looking at getting an apartment with a roommate

Roommates are a crap shoot unless you're absolutely confident you know the person forwards and backwards, and even then it can be risky. The only real indicator is if you've actually lived/spent long periods of time under the same roof as said person.

Thus far, of the 5 roommates I've had, I'd care to live with 4 of them again, and two of them are pretty fucking scummy, but I don't mind because they're cool. Dunno if that helps :shrug:
 
I made this little video of my roommates in their element. Enjoy, TW.


P.S.-I've been counting the days until I move out.
 
^i^Njal said:
This is a fair point. In my experience, the people who complain the most about roommates are shitty roommates themselves and have unreasonable demands of others.
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That is a silly statement. When I used to room with people all I expected was they stay out of my room, payed thier bills on time and contributed to the fridge if they ate from it. I have had 5 roommates, 6 including my wife. lol
All of them still owe me money. Even my wife but she still lives with me.

I am an observer. I have seen so many people in my apartment complex move in and out in the past 6 years.
I can not think of one example of roommates who lived here and didn't either get evicted or fought so much that one ended up leaving.

Sitting here right now
I can not think of one example of roommates (that I know of) living together for an extended period of time with out something going amiss. Be it bills or just conflicting personalites.
 
depends

if you roommate is a big partier and will be throwing events, you probably want the lease in his name so you're not left holding the bill on property damage

if not, you want the lease in your name so you have the freedom to evict them if necessary.

you need to make sure you can afford 2-3 months of rent by yourself in the event you do have to evict them and are looking for a new roommate.

girls are not necessarily the best roommates, especially if you're still around college age. i roomed with a girl for a summer and it was a fucking disaster. hair all over the bathroom (plus like 500 other things), clothes everywhere, and somehow she managed to use 10 pots and pans to make a fucking egg.

not to be sexist but in general guys tend to be more independent and have a better clue of what goes on in the real world, and things you need to pay attention to, than girls do. Just simple examples: taking hour long showers, leaving all the lights on, turning the thermostat to the extreme one way or another, running the dishwasher for just 4-5 dishes, running the washer/dryer just for one or two pairs of pants. it seems like small things, but it's common sense shit that will piss you off when you get an electric bill for $300.

also there's other nusiances like your apartment turning into a triple because her deadbeat boyfriend moves in.

oh and the other complication is getting drunk then starting to hook up with said roommate. also creates awkward roommate dynamics, especially if they're kinda seeing someone, oops.

find a guy roommate who can clean up after himself and has some common sense, and you're fine. don't play music on your computer speakers at night, don't be too loud in the morning, etc. etc. I could care less what your room looks like, just don't litter the living room with your shit.

Your roommate doesn't have to be your best friend, you two just need to not get in each other's way all the time.
 
A few roommate rules:


1) Lower your expectations

Don't expect roommates to do or be anything like you, and in fact, expect them to be sloppy, inconsiderate, and generally lame. They probably will be at some point, some worse than others, of course.

2) Write out the house rules

Along with #1, get rid of any possible misunderstandings or assumptions by writing out the house rules. Make a rule about when bills are expected to be paid, (yes, your roommates will "forget" to pay you), make a rule about what's expected to be cleaned up (yes, your roommates will expect "someone" to clean the house), make a rule about house guests (eventually a roommate will think it's perfectly fine for his/her girlfriend/boyfriend to be at the house 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, effectively giving you another roommate who doesn't pay any bills.) Write it all out. Later on when there's any kind of issue, you can always point to the Da Rules and go, "Hey dude, you knew the agenda coming in, it shouldn't come as a shock that we dont want your girlfriend living here too."

3) Fuck democracy

When it comes to roommates, democracies don't work. Get deposits from everyone involved and put the bills and the lease in one person's name. This way if/when one roommate turns out to be a deadbeat, or an inconsiderate prick, or a general loser, there's no great problem getting rid of them. Putting other people on the lease or having bills in their name only causes problems and power struggles. Democracy doesn't work. To cover the risk of having it all in one person's name, just make sure deposits are collected beforehand.

4) Square things with the landlord

Make sure the landlord knows you're the head of the household and that other people will be living there in a roommate situation. If the landlord is cool, get him to sign a paper stating that he authorizes you as the primary leaseholder to sublet or evict people at your discretion. This way if there's a problem in the future, you won't need to involve him and you can handle it all on your own with police, eviction court, etc.
 
also don't forget, for a 2-bedroom: factor in about $50 for water and $100 for power, plus whatever phone/internet/tv you plan on getting

don't take bullshit. if you're a pushover, people will take advantage of that. also, pay attention to the rough income level of your potential roommate. You do NOT want someone who is going to be living paycheck to paycheck and might miss rent if they have to fix their car or something.

there is no need for a "notarized document" if the lease is in your name. they can pay their rent. if they don't, you can throw them out on the street.
 
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ayz said:
also don't forget, for a 2-bedroom: factor in about $50 for water and $100 for power, plus whatever phone/internet/tv you plan on getting

don't take bullshit. if you're a pushover, people will take advantage of that. also, pay attention to the rough income level of your potential roommate. You do NOT want someone who is going to be living paycheck to paycheck and might miss rent if they have to fix their car or something.

there is no need for a "notarized document" if the lease is in your name. they can pay their rent. if they don't, you can throw them out on the street.
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i factored in water at 50 bucks and electricity co would give me an estimate because i didn't have an address, so i factored 50. i got an exact quote form the able company. basic cable with 1 dvr box and 10mb internet for 90 bucks a mo.

and rent for the 2br is 850. so all in all i gave him an estimated total cost of 520.

realistically i keep everything off unless needed. just how i was raised.
 
