Looking for a roommate on the internet. What sorts of questions should I ask?

dpatel

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First time ever having a roommate, and I'm just going at random and posting on craigslist. I've had friends who have had good experiences finding a roommate there, so I thought I'd try.

Just want to know what sorts of questions I could ask. I'm meeting a potential roommate tomorrow at a bar. We've already talked a little bit about ourselves. We both work the same hours and are the same age. Tomorrow, I'm just going to see how well we get along, and try and get a feel for the guy. I'm staying in a relatively expensive area and charging quite a bit (also am asking for a sizable safety deposit), so I'm hoping that will weed out any dead beats.

Should I try and lock them in for a year if we're both interested, or would that be too much of a commitment so soon.

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
 
I'm not sure how you are, but I'd ask basic questions like: Are you a messy person? What kind of work schedule do you have? Do you mind me having people over? Anything that's going to possibly clash with your life style and make sure you both can agree and work out what works for you both. Good luck!
 
First off, just going by my own personal experiences with Craigslist, I would NEVER look for someone whether it be a roommate or a potential girlfriend on there.

I've seen far too many nutty sumbitches off there.

So my advice would be to steer clear of CL completely. Regardless of whether or not you're living in an expensive area or not, you just don't know the problems they may have and if you find out too late it may end up bad.
 
  • Drug/alcohol use
  • Religion
  • Political affiliation
  • References, if they're moving into your place
  • Personal transportation
  • Video game preferences
  • Music/Movies - when they watch/listen, where (shared room/personal space), how loud, etc...
  • Significant others/friends that they spend a lot of time with or that could come around a lot
  • Sleep schedule on non-working days
  • Chores
  • Food, shared or otherwise
  • Splitting monthly bills
  • Are they expecting to be able to throw a lot of parties, or would they be upset about you having a party?
Basically, think of anything that could bother you about living with someone, and find out that out about the potential roommate.
 
Also, since its Craigslist, ask what they would do if they woke up in the middle of the forest with Vaseline smeared on their ass, and no recollection of how they got there, or what happened the night before.
 
If you went camping and woke up and your ass hurt, would you tell anybody?
Do you think that girl is hot? Because that's my girlfriend.
Leave out baking soda and oregano in a biggies and see what he says.
 
Stay away from anyone who has any sign of severe social awkwardness or seems mental. It's easy to mistake these kinds of people for typical nerds but it's important to realize that many people are in fact, fucking insane.

And it's not too difficult to read someone just by looking at how they carry themselves, so don't worry too much about personality questions. Sleep schedules and how you guys want to work around noise, girls, bathroom etiquette etc... should be something you both are able to shrug off as fairly petty things. If he seems anal about any of those things then, again, he's probably fucking insane.

Guys living with guys should be the simplest thing in the world, if he doesn't understand that or shows any signs of hesitation about common lines of respect, then he's probably a passive aggressive nutcase.
 
Check the sex offender registry for your area. It takes a minute and is free.

Understand that your prospective roommate is probably checking you out too.
 
[quote name='panzerfaust']Stay away from anyone who has any sign of severe social awkwardness or seems mental. It's easy to mistake these kinds of people for typical nerds but it's important to realize that many people are in fact, fucking insane.

And it's not too difficult to read someone just by looking at how they carry themselves, so don't worry too much about personality questions. Sleep schedules and how you guys want to work around noise, girls, bathroom etiquette etc... should be something you both are able to shrug off as fairly petty things. If he seems anal about any of those things then, again, he's probably fucking insane.

Guys living with guys should be the simplest thing in the world, if he doesn't understand that or shows any signs of hesitation about common lines of respect, then he's probably a passive aggressive nutcase.[/QUOTE]
HAHAHA...I'm pretty fucking insane then! And a passive aggressive nutcase to add.:lol:

Shit like leaving hair/shavings in the sink/shower, floss gunk on the mirror, leaving shit in the toilet, playing bass-heavy loud music at odd hours, having your gf/date leave evidence of her cycle on the toilet seat, etc are pretty big things in my mind.
 
