Has your house become too expensive for you? If so, you are hardly alone. According to RealtyTrak, in 2010 between 3 million and 3.5 million foreclosure warnings will be issued. This is up from 2009′s record of 2.8 million. (USA Today, Feb. 11 2010) That’s a lot of houses, that’s a lot of unhappy people. [...]
Posts under ‘Sharing Housing Basics’
The Time Has Come?
At a conference in the summer of 2009, home sharing was declared “An idea whose time has come”. But this is not a new idea. It is an old, old way of living. History is full of examples of individuals sharing housing. Farm helpers lived on the farm. Teachers and preachers boarded with families. Servants [...]
Hardly Forgotten
It’s been awhile since I wrote on this blog. I’ve been hard at work on the book of the same name as this blog. Draft 1 is complete. I can focus once again on writing for the blog. The book offers a step by step guide on how to go about finding and selecting housemates [...]
Internet Matching Services
While Craigslist simply offers the ability to post, there are internet services that offer matching services. For a (in general) small fee you can get an account and are prompted through questions that create your profile. Since everyone has a profile, it is possible to search for housemates that match your criteria. You can also [...]
The interview – Key to success
“She seemed nice enough.” “He was well-spoken and gentle.” “We were friends and both needed a place to live.” These are real quotes from people who ended up being unhappy about their shared housing arrangements. What do they have in common? Lazy interviewing. All three neglected to really consider the interview and what they needed [...]
Calculating Housing Costs
The general rule of thumb for a reasonable amount to spend on housing is now 30% of gross income. It used to be 27%. The three percent increase probably represents a creep upward as everyone copes with higher housing costs. So what is 30% actually? Here’s a quick look. Income $25,000, housing $625 a month. [...]
Older Householders
As I interview people sharing houses, I notice a generational shift about sharing housing. The folks who came of age in the late 60′s and after, are more comfortable with the idea that the WWII generation. This makes sense. The WWII generation came of age when marriage, 4 children families, and a stay-at-home mom were [...]
Cleanliness – the Kitchen
The kitchen is the most used common room in a home. When there are housemates, the kitchen is often the place for casual conversation, laughter, and sharing. It can also be a source of irritation and anger when members of a household don’t have the same standards of cleanliness and/or guidelines are not followed. It [...]
Golden Rule
The Golden Rule – “do unto others what you would have them do to you” is key to living well with your housemates. If you don’t like to walk into a kitchen with dirty dishes in the sink, don’t leave dirty dishes in the sink. If you want to be told when a housemate is [...]
Private space vs. Common space
For four years I had a housemate who was an incredible slob in his room. There was stuff all over the floor with barely a path to his bedroom. Did I ever say anything to him about that? No! That was his room to do with as he pleased. He was perfectly neat in the [...]