When we are deciding how to choose the perfect roommate we may look for a friend or a family member.  We may also place an ad on Craigslist or Kijiji to help us choose the perfect roommate. When we are considering how to choose the perfect roommate we have to consider many factors such as financial means, personal privacy, common interests, living habits, and work ethic. 

How to Choose the Perfect Roommate

We want to make sure that our perfect roommate will be able to constantly pay their bills on a monthly basis.  We also want to make sure that they respect our personal privacy.  It is important to have common interests with a roommate for decorating and aesthetic reasons.  It’s also nice to spend time with a roommate outside of the apartment. 

Similar livings habits and worth ethics are important because we want to live with a roommate who will share the cleaning responsibilities, as well as the upkeep of the apartment and daily routines.  If you are a morning person it may be hard to live with someone who is awake into all hours of the night.

My first experience living with a roommate was less than amazing and it ended a friendship.  We were young and away from our families for the first time.  When you mix complete freedom with financial responsibility and a couple of boyfriends, things are bound to be a little tense.  If we are young we may lack the communication skills to salvage and/or rebuild a friendship.  This is why it may be a good idea to set apartment rules and conditions in a roommate agreement.

Choosing the Perfect Roommate with a Roommate Agreement

If you are like me than you love the hit TV Show The Big Bang Theory.  One of my favourite episodes is when Sheldon and Leonard examine their Roommate Agreement.  Of course due to Sheldon’s narcosis the roommate agreement on The Big Bang Theory is long, detailed, very extensive, and extremely unnecessary.

A basic roommate agreement should include arrangements for visitors and overnight guests, grocery shopping, sharing utilities, the payment of rent, ownership of furniture and other household furnishings.  The roommate agreement should also include conditions for breaking any of the agreed upon arrangements in the roommate agreement.

Choosing the Perfect Roommate with Flatmate Finder

If you already have an apartment and you need to choose a new roommate, or if you are moving and need to choose a roommate to find a new apartment, searching roommate websites such as Flatmate Finder is a good place to start.  Flatmate Finder is a website that can match your needs with others to help you choose the perfect roommate.  Whether you are looking for a room, or you have a room to offer, roommate websites can help you find the perfect roommate in the perfect location and at the perfect price. Other roommate finder websites include Easy Roommate, Roomster, and Roommates.  

Here are the previous posts from our Leasing vs. Buying Series:

The Pros and Cons of Buying a Home

The Pros and Cons of Leasing an Apartment

The Pros and Cons of Having a Roommate

Photo by Meggrs

During my first year of college I lived with a roommate and now I live with my boyfriend, so I have lived to tell about both experiences.  Having a roommate has pros and cons just as living with a boyfriend or girlfriend also has pros and cons.  Eventually over time, your boyfriend may become your roommate, or your roommate may become your boyfriend.

Having a Roommate is cost efficient; it ensures that there will always be someone living with you in your apartment to share the monthly bills.  The difference between living with a roommate and living with a boyfriend is that having a roommate should be treated liked a business deal; but living with a boyfriend or girlfriend is an emotional commitment as well as a living arrangement.

Sharing our Privacy with a Roommate

Sharing Privacy with my Roommate was an ok experience for me because I grew up with a younger sister.  My roommate was my age and we both moved to a new city to attend college.  It was comforting to share my experiences with someone who was experiencing the same things.  There was really no invasion of privacy with a roommate since we both had separate rooms and we shared the kitchen, bathroom, and living room.  Since we both grew up in households with siblings we were used to sharing, and respected each other’s privacy. Communication is the key to having a good roommate.

Sharing privacy with my boyfriend is a completely different living experience because we share everything.  There is only one bedroom and there is nowhere to escape when we want or need some personal privacy.  The difference between sharing privacy with a boyfriend and sharing privacy with a roommate is that we are probably more excepting when our loved one invades our privacy than we are when a roommate (and total stranger) invades our personal privacy.

Preserving our Privacy with a Roommate

Preserving our privacy is easier with a roommate because we can always leave the apartment or go to our own room.  However, when our roommate is our boyfriend or girlfriend preserving our privacy becomes a more problematic situation.  My boyfriend and I each have our own dressers and closets in the bedroom for our personal belongings, but we don’t have any other individual space.  All of the other areas and spaces in our apartment are for common use.