I had 9 different roommates through college (7 at one time when we shared a HUGE house built to have 4 people living on each floor, like a kinda-duplex). In my experience, people who are messy don't generally think they are or they don't think it is as bad as it really is so asking them doesn't always work. An easy way to find out without asking them is to tell them to meet you in the parking lot and when they pull up next to your car get out and do your best to discretely check out the interior of their car. If there's trash everywhere, I guarantee wherever they live is the same way.

Also, don't ever live with a woman unless you're in a serious relationship with her... even then, you probably want to think long and hard about it. Sorting out roommate issues with women is beyond difficult and women in their 20s are typically just as messy as most think guys are if not worse.

I'll also second what panzer said, avoid people who are extremely socially awkward at all costs. This is not to be confused with shy or somewhat introverted people. If you're meeting in a bar it will be pretty easy to catch this early since those people will likely be visibly uncomfortable in that setting.
 
CL is an OK place to start, but obviously you'll get a much better sense of what they are like if you can talk to them over the phone. Best is to meet in person in their current living quarters which will give you an idea of their living habits (read: cleanliness).
 
Had a few roommates in my college days. I didn't have the luxury of picking them, so I've had some good, some bad.

My biggest problem was living with messy people who don't do dishes and keep a clean living space. We'd constantly have a mountin of dishes in the sink.

Introverted people are really annoying to live with.
 
[quote name='detectiveconan16']You can always draft something like this up and weed out the undesireables.[/QUOTE]
:lol:How did I know that that linked to something related to the show The Big Bang Theory?:D:applause:

It's one of the few shows I'll actually watch on tv anymore. The others being Metalocalypse, 2 Broke Girls, Mike & Molly & Two & A Half Men. Everything else is crap imo. :booty:
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer'] It's one of the few shows I'll actually watch on tv anymore. The others being...2 Broke Girls, Mike & Molly & Two & A Half Men. Everything else is crap imo. [/QUOTE]

:wall:

You and I should never be roomates. I think a murder would occur over the remote control. Haa haa. My wife doesn't even watch shit I find that miserable!
 
Do you like movies about Gladiators?
Have you ever been in a Turkish prison?
Have you ever seen a grown man naked?
 
[quote name='berzirk']:wall:

You and I should never be roomates. I think a murder would occur over the remote control. Haa haa. My wife doesn't even watch shit I find that miserable![/QUOTE]
I just don't get the praise for some shows. I've tried watching The Office(I'm even FROM Scranton) and that's such dry humor and so boring it almost put me to sleep. I've tried watching Modern Family and it's not 'ha ha' funny it's 'oh that's supposed to be funny?'. At least to me both of them are a bore.

About the only shows I started getting into that aren't a sitcom or animated were Saving Hope and NCIS(the original, never bothered with the spinoff). But after 2-3 weeks of Saving Hope I started getting bored of that, but I admit I'll be there in the fall when NCIS restarts since I watched the season finale and wanna know what happened to each character.

But again, I don't watch anything regularly most times unless they're actually new episodes.
 
[quote name='dohdough']
Shit like leaving hair/shavings in the sink/shower, floss gunk on the mirror, leaving shit in the toilet, playing bass-heavy loud music at odd hours, having your gf/date leave evidence of her cycle on the toilet seat, etc are pretty big things in my mind.[/QUOTE]
I had a roommate who did these things all the time, he was insane.

;)
 
Depending on age and if you attend or live near a college campus, you may check around the school or the school's publications. There is pretty much always someone posting classified ads to find roommates in there and it's far less potluck than Craigslist.

As for what to do I'll say this much, if you own the property make sure to have a real binding lease drawn up, signed and agreed to by the roommate. Also keep in mind that if you do own the property even renting a room to someone essentially makes you the landlord. If you lease the property already make sure that your potential roommate gets a copy of and signs that lease as well then make sure your landlord gets a copy, otherwise if anything happens it will basically fall squarely on your head alone.
 
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