Moving long distance presents a challenge.  How do you find a place to live when you aren’t there to see the place and to interview potential housemates? Some people make the trip for a weekend ahead of time and try to jam it all in and maybe they get lucky.  I’m sure some do get lucky. I wonder how many nightmare housemate stories come from panicked decisions?

In addition to using Craigslist and other internet tools to find place to rent, the Internet offers another wonderful tool for interviewing. Skype.  With Skype you can see the person which is a whole lot more than listening to them on the telephone and more than emailing or texting. It is said that a decision is made in the first 30 seconds of a job interview. I don’t know if that’s true for housemate interviews but I do think seeing is a huge help.

This interview is a step in your process. Don’t rent a space without physically seeing it. Use Skype to narrow down your choices and then get on an airplane to check them out.

One of the first hurdles in deciding to share the home you live in is figuring out what to charge your future housemates.

Renting

When you are all renting the space, this is somewhat easy as generally people simply divide the rent by the number of persons. Occasionally a room will be significantly better or worse than the others – in that case it usually works to adjust the rent to match the benefits or constraints that the room has for the renter.

Owner

More difficult is figuring out the what to charge when you own the home. Your costs include property tax, maintenance as well as the mortgage. In this case, you are best researching your local market. Find out what the going rate is in your area. Be realistic about what your house offers someone else. In setting a cost, don’t get greedy. Though it may be tempting to “see what you can get” remember that this person will be your housemate. You want them to feel comfortable. You also want them to feel that the rent is fair.  Even better if you can set it so that it is good for you and a really good deal for the future housemate(s). You will have more people interested in the space and  therefore more choice about who you invite to live with you.

The ad you write needs to have six types of information:

• Location
• Features of the room and house
• Something about who you are
• What you are looking for
• The financial informaton
• Contact information

The location is in the subject line or headline of a paper ad. The headline should also describe the basics. It is a house, apartment, and how many people there already.

The features should describe the attractive qualities of the room and the larger house/apartment. Is it sunny? Close to public transportation? Have an eat-in kitchen? An outdoor yard?

Describe the current occupants briefly, usually the sex and age range is sufficient. Include any animals. Describe how the house is used. Is is active with people coming and going? Or is it quiet? Do people have regular work schedules? Does anyone stay home all day?

Describe what you want in a house mate. This is an important piece of the ad, because it is here that you make it possible for the right person to go “oh that’s the right place for me.” Fair Housing law requires that you not advertise gender or age of what you are looking for, but you can certainly describe a quality you are looking for.

Then put in upfront what the cost is, the utilities arrangement and the deposits required. No point in talking to anyone who can’t meet those basics.

Contact info: Don’t put your name. Use an anonymous email account for the advertisement.  A phone number is fine, if you have caller ID.  You want it to be easy to ignore someone if you’ve decided that they aren’t right for you.

That’s it. Simple? Sort of. Try to be descriptive and interesting in short sentences. Good luck.