Moving off-campus into an uptown rental is exciting. No more close quarters in the dorms, shared bathrooms, sleeping 2.5 feet away from a snoring roommate. It’s going to be great. You’re sure you still want roommates, but maybe you need to find one for that last bedroom, or you’re planning on just moving in with a bunch of complete strangers. Life’s an adventure; why not?
Here’s the thing, though – living with people isn’t always easy, and it’s not at all the same as living with family. If you want to make the most out of living in your Athens OU apartment or rental home, you’ve got to hash out some logistics first. Think about it: you’re signing a year-long, thousands-of-dollars contract with these people; you want to know the fine print is going to protect you should your roommate(s) become a problem.
Roomie Red Flags & How to Spot Them
First thing’s first: There are some people who make terrible roommates. Are they fun to go to the bars with? Yeah, maybe. But that does not mean they’re roommate material. After all, you want a house full of fun and friends, not a house where you constantly feel like a taken-advantage-of parent. Avoid these types of people at all costs:
The Deadbeat
If someone has had problems with landlords or utility companies in the past, just don’t risk it. You never know – they might fail to pay their portion of the rent or bills and leave you and the rest of the roommates to pick up the slack. This turns into a vicious cycle, because they know the rest of you aren’t going to let the lights go out, so there’s really no reason for them to ever start chipping in, and, unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of ways to hold them accountable.
The Hoarder
Whether it’s haunted figurines or 153 indoor plants, these people are messy, and a constant risk to your security deposit. Not to mention, not many of us like a cluttered space, or people who think the common areas are just for them. Nope. Boundaries. Set them.
The Parasite
It’s one thing to share expenses or go grocery shopping together; it’s another thing when your roommates just assume they can rely on you to feed them and buy their drinks at the bars. Make sure you’re signing a lease with a roommate, not a child you then have to feed and bring with you everywhere.
The Creeper
Some roommates are more social than others, and those who won’t stop standing in your doorway and talking your ear off take it to the extreme. Strongly consider exactly how social you want to be when living with the other people in your 4-bedroom rental home. Are you here for someone who always wants to know exactly where you’ve been, where you’re going and what you’re up to? It’s strong YOU energy, that’s for sure…
The Control Freak
You’re looking for roommates and you’ve come upon a neat-freak. While you might think, “Hey – this means I won’t be the only person taking the trash out and doing the dishes,” there’s a downside to people who are anal-retentive about cleanliness. Especially when living with others, and especially when living in an uptown student rental. You don’t want someone constantly nagging you about taking your shoes off at the door, or moving things around all the time because they need the living room to be a certain way. These people are great for your security deposit, but not your daily life or your mental health.
The Hurricane
We could also call this roommate The Linus, but that would show our age. Regardless, some people have no boundaries: they’re messy, they’re loud – they’re all over the place. These are people who should be living in 1-bedroom apartments, not big groups in 5-bedroom houses. Don’t make the mistake of inviting a loud and violent storm of a person into your home for 24/7/365.
How can you be sure you avoid these people? Everyone puts their best foot forward when meeting, and there’s no way to be 100% sure you don’t get bamboozled. However, the best way to spot these red flags is to pay attention – become a personality analyst of sorts. The Deadbeat will always have a reason a past roommate problem wasn’t their fault. The Hurricane will have a hard time getting you positive references from previous roommates. The Creeper will not. stop. talking. When meeting a potential for the first time, listen to your gut and trust it.
Talking About Money
Okay, so it’s pretty safe to say that nobody likes talking about money. But when you’re renting a multi-bedroom house or apartment off-campus, the leases are usually for a total amount, not specifically split between each roommate. That means that y’all need to sit down and organize, so that everyone knows what they’re responsible for.
Sometimes things are simple and you can split rent and utilities evenly between each inhabitant in your 4-bedroom rental. But sometimes it’s not. So, if someone takes the biggest, nicest bedroom, maybe they should chip in a bit more rent than the person in the small bedroom in the basement. Or if one of your roommates is an avid gamer and has a crazy PC setup, they’re using a bunch more electricity than the rest of you; maybe they should pay more than ¼ of the electric bill.
Same thing with heating and cooling; if one roommate just needs to have the AC on all the time, they should foot more of the electric and/or gas bill. And with water, what if one of you is taking 3 showers a day, or if your rental home has a yard and someone’s insisted on a garden, which needs watered often?
To keep peace in the house, go into moving day with these things figured out so no one feels blindsided or called out. It’s more important that bills are split fairly than evenly.
Establishing House Rules
Like we said, living with people who aren’t your family is a whole different ball game. And we all have a list of things we need to feel comfortable where we are. After all, what’s the point in snatching up a cool rental home with a view of Court Street and a backyard if actually living in it is a nightmare? Hash out things like:
- Who does which chores? And when? Nothing wrong with keeping a chart on a dry-erase board for this one.
- How everybody’s bill portions are collected and paid each month.
- Noise limits. If someone needs to be up at 6 am, it’s not cool to be loudly partying in the house until 2 am on a Tuesday.
- Keeping track of what’s what in the kitchen. How will you define whose food is whose? You could label, split fridge and cabinet real estate up by roommate, or all chip in equally on group grocery chips and then share what’s in the house.
- Common space use and setup, so no one feels like one person’s bogarting the living room all the time.
- Laundry schedules. Believe it or not, laundry gets super contentious. Make things clear.
The best way to settle all these issues before you move in and really make people commit to the finances and rules is to make a roommate contract that each person signs. It’s a little bit like a prenup, and it gets everyone on the same page before move-in day even arrives. This is also a later time to spot a horrible roommate before it’s too late: if someone is totally against these ideas, they’re not the person you want to share a kitchen with for the next year.
With all of these aspects of living with roommates, the big things are (1) Look into your possible roommates before you sign a lease together, just like you should research the Athens rental company you’re thinking of renting from before you sign a lease. (2) Be clear and concise about the logistics of living together. When everyone knows what’s expected of themselves and each other, it’s easier to cooperate, and to hold people accountable.
(3) Have the best time living in a big house off-campus, right near uptown, and enjoy the new responsibilities just as much as the new freedom. It’s the start of real life – it might be scary, but it’s also exciting. And hey, roommates are people to lean on – we all get by with a little help from our friends.