Roommates can be your new best friends or the bane of your existence. At one point or another, we all have to deal with them. Learn how you can avoid awkward confrontations and unfortunate situations in your apartment with our Living with Roomies: Survival Guide put together by the apartment experts at Timbercreek Communities.
Look For Red Flags
Searching for roomies isn’t easy, especially if you’re new to the city. As the hunt drags on, you may be tempted to jump into whatever setup you find first. Be sure to look for red flags before you make your choice. Meet your potential roommate(s) over coffee to get a feel for how you interact. Ask important questions, and trust your instincts. If you don’t like the person all that much after chatting, there’s a good chance you won’t get along when you’re sharing a living room.
Put Everything In Writing
When you become roommates with a stranger, it’s a good idea to put everything in writing with a roommate agreement. How you split the rent, which spaces are shared spaces and whether or not overnight guests are welcome are all details to put into writing to prevent arguments in the future.
Talk About Money Before
The big ‘M’ conversation should happen before anything and everything else. Everyone needs to agree, and then put into writing, the exact dollars and cents they’re responsible for. Pro tip? Decide in advance how each person is paying and who is responsible to deliver the payment to management every month.
Declare Some House Rules
House rules are a great idea. They’ll keep you sane and prevent you and your roomies from driving each other crazy. Grab some pizza, pull out a notepad and have each person declare their own boundaries and guidelines upfront. Get crafty and turn your rules into decor.
Prepare To Compromise
Even if you do everything by the book, no roommate situation is perfect. When something comes up, take a deep breath, relax and prepare to compromise to find a solution that works for everyone.
Good luck as you get settled with your new roomies! For excellent apartments in Canada’s finest cities nationwide, check out Timbercreek Communities today.