Searching for information on how to pick a great roommate? If so, you've come to the right place!
Choosing a roommate is one of the most difficult things that anyone can do because you’re going to be living in a home, apartment, condo or townhome with someone else and you want to feel safe, secure, and confident with having that other person in your personal space.
Thankfully, this process will be easier than you imagined especially if you follow these simple tips.
Tip #1 - Look Beyond Friendships
Although your first instinct may be to ask a friend if they would be interested in living with you, this should be the last thing that you do because, living with a friend may ultimately lead to ruining the relationship that you have with them especially if you find out your friends deep, dark secrets, or bad habits that only come out in a living situation.
To avoid ruining friendships, one of the first things that you should do to find a great roommate is to turn to the internet for help. You can start with placing ads for roommates on websites like Craigslist or use social media websites like Facebook to see if there's anyone who may not be in your immediate circle of friends who would be interested in living with you.
The key to success when you start reaching out to people, inquiring if they would be interested in living with you in a roommate situation, is to interview them and ask a potential roommate questions regarding their habits, likes, dislikes, lifestyle, and their sexual habits just so that you can feel confident coming home every night and living in the same space with them.
Tip #2 - Outline Expectations
Once you find someone who would potentially be a great roommate, the next thing to do before finalizing your decision to choose them as a roommate is to outline expectations. This means that you should tell your potential roommate the things that you will and will not accept from them.
Some of the things you may not accept include:
- If your home only has one bathroom, you will not accept them leaving the toilet seat up.
- You don’t like dirty dishes left in the sink.
- You will not accept a dirty house.
Some of the things you may accept include:
- They may come home in the early morning hours when you have to go to work the next day.
- They may have a relationship and their boyfriend or girlfriend may sleep over from time to time.
Tip #3 - Don’t Be Afraid to Talk Money
Like any partnership, you can't be afraid to talk money, especially if you want your roommate to contribute financially to paying half of the rent and bills on a monthly basis.
When sitting down to talk with your roommate about money, you should ask them about their job, find out how long they've been employed and confirm with them that they earn enough income on a monthly basis to cover their fair share of the bills and expenses that will come from living in a roommate situation with you.
If you plan on having services like satellite television or Internet, and your roommate does not want to use those services, it should be made very clear that those services are just for you so you don't get a bill in the near future with additional charges for movies ordered on Pay-per-view, or data that you didn't use.
#4 - Find Out If You Have Shared Interests
Living with a roommate can be great but, the truth is that it could be even better if you both have shared interests.
Shared interest makes it easier for two people to connect on the same level and talk about things that interest them even though they both may come from different backgrounds for walks of life.
Find out If you have a shared interest in sports, recreation, music, movies, television shows, travel or work.
Once you find out that you have shared interests with your potential roommate it will be easier to communicate with them than it would be to talk with a stranger and the good thing is that there will always be someone else that you can hang out with and do something that interests you.
#5 - Do You Have Similar Temperaments?
Last of all, but most importantly, after finding someone who you think may be a great candidate to live with you as a roommate, one of the most important things that you should do is to talk with them about their temperament.
This means that you should ask them specific questions about their socializing habits and what they consider to be exciting because your idea of excitement could be a night at home with a good book and a tall cup of coffee while their idea of excitement could be having friends over at the house for a party.
Analyzing temperaments is critical when choosing a roommate because everything may look great “on the surface” but if their temperament is completely different than yours this could lead to trouble pretty quickly and ruin the relationship with your roommate.
Search for Rental Properties Here
To search for rental properties in Yakima Washington, or the surrounding area, contact Jevons Property Management today by calling us at (509) 895-7777 or connect with us online at www.jevonsproperties.com. To search for rental properties in King County or Pierce County, connect with us online at www.pellegopropertymanagement.com
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