My boyfriend also lived with a roommate his first year of college.  I asked him if he preferred having a roommate or living with his girlfriend, and he declined to answer the question.  I definitely prefer living with my boyfriend rather than having a roommate.  I can always count on my boyfriend both financially and emotionally, but we can’t always count on a roommate.  Roommates come and go, but boyfriends or girlfriends are forever…hopefully.

Other posts in our Leasing vs. Buying series include:

The Pros and Cons of Buying a Home

The Pros and Cons of Leasing an Apartment 

Photo by Tulane

I’m sure that everyone reading this has heard the common adage that, “renting is throwing money away.” Is this really true? Are you throwing money away every time that you make your rent payment? I’m not here to answer questions for you, but I will attempt to give you all of the necessary information to make a well-informed decision on the topic. Let’s look at if renting a property in your 20s is considered wasting money:

Understand what you’re paying for.

When you pay your rent, you’re paying for a place to sleep and for a roof over your head. Just because you don’t own the unit doesn’t mean that you’re throwing your money away. You must understand that you’re essentially paying for the peace of mind of knowing that you have somewhere to sleep, bathe, eat, store your belongings, and just live. Unfortunately, there’s usually a high cost to this. Life and living isn’t cheap. Get used to it.

Flexibility.

With rent you’re much more flexible financially and strategically than with home ownership. If you want to switch homes, then you’re going to have to put your home on the market and search for a new one. This process takes a long time and it usually costs lots of money (between Lawyer and Real Estate Agent fees). As a renter you become very flexible and depending on your lease contract you won’t have to wait too long until you can switch locations.

Future work situation.

In your 20s you want to look for work opportunities all across the nation and the globe. You don’t want to limit yourself to your local town or surrounding area. It’s not always the greatest idea to choose your life destination at 22. You may want to work abroad or pursue risky job opportunities across North America. Settling down in one are too soon could really hinder your goals when it comes to exploring new job opportunities.

Your financial situation.

How much money do you earn? More importantly, how much money do you save? You need to get your finances on track before you can make the transition from renting to home ownership. How can you get your finances on track at this point;

• Pay down student loan debt. The first thing you need to work on as a college graduate is to aggressively pay down any student debt that you may have.
• Increase your income. Are you earning as much as you can? Perhaps you’re still looking for your dream job or your considering starting your own business. This could make renting the most viable option for you at the moment.
• Save more money. While renting, earning more, and paying down your debt, you can begin to learn how to save more money. When you save more money you can slowly build up for a mortgage down-payment for when that day comes where you’re ready to move on.

Who do you plan on living with?

The people that you live with will make this easier much more easier. If you want to move in with a bunch of your college buddies then renting is the more ideal option. You never know who’s going to want to leave when and who’s going to want to join in. Living with your buddies while you rent a place can also really reduce your monthly expenses. If you manage to increase your income and reduce your spending by saving money on rent, then you could save up for a home purchase or any other goal that you might have.

When you make it rain in the club you’re throwing money away. Paying $20 to get into a club can also be viewed as throwing money away. Signing up for a gym membership and never going until your membership runs out is wasting money. Is renting really throwing money away?

(photo credit: aa photography)

This Monday I went ahead and scheduled our utilities transfer set up between the old apartment and the new one for this weekend. We are moving over the weekend and turning in the keys next Monday, so everything has to move like clockwork.

Switching Cable and Electric

I started with the electric company, expecting it to take the longest. Instead Progress Energy took less than 20 minutes to everything scheduled and squared away to transfer our services between the apartments. believe it or not, the automated process took longer. I gave my email address to receive a electronic log of the phone call.

The electric company’s automated confirmation system transferred me to moving services company after I completed the transfer with the customer service representative.  The representative at All Connect said they could transfer my cable and Internet service too for me, but I needed to give them my social security number.

My policy is not give that out for 3rd parties and I asked if they would accept the last 4 digits, as Time Warner only asked for that when I call in. They seem like a reputable company, but I rather keep the number of places with that information to a minimum. He said no he couldn’t use a partial number and so I decided to call the cable company myself and get it transferred.

