things like the fact that people have designated shelves in the fridge, but the milk is a free-for-all and you all take turns in buying that and stuff like tea and coffee. Make your new housemate aware that you have a “Tidy up Sunday”, where you all do your bit and clean the house from top to bottom every Sunday, yet throughout the rest of the week the house becomes a steady mess.
Ensuring you take your time and following the right steps will result in few nasty surprises later on, and will make sure you benefit 100% from your housesharing experiences.
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5 Steps to finding a perfect roommate Sharing your house or apartment can be the best thing you ever do and open up a new social world but sometimes can be a nightmare if personality clashes exist. So – if you have a spare room to rent out these five tips should help ensure that you make the right choice in your new house mate or room mate and ensure that your happy house continues!
David Jones is author of this article on House shares. Find more information about Flat shareshere.
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