Sometimes to live in a nice area with a limited income, you have to. If your game is on fire and you've got chicks over four or more nights a week you might have to modify the guest limitations I advocate.
Main problems: Noise, pets, cleanliness, guests, money.
The first principle is someone who is fun to hang out with may not be a good person for a roommate, they're two different functions.
A roommate is not a friend-- They are someone you just want to quietly and cleanly use the facilities and not get you involved in his problems or his smoke, booze, pets, mess, violence, or excessive visitors. I have a dear friend who let a homeless guy move in for months into his apartment-- I love him but I thought he was insane.
Here are some things I've found that help. This only applies to non-smokers as I am one.
I'm also a musician, but most musicians also have bad habits that make them bad roommates so I'd rather push having the place be quiet than find cooperative musicians unless you are really tight and in a band together and it may help your endeavors to live together.
1) No chicks. They are entitled, and if they start to bring over their AMOG alpha , or rather the AMOG alpha MOVES IN you can't bitch without looking like the jealous bad guy.
2) No smokers ( if you don't smoke). They'll claim they'll only smoke in their room etc, but they always start to edge into the common areas "just for a second" to continue conversations, stand in open doorways, and smokers for obvious reasons are not long term planners ( unless they're planning for cancer)
3) Don't get anyone that uses any illegal drugs. Even if you like to do it, you should keep it secret ( hard with pot) because if they don't want to follow Gubmint rules they are also going to be resistant to yours.
4) Require something going on in their lives that conflicts with being a fuck-up.
If someone just works in a grocery store and is sober when they come over to interview, you still have no idea if they are a total drunk. If someone is a PhD student in Biochem they probably can't be total fuckups because they don't have time or brainpower to waste. I have two roommates who are serious graduate students at a high level university now, they are very motivated to not get in fights, get into conflicts.
One of them is a foreign grad student who has no motivation to cause trouble because if there is ever a problem he is not a citizen so he is not likely to escalate conflicts away from home territory. (Depends if he is from a macho culture of course.)
5) No pets. Everyone goes on vacation eventually and everyone wants free pet care while they're away. They're always asking you to take care of them, even fish smell, and it shows immaturity. I like dogs, so one exception if you have a big place in the country might be a dog. If you EVER have a pet move in make it clear and put in lease that the owner has complete responsibility and must place the animal in a boarding facility if he leaves the house for more than 24 hours.
My roommate got stuck with taking care of a guys dog for days. He said he was leaving for two days and she agreed to feed it, then he called at the end of the two days and said family problems were going to keep him longer than he thought and then didn't contact her for three more days. So not only no pets, but no taking care of others' pets for them.
6) Limited guest stayovers in lease. My roommate recently told me his girlfriend is visiting from Mexico for two weeks. At first he said they'd be traveling for a week of that, then I think he realized he doesn't have the money, next he'll probably be trying to get me to agree to have her stay more than two weeks. It should be strictly in the contract that guests are xx nights a month or whatever you think makes sense.Anything over a certain amount of days has to be agreed on and asked about a xx in advance. If he wants to live with his girlfriend he should get a place with her. This is a problem even with the nicest roommates because they cave in to their exploitive friends who ask for a place to stay. Then once they're there staying for free, it's hard to get them out , because they're the type to impose on a friend so they're the type to gladly impose on you too. It's all part of being that Alpha cool guy who always gets his way.
7) Know how they are going to pay the rent and have late fees. If you have to advance the money to cover for them you should make a profit. This goes along with #4: who are they? . Don't believe things like "I'm going to get a job ..etc" I don't know how to get credit checks but all aprtment complexes do it and they're checking for eviction histories I believe. I would never put someone through the hassle of evicting me, I'd live in a tent if I was broke-- so if they've been evicted I think it's a bad, bad sign. I would also get some ID.
8) Have a signed lease so there's no memory problems "I didn't know there was going to be a late fee" , "I thought it was all right to get a cat." etc.
Main problems: Noise, pets, cleanliness, guests, money.
The first principle is someone who is fun to hang out with may not be a good person for a roommate, they're two different functions.
A roommate is not a friend-- They are someone you just want to quietly and cleanly use the facilities and not get you involved in his problems or his smoke, booze, pets, mess, violence, or excessive visitors. I have a dear friend who let a homeless guy move in for months into his apartment-- I love him but I thought he was insane.
Here are some things I've found that help. This only applies to non-smokers as I am one.
I'm also a musician, but most musicians also have bad habits that make them bad roommates so I'd rather push having the place be quiet than find cooperative musicians unless you are really tight and in a band together and it may help your endeavors to live together.
1) No chicks. They are entitled, and if they start to bring over their AMOG alpha , or rather the AMOG alpha MOVES IN you can't bitch without looking like the jealous bad guy.
2) No smokers ( if you don't smoke). They'll claim they'll only smoke in their room etc, but they always start to edge into the common areas "just for a second" to continue conversations, stand in open doorways, and smokers for obvious reasons are not long term planners ( unless they're planning for cancer)
3) Don't get anyone that uses any illegal drugs. Even if you like to do it, you should keep it secret ( hard with pot) because if they don't want to follow Gubmint rules they are also going to be resistant to yours.
4) Require something going on in their lives that conflicts with being a fuck-up.
If someone just works in a grocery store and is sober when they come over to interview, you still have no idea if they are a total drunk. If someone is a PhD student in Biochem they probably can't be total fuckups because they don't have time or brainpower to waste. I have two roommates who are serious graduate students at a high level university now, they are very motivated to not get in fights, get into conflicts.
One of them is a foreign grad student who has no motivation to cause trouble because if there is ever a problem he is not a citizen so he is not likely to escalate conflicts away from home territory. (Depends if he is from a macho culture of course.)
5) No pets. Everyone goes on vacation eventually and everyone wants free pet care while they're away. They're always asking you to take care of them, even fish smell, and it shows immaturity. I like dogs, so one exception if you have a big place in the country might be a dog. If you EVER have a pet move in make it clear and put in lease that the owner has complete responsibility and must place the animal in a boarding facility if he leaves the house for more than 24 hours.
My roommate got stuck with taking care of a guys dog for days. He said he was leaving for two days and she agreed to feed it, then he called at the end of the two days and said family problems were going to keep him longer than he thought and then didn't contact her for three more days. So not only no pets, but no taking care of others' pets for them.
6) Limited guest stayovers in lease. My roommate recently told me his girlfriend is visiting from Mexico for two weeks. At first he said they'd be traveling for a week of that, then I think he realized he doesn't have the money, next he'll probably be trying to get me to agree to have her stay more than two weeks. It should be strictly in the contract that guests are xx nights a month or whatever you think makes sense.Anything over a certain amount of days has to be agreed on and asked about a xx in advance. If he wants to live with his girlfriend he should get a place with her. This is a problem even with the nicest roommates because they cave in to their exploitive friends who ask for a place to stay. Then once they're there staying for free, it's hard to get them out , because they're the type to impose on a friend so they're the type to gladly impose on you too. It's all part of being that Alpha cool guy who always gets his way.
7) Know how they are going to pay the rent and have late fees. If you have to advance the money to cover for them you should make a profit. This goes along with #4: who are they? . Don't believe things like "I'm going to get a job ..etc" I don't know how to get credit checks but all aprtment complexes do it and they're checking for eviction histories I believe. I would never put someone through the hassle of evicting me, I'd live in a tent if I was broke-- so if they've been evicted I think it's a bad, bad sign. I would also get some ID.
8) Have a signed lease so there's no memory problems "I didn't know there was going to be a late fee" , "I thought it was all right to get a cat." etc.