How Do You Find the Best RoomMate For Your Co-Living Space4 min read

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Co-Living Part #3: Bringing it Back to Us

Whenever it’s time to write a blog entry about roommates, we always get super excited. The name of our company is RoomMate after all. The company started with an app called Spaces which allows roommates to get along better in various ways. However, until now, we’ve never dove deep into finding the best way to find a roommate. So, here is our guide to finding the best roommate for your Co-Living space.

Pain Points

As always, the first thing we need to go over is the Pain Points of finding the best roommate for your Co-Living space. Thankfully, there is only one, and it’s right in the title of this blog. The pain point is finding the best roommate. 

The Worst Type of Roommate

Finding a good roommate can be tricky. Each of you reading this blog probably had a bad roommate at one point or another. Usually, you can tell when your roommate is rotten within the first week or two. However, sometimes they make a great first impression and then slowly get worse until it’s unbearable. The latter is the worst possible type of roommate, and it’s more common than you’d think. These types of roommates make the process of finding the best roommate for your Co-Living space a lot harder. The good news is, I’ve found a way to avoid this type of roommate just from experience living in a Co-Living area during my time at university. 

The Process of Finding the Best Roommate for Your Co-Living Space

According to CoLiving.com, Co-Living is the new way of living with roommates. They have two approaches to finding a roommate, the traditional approach and the co-living approach.

The Traditional Approach

The traditional approach is going on the internet. Various sites, including Facebook, have ways for you to find a roommate. However, these sites can be hazardous and a lot of work. It’s effortless for someone to make an excellent first impression behind their screen and then be awful in person. Therefore, we don’t recommend the traditional approach.

The Co-Living Approach

The great thing about Co-Living spaces is that they give their tenants the best possible living experience, including finding the best roommate. First, you need to find a Co-Living space that fits your wants and needs. Last week’s blog goes over the best types of Co-Living areas in detail. After you apply for a Co-Living space that fits your criteria, chances are your landlord will pair you up with a roommate that has similar interests and living styles as you. This process eliminates the traditional approach and is ultimately the better way of finding a roommate. In fact, a landlord can easily pair up roommates by looking at the tenants section of Estelle.

Our Advice

The Co-Living approach is the better way of finding the best roommate for your Co-Living space. However, you shouldn’t fully trust your landlord to pair you up with your roommate. Instead, once they do, you should do a background check on them. With the help of Common.com and their guide to finding a roommate, we developed a step-by-step way to find the best roommate for your co-living space and the best way to do a background check on them. This guide also helps you avoid the worst type of roommate mentioned above.

1. Start by making a list of what you want in a roommate.
2. Give this list to your landlord.
3. Let your landlord pair you up (hopefully, they’re using Estelle to do this).
4. Meet your potential roommate or roommates, and see if they make an excellent first impression.
5. Ask the right questions to them.
6. Decide what’s important to both of you or all of you.
7. Create a roommate agreement and have them sign it.
8. If all goes well and you genuinely believe they’re a good fit, tell your landlord and move into the Co-Living space.

Conclusion

Finding the best roommate has always been challenging, even for us. Bad roommates will always be around; however, Co-Living spaces and our guide can make your roommate finding mission a little easier. Furthermore, landlords can help tenants find the best roommate for their Co-Living area through Estelle.