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In your quest to find other people to share a space with, you’ve probably come across the terms roommate and housemate. So what’s the difference? Is there any difference?
Looking For An Apartment With Roommates
In technical terms, a roommate is someone you share a bedroom with, while a housemate is someone you share a house or apartment with.
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However, in the United States, people often use the term roommate or roommate to refer to anyone with whom you share a living space, even if you do not share a bedroom.
At , we use the term housemate to help alleviate some of this confusion. This term refers to anyone you share a living space with, whether you share a bedroom or not.
When you’re thinking about your next living arrangement and calculating your cost of living, it’s important to keep in mind how people often use the terms housemate and roommate interchangeably. Just because someone says they’re looking for a new roommate, don’t assume you’ll be sharing a bedroom. At the same time, if someone says they’re looking for a roommate, it’s a smart idea to check whether or not you’ll be sharing a bedroom.
So if you see someone advertising that they’re looking for the perfect roommate, it’s worth checking to see what they’re really looking for. Are they looking to share a bedroom, or just looking to share a house? If you don’t follow up on potential roommates, you could miss out on finding a great person to share your living space with.
Questions To Ask Potential Roommates
Remember, when you’re looking for housing in a new city like San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York, one of the most important aspects of your living situation is your roommate/mate relationship. While you don’t need to find a roommate you want to hang out with 24/7, it’s a smart idea to find someone you’re compatible with.
After all, you will be living in a shared house where everyone’s opinion matters. And if you just pick a random person, you might be in for a bad time.
So, we have cleared the differences between roommate and housemate. However, remember that not everyone has read this article! If you’re not sure what a person is referring to when they say, “I’m looking for a good roommate,” just ask them to clarify. Looking for a roommate you can count on to pay some of the rent? When it comes to living in New York City, nothing comes cheap—and these days, rents are skyrocketing. Rent sharing makes a lot of financial sense, but this well-traveled path is still fraught with the potential for many pitfalls. I should know.
Fresh out of law school in California and new to NYC, I was determined to find a reasonable apartment without compromising safety and living standards (in other words, no bathtub in the middle of the kitchen). So when I took a lease on a one-bedroom on the Upper West Side with a view of Central Park—from the bathroom and only standing on tiptoes—I decided to do what other recent graduates and Thrifty 30-somethings are over: Looking for a stranger to share my abode, a tricky proposition in the pre-Airbnb era.
How To Behave As A Good Roommate In An Apartment?
Back then, there weren’t as many options for finding roommates as there are today. The first “matchmaking room” quickly became my BFF (and still is to this day), not so much the second or third. It turns out that I had the same success rates when joining friends of friends or alumni connections. It just goes to show that modern-day algorithms can indeed outperform old-fashioned analog methods (aka word of mouth), although each method has its pros and cons.
No matter which route you take—whether it’s combing through ads on Craigslist (my previous checkup) or using a roommate-finding service to do the screening for you (one out of three fails on my scorecard ) – the instructions are the same:
[Editor’s note: An earlier version of this post was published in June 2022. We are resubmitting it here with updated information for June 2023.]Two more lessons to live by when looking at any site or profile: Go with your gut and keep an open mind.
The Pros And Cons Of Living With Roommates
And FYI: if you’re curious about co-living options, where you rent a furnished room in a shared apartment with roommates, check out Roomrs, Common, and Outpost Club. This deal is especially useful if you don’t need a 12-month lease.
Alternatively, start your search with Brick Underground’s top 11 resources (listed in alphabetical order), all of which will help you make your favorable roommate match.
Founded in 2014, NYC-based Diggz has expanded to 25 other cities across the US. It takes less than three minutes to create your profile. Once you sign up, Diggz’s proprietary algorithm ranks your potential roommates so the most promising are at the top of the list, which you can further refine with search filters (no analysis on dead end profiles ). It’s then up to you to “like” any of those people and, if they “like” you back (à la Tinder or Bumble), chat with your matches through the app before sharing any personal contact information.
There’s no cost to post your profile or listing, but signing up for Diggz Premium membership lets you communicate faster with potential roommates, get unlimited “likes,” and get extra filters if you’re extra picky. Prefer to pair up with someone looking for a new place to live? Diggz lets you do that too.
What You’ll Pay To Rent A Nyc Studio Or One Bedroom By Yourself Vs. Sharing An Apartment With Roommates
According to its website, Diggz uses “A.I. as well as human eyes to prevent and detect any deceptive-looking or sketchy roommate profiles.” They also remove outdated or inactive accounts, so you’ll only search through relevant profiles.
IROOMit is a one-stop shop for finding a roommate or sublet. You create a profile based on where you want to live, your budget, preferences for things like furnished apartments, and your tolerance for smoking, children and pets. Profiles are verified by both AI and real people, adding a layer of security. You can also perform a background check directly on the platform. There is a lifestyle quiz so you can make sure the person is a good fit. And you can filter your search by location, price range and apartment video tours. There are also paid subscriptions, starting at $6 for a three-day trial, which gives you access to full profiles, unlimited messages, and other benefits.
When you think you’ve found your match, you can schedule a chat or video call on the platform to meet virtually. And if all goes well, iROOMit also contains eDocuments to sign a lease or roommate agreement.
If you count yourself among the many creative professionals in NYC and want ultra-personal service and no bait-and-switch posts, The Listings Project is a bit of a local legend.
Your Ultimate Guide To Roommates
Originally started as Stephanie Diamond’s personal project to help artists like herself find living (and working studio) spaces in NYC, the site has grown into a full operation offering rooms (and entire apartments) for rent or sublet, with 300 to 600 free listings per site each week.
Those looking to list an apartment pay about $30. Someone from the Diamond team then goes through each listing to remove brokers and agents, personally notifying owners if they’ve been approved. The team also bans any listings that violate the Listings Project’s community agreements and terms of use and ensures that spaces are welcoming.
People looking for a room to rent then sign up (for free) to receive a weekly email sent every Wednesday morning. Word of mouth says you better act fast or miss out on top picks or try your luck again next week. (Hint: Set a recurring reminder on your phone).
Padmapper is not specifically a roommate search site, nor does it function as such. That said, you can easily scroll around the interactive map (hence the site name) for places that fit your customizable criteria.
How To Negotiate Your Rent
A few pointers are in order for room hunters: You’ll have to select the “room” option under “more filters” on the main search page to find a share, and you won’t get much information about who you’ll be sharing the space with. living with There are currently about 105 rooms available on the site, but keep in mind some of these listings are furnished rooms, short-term listings, paid listings, and college student spots (there are filters for all of these).
After moving to the big city as a graduate student in 2011, founder Sarah Hill (per website) “realized there was a real need for reliable information and support tailored to young professionals and students moving to New York City for first time. .” So while working in real estate, she started matching roommates as a side gig until it turned into a full-fledged business with a team of certified matchmakers in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.
The service works like this: You start by filling out an onboarding questionnaire (and scheduling an optional 15-minute phone call
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