I hoping I still get my Papa John’s and Domino’s coupons he mentioned sent to the new place.

I then called up our cable company to switch services and within 10 minutes we got everything scheduled for the move. The customer representative mentioned some promotional specials, but none of them seem compelling compared to the cable, internet, and phone package we have now.

Ask to see if there are any promotional deal when you move.

Opening an Account with the Gas Company

Since we are starting a new account with the gas company, they needed to run a check check to see if we had to pay a deposit. After waiting a couple minutes, the customer service representative told me we did not need a deposit.

Transfer Fees

With both the electric company and the cable company, we have to pay a one time transfer fee ($17 and $15). I added it up to our moving expenses spreadsheet for future reference.

Document Utility Communications

I took notes like I usually do when speaking with the utilities because sometimes they have made mistakes with extra charges. Having documentation has been helpful and can help you avoid more fees.

Your Take

How easy or hard was it to get your utilities disconnected and/or started? How do feel about sharing your SS#?

Photo Credit: estilovagabund0

Be smart when finding a new apartment; not only can you save money, but you can also reduce stress.

We finally heard from the builders and they are only willing to lower closing costs a bit and it won’t even cover half of our expenses. Fed up, we asked our agent to get the paperwork started to get our earnest money back. It’s back to the drawing board. We’re looking at finding an apartment with a short term lease or month to month rent while we continue to house hunt. Our current apartment has jumped too high to stay.

We’re looking at storing most of our stuff and keeping the essentials at a smaller apartment. Prices have lowered quite a bit in the area for apartments and we’re hoping to find a reasonable deal.

Finding the Right Neighborhood to Rent In

Start with Google. It pays to look ahead on some things before considering a move, such as:

• Crime (look at the amount of crime and the type of crime): Did you know that some police districts have crime analyst who have records on crime in an area? I wasn’t aware that we had this valuable resource available. You can call crime analyst to get information such as pulling up record of calls and what the nature of the calls were for to get an idea of the safety of the neighborhood.
• Shopping Areas (Are they conveniently located?): If you’re able to get your essentials without having to travel to far, you can save some money on transportation.
• Libraries, Parks, Attractions, etc. (You’re trying to find places that interest you.): This is a personal preference, but finding attractions that appeal to you nearby can help reduce costs.

If the area doesn’t do well with any of the above criteria you may just want to skip visiting the location and save yourself time. Since we’re staying the same city it’s easier for us to know which neighborhoods to check out. We’re still asking around though in case we’re missing a diamond in the rough.

Scouting the Neighborhood

Once we narrow down our choices, we’re going to scout out the potential neighborhoods. sometimes things look great during the tour, but they don’t really affect the day to day situation.

• Visit on a Friday or Saturday night. This visit lets you know if the place is too noisy and rowdy for you or if it’s not exciting enough. My cousin is a city girl, so she needs things to do and happen. (She’s a great salsa dancer.) My sister likes someplace peaceful and quiet at night. Each would have a different opinion of the same neighborhood.
• Look to see if your bank is located nearby. (This might not be an issue if you’re considering changing your bank.) With banks charging $3 for out of network users, this is something to seriously consider. I wrote some tips on how to cut down the ATM fees.
• Ask for directions a few times. Try and see if the area is generally friendly or not.
• See if good public transportation is available. Fluctuating gas prices have made public transportation a consideration in some cities. If the area you’re considering has a great mass transit system, then you can save thousands of dollars a year and reduce the stress of sitting in traffic.

Home Security Tips

We attended a community watch meeting where the officer gave some practical tips on improving the security of your place. Some of these seemed like common sense, but they are still good reminders.

• Always check doors/windows to make they are secure
• Keep outdoor lights on at night!
• Keep tree limbs and hedges from blocking doors and windows.
• If you go out of town, have a neighbor gt your mail or have the Post Office temporarily hold it.
• Secure all outside storage doors when not in use.
• Report suspicious behavior to the police.

Your Thoughts

What do you think about apartment hunting? Do you have any tips?

Photo Credit: longlostcousin