Finding a roommate is a daunting task, one that requires great amounts of finesse and diplomacy. It involves a lot of planning and thinking.
It requires you to sit down and figure out what exactly you need at a particular time, and figure out how your likes and dislikes will be able to peacefully coexist with another human being in an apartment.
Then you have to throw your net out wide and look through the millions of people also looking for a roommate to figure out who would be the best fit.
This process requires copious amounts of grit and determination. It might be a tad frustrating, but you have to be determined to stay the course and snag yourself a great roommate. Where can one find a good roommate?
There are lots of ways to get a roommate. If you’re a student looking for a roommate, you can find fliers advertising for just that on almost every bulletin board around campus. If you’re a young professional, you can rely on roommate finder websites to help you get a roommate.
In this article, we’ll discuss a few of them, and then you’ll be armed with enough information to make your choice.
Best Roommate Finders
Word of Mouth
Humans have been using word of mouth to access opportunities from the time they discovered language. With word of mouth, you can let your network know that you are looking for a roommate, and then someone from your network who knows someone who needs a roommate will connect the two of you.
It’s a good and easy way to make connections, and since both parties have people in common, it takes away the need for an extensive security and background check.
Facebook Groups
Facebook has evolved from a way of keeping tabs on family members and old friends to a gold mine of opportunities for everything from housing to job opportunities.
How do you get a roommate on Facebook? Simple. Just join the neighborhood Facebook group (some neighborhoods and apartment complexes have Facebook groups to keep in touch with residents and share important information), introduce yourself, and let them know you’re looking for a roommate. You will definitely get a response.
You should be careful though. While these groups are carefully curated, there’s always the possibility of meeting a scammer.
Don’t share personal information until you have interviewed the person and done some background checks.
Online Roommate Finders
There are a good number of apps and sites that have been created to make the roommate hunt easier and faster for you. Here are a few of them.
Craigslist
Craigslist is one of the oldest websites people have used to find roommates across the United States. It boasts large classified sections with listings from almost everywhere you can imagine. You can post your own listings or surf through available listings for accurate, high-quality listings. You should be on high alert though, and trust your instincts to help keep you safe from scams.
Craigslist is free for all users.
Reddit is like Craigslist in the way that it is free for all kinds of posts, not just roommate posts. The listings are not organized into categories, so if you want to find roommate listings, you have to search using the keywords “roommates” and your exact location. You will find that there are subreddits that cater to your location.
Reddit is free for all users.
Diggz
Diggz is a roommate search tool that helps you find quality roommate matches by helping you narrow down your search. It accomplishes this by learning details of your everyday habits, like your sleeping habits and times, your social life, and other factors that could be potential sources of discord in a living arrangement and narrowing down the search to ten matches that are most similar to you.
Diggz is free to use, with some paid features like extra messaging. Diggz also offers weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly subscriptions to its premium services.
PadMapper
This tool is not specific to roommate hunting, but it shows all the available rooms and apartments for rent in your preferred area, including listings from those looking to get roommates.
PadMapper uses a map-based interface and serves cities in the United States and Canada. PadMapper is free to use.
Rainbow Roommates
Rainbow Roommates is a roommate search tool designed to help people in New York’s LGBTQ community find roommates. If that’s your thing, then this roommate finder is the right fit for you.
It is on the pricey side, with users signing up for subscriptions ranging from 15 days ($30) to 90 days ($93). It claims to be able to help new clients find people to live with in two weeks or less.
Roomi
Roomi is an app that has an online dating vibe, as users can browse postings and accept (yay) or reject (nay) them at a glance. Posters can verify their identities and complete a background check to show their legitimacy and the site ensures your privacy is protected by giving you the option of sending messages without revealing your email address. Listings are available for major U.S cities and up to 26 other countries worldwide.
Pricing: Personal and business accounts are free, with a maximum of two active listings at a time and five personal connections.
People looking have five free messages per day. To enjoy ID verification and background check, create more listings, or message more people, you need to upgrade to the weekly ($14.99) or monthly ($29.99) Roomi Gold packages.
SpareRoom
SpareRoom is a platform moderated by humans that checks for scams and monitors content quality. You can search all the ads and listings on SpareRoom without an account, but you’ll need to register if you want to post an ad or contact other users.
Registration is free and affords you the opportunity to post an ad or respond to free ads, but there’s the option to upgrade. This upgrade, which costs $10.99 for seven days gives users better access to the listings and gets listings to rank higher for better visibility.
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One Last Word
Finding a roommate doesn’t have to make you anxious or stressed if you just pick one of these apps or tools and work with them.
It will go a long way in making your life easier, and you can recommend them to other people.