BigWorm said:
Keep their names off of the lease. That way you can boot them if need be. Have a notorized document stating how much they pay in security deposit/rent each month in case you need to go to court.
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Even if their name is not on the lease, you still have to go through the process of eviction if it comes down to it. A tenant (even one without a lease) is still afforded all the rights of a tenant.

Your best bet is to have a legal agreement BEFORE you move in between the roommates spelling out the responsibilities and conditions. Then if shit goes south you have an enforceable agreement.
 
I have 9 roommates and my name is on all the bills. We all signed the lease separately but being on all the bills i became the defacto head of household At any rate any money you expect to be getting out of people get it before you need it. I do utilities a semester at a time and have a separate checking account just for the bills. At the beginning of the semester I get all the money needed (roughly some adjustment at the end is usually needed) so that way i'm not hunting people down every month to get money. This way i only have to do it once and if need be I can cut off internet until they pay up. Usually works real quick.

Since you only have to get money from one person i would get at least a month and a half in money as a deposit. keeps you from getting in my current situation of having to put $450 on my CC until i can get people to mail me checks from their summer locations. *sigh*
 
telos said:
I have 9 roommates and my name is on all the bills. We all signed the lease separately but being on all the bills i became the defacto head of household At any rate any money you expect to be getting out of people get it before you need it. I do utilities a semester at a time and have a separate checking account just for the bills. At the beginning of the semester I get all the money needed (roughly some adjustment at the end is usually needed) so that way i'm not hunting people down every month to get money. This way i only have to do it once and if need be I can cut off internet until they pay up. Usually works real quick.

Since you only have to get money from one person i would get at least a month and a half in money as a deposit. keeps you from getting in my current situation of having to put $450 on my CC until i can get people to mail me checks from their summer locations. *sigh*
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But this is a huge pain in the ass and if you do choose to uphold this positions you should be compensated appropriately. Its way easier to just get your own place, a 1 bedroom or an efficiency is not much more expensive than splitting a 2 bedroom. If you only have $30 left over after paying for a 1 bedroom then you are probably cutting yourself too close with a roomy in a 2 bedroom as well. You want 4-500 leeway every month to cover unexpected maintenance on your car or other possible emergencies. And if you don't use it, great, put it in savings.

I'm just rounding out a year lease with a roomate. Although he wasn't terribly difficult to live with (he pretty much stays in his room and plays wow), there are always annoying issues to deal with both financially and socially.
 
... Are you guys just talking about randomly rooming up with someone?

After my freshman year of college, me and my three friends rented a house together for the next year. We'll be finishing up our lease after this summer, and there has been zero problems. All of us are on the lease, we all pay our bills, no one bitches about food and shit. You guys just seem so girly with this...

I have no experience living with a complete stranger, aside from my dorm experience with a kid from Tiawan that spoke very little english... But outside of a dorm, I can't see the perks of living with a complete stranger, as all these problems you guys are talking about are bound to come up if you don't even know who the fuck they are.
 
euph said:
But this is a huge pain in the ass and if you do choose to uphold this positions you should be compensated appropriately. Its way easier to just get your own place, a 1 bedroom or an efficiency is not much more expensive than splitting a 2 bedroom. If you only have $30 left over after paying for a 1 bedroom then you are probably cutting yourself too close with a roomy in a 2 bedroom as well. You want 4-500 leeway every month to cover unexpected maintenance on your car or other possible emergencies. And if you don't use it, great, put it in savings.

I'm just rounding out a year lease with a roomate. Although he wasn't terribly difficult to live with (he pretty much stays in his room and plays wow), there are always annoying issues to deal with both financially and socially.
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This will be my third year doing it. Its only an issue this summer because so many people went home for the summer and we had 5 people leave and 5 come in. Its really easy when you get the money in advance and can just pay the bills as they come and send out a "give me more money this is what i spent it on" e-mail every few months. Every one living in the house has been friends for a while so its not just random people. With random people i would be a bit more cautious.
 
You guys sound like hard to get along with assholes, well some anyway. The best thing someone said here so far was just to make sure your potential roommate has steady income and isn't a total fucking slob. You can be picky after that, such as making sure the person is socialable, i.e. whatever.

I've had 5 different roommates and the one with the best income actually was the sloppiest and ended up working out the worst. Just depends on how much you can tolerate and if you know the people in advance I guess.
 
Im assuming youre living with your parents now, so i also assume you dont spend much money on food. You should factor in at least 10-15 dollars per day for food and miscellaneous expenses that some with leaving away from home. So that at least another $300
 
I've had roommates of one kind or another for the last 7 years or so

only ever had problems with living with my girlfriend. That only lasted about 8 months. My current roommate of about 2 1/2 years is annoying and French, but we've never had any type of conflict.

I'm not the cleanest guy in the world, but i keep the mess in my bedroom and keep the common areas clean.

Having different work schedules helps a lot. I work day, he works nights - it gives us both enough time apart and it feels like i have my own place until 2am or so.
 
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