Rental Report: Interviewing a Potential Roommate

Editor’s Note: This biweekly sponsored column is written by Rick Gersten, founder and CEO of Urban Igloo, a rental real estate firm that matches up renters with their ideal apartments, condos or houses. Please submit any questions in the comments section or via email.

In our last column, we discussed searching for a potential roommate. Now that you’ve found a good candidate, you need to meet up and get to know each other a bit to see if you are a match.

When chatting with a potential roommate, it is good to put it all out there. Letting them know what you like and what you don’t. What you are hoping to get out of the roommate relationship is important to lay on the table up front. You are going to be sharing space with this person for at least 12 months, so you want to do your best to keep conflict to a minimum.

Here’s a sample list of a few questions to ask:

• Where are you going to be working or going to school? What are the hours you’ll come and go?
• What are your hobbies? (Do they share your interests, or do something you find annoying?)
• Do you plan to have a lot of friends over, overnight visitors etc? Do you mind if I do?
• Are you a night owl or an early riser?
• What about your lifestyle? Physically active? Vegetarian?
• Do you have a pet, or want to get one? If you have one, do you expect your roommate to assist with pet care?
• Do you have a car? Are you willing to share?
• What do you consider clean?
• Do you smoke? Drink?
• What are you hoping this arrangement to be?
• Can you give me an example of a past roommate issue, and how you resolved it?

While some questions may seem a bit nosy, keep in mind you are likely sharing no more a thousand square feet, give or take. It is important to know as much as you can up front to minimize headaches later. Little annoyances can turn in to big deals when you spend so much time with someone, so you want to find out now if they only eat steak, and you are a vegan, or if they are a couch potato on the weekend, and you are the weekend warrior type.

Think of the interview as speed dating with a 12 month commitment. You aren’t trying to impress a person, but get to know as much as you can in a short period of time before signing on the dotted line together.

Have a rental-related question you’d like Rental Report to answer? Email it to [email protected].

The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.