Whether you’re preparing to rent your first apartment or have moved in and out of several living spaces, selecting the right person or people to move in with you is difficult. Co-living with roommates can be a highly enriching experience, allowing you to live independently without all of the responsibilities of living alone. But your enjoyment of living with roommates depends on the right people. Knowing what questions to ask can help you select the right housemates to share your living space. Here, Contemporary Management Concepts, LLLP, lists the top seven questions to help you find quality roommates.
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Depending on your perspective, a “yes” answer to this question can be an advantage or a drawback. If you work from home, having roommates who also work from home could be a significant burden and limit your enjoyment of your living space during work hours. Having another person in your Florida apartment all day, every day, can increase your monthly utility bills. On the other hand, if you work outside of your home, having a person at your apartment all day can be beneficial for accepting deliveries, feeding and walking pets, waiting for a maintenance person, and taking care of other tasks.
All too often, roommates come into conflict due to differences in their cleanliness preferences. If your cleaning preferences are different from your roommate’s, then it’s likely a conflict will occur at some point. A person’s cleaning habits may be a delicate topic to broach with potential roommates. Instead of pursuing a direct approach to the conversation, you might ask them how they want to keep their space and your shared space clean on a regular basis. Asking in a less confrontational way will allow them the opportunity to open up and be honest about their cleaning habits. It can also offer insight into their personality and whether or not you can envision living with them.
Roommates can come into conflict with one another if their schedules are too different. If one roommate wants to sleep in every weekday while the other roommate enjoys starting their mornings at sunrise with loud music, this pairing likely won’t work well. We recommend asking about a potential roommate’s schedule and sharing yours early in your conversation. Knowing what another person’s day-to-day schedule looks like can help give you a better idea of how they live and if that might pair well with your lifestyle.
One of the benefits of having a roommate or set of roommates is shared living costs. However, when a roommate cannot or does not pay their portion of the rent on time, it can be a huge problem. It may be uncomfortable to talk about money at first, but bringing this topic up sooner can save you a huge headache in the long run. Consider asking them what they do for a living and how long they’ve worked there. You can also ask them if they receive income on a predictable basis and whether they manually pay their rent or use an auto-pay feature to avoid missing payments.
Even if you love animals, you should ask yourself if you’re ok with having someone else’s pet scurrying around your apartment on a daily basis. If you have a cat who does not get along well with dogs, a potential roommate with a dog might not be the best match with you. If a prospective roommate has a pet, ask if you can meet with their pet ahead of time to get a better idea of their personality. Pet allergies might be something else to think about. If you both have pets living in your shared space, make sure to discuss your expectations for pet care and how they care for their pet.
This is an important question that can help you gauge a person’s expectations regarding the roommate relationship they want. If you are looking for a roommate to live with but also to be your best friend, and if the other person prefers to maintain some degree of distance from you, you may not be a good match. Beyond understanding the roommate relationship they want, this question can also serve as a great launching point for a conversation about how they feel about sharing certain things like food, laundry supplies, cleaning products, and other similar items.
What are your social habits? Do you enjoy hosting parties every weekend? When considering potential roommates, you should think about your social habits and ask about theirs. Understanding a potential roommate’s weekly schedule can help give you an idea of how they spend the majority of their time, but how do they spend their free time? Do they have people over often? After you ask them these questions, you should be honest with them about your preferences and needs regarding having people over. You might propose some rules that you both abide by in order to make sure each of you is comfortable in your living space.