Confused by the bills you need to track in your shared home? Tired of using an spreadsheet and working out the formulas? Housemate’s Companion by Slamdunk Software comes to your rescue.  It’s brand new and looks exactly like the basic tool that everyone needs. It not only offers easy management of the bills, it sends the bills to your housemates through email and allows you to track payment.  If you have the confusing scenario of people moving in and out, Housemate’s Companion can simply figure out who owes whom what.

Along with bill management, the next difficult thing for housemates is managing the chores. Housemate’s Companion has a  chore roster ability allowing chores to be rotated fairly. The roster can be emailed or printed.  The author have also added the ability to send landlords notifications of problems. It also tracks the security deposit (bond in Australia).

It has a nice look and a straightforward interface. A series of video tutorials will show you what it looks like and how it can be used.

So far the software is only for Windows machines.  Slamdunk Software (isn’t that a great name!) promise they are working on a Mac version and also an iPhone ap!

“The time has come!” declared Malcolm Johnson, Chairman of Homeshare International, in his welcome and introductions to delegates at the First International HomeShare Congress. In a world with a growing elderly population living alone, and with housing prices trending higher, it simply makes sense to match older householders with younger renters who can offer help with daily tasks in exchange for housing.

Delegates to the congress came from England, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, the United States, and Australia. All are working on developing homeshare programs, but the programs are quite different. Some are only to help elderly and disabled. Other programs are open to matching people of all ages. One program in the United States works specifically to help the homeless find housing. Some programs are for profit, but most are not for profit. Some are funded by the government. In Australia, this year, for the first time, the Victorian State budget has funds to support homeshare programs. In France and in Germany, steps toward homeshare funding by government entities are being taken.

A common theme was the difficulty of making good matches. It takes time and effort. The older generation is not used to the idea of sharing their home, hence there are often fewer householders offering housing in exchange for help than there are younger people interested in living rent-free. It may be that the baby boomer generation will be more open to the idea of homeshare than the World War II generation is. Questions were raised about how to market homeshare and whether it would be better to have homeshare matching be more like a dating service (Harmony.com?) than the very personal and time-intensive matching system used by most of the agencies.

Delegates told stories of relationships between the householder and the caregiver in which both people were changed by their relationship “ their worlds made richer by the reciprocity of giving inherent in the homeshare arrangement.

Despite the difficulties cited, the delegates are committed to the concept of homeshare. It is a simple idea that the world needs.

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 kitchen and other common rooms in the house.

The room that belongs to one person, that they pay rent for, is their own space. Everyone has a right to being left alone in their own space, assuming that their habits don’t make a problem outside of the room.

Housemate Heaven is a website that presents 16 “lifestyle types”. The reader is asked to pick the type that best describes themselves.  The 16 types are based on four basic categories: how personal property is shared, cleanliness of the house, the level of sociability between housemates and the attitude towards guests.  It’s an attempt to help individuals think about who they are and what they are looking for in a housesharing arrangement.

I’ve just read an article on Helium about nightmare housemates. It’s enough to make one think that sharing housing is a bad idea.  It isn’t. There are plenty of wonderful people out there who are great housemates.

What makes a housemate a nightmare? Self-centeredness. Plain and simple. The nightmare housemate breaks agreements and/or refuses to modify their behavior when something becomes an issue.

You avoid having nightmare housemates by knowing what you want and carefully interviewing. Once you’ve decided that the interviewee is a potential housemate you must check references and employment.  True, the potential housemate will only send you to people who are going to recommend them, nonetheless the  reference doesn’t know what you are looking for.  You can find out quite a lot about a person from references. Ask for two. And then talk to them. Engage in a long conversation. Find out how they know the person, how long,  whether they’ve ever lived with them, and if they have what that experience was like. Ask for specific stories. Find out how often the person has moved.  All you have to do for checking employment is to call the organization main number and ask, “Does [housemate name] work in your organization?”

Also it is essential that the person moving in pays the first month, last month AND security deposit.  Don’t waver on this!  If your future housemate tries to wheedle with you about any of this take it as a warning about how they will behave when they move in.  That extra money is your security about their ability to pay bills and take care of the place.

Some people like to have agreements in writing – the better to ensure that everyone understands the expectations of the arrangement. If you do sit down and make an agreement – do it between the interview and when the person moves in. Don’t have the person move in and then work out a living together agreement. If the person can’t make time to do this, then don’t have them move in.

Most importantly, don’t get desparate for a housemate.  The worst mistake I’ve ever made was when I was desparate.  It didn’t last long, I kicked her and her boyfriend out within 6 weeks – but it wasn’t  fun for the  two weeks the situation developed. It’s really awful, in fact nightmarish, to have someone in your home with whom you are uncomfortable, unhappy, or angry. The best defence against nightmare housemates is to choose carefully.  It is possible.

Your goal in the initial phone call is to determine if there is enough of a match to spend time showing and looking at the space.

You should have a clear idea of what you MUST have in a housemate and living situation. What you must have is very different from what you would like to have.  In the phone conversation you can find out if the “must haves” are met by the space. If not, there is no reason to continue the conversation.

Some examples of “Must Haves” might be space for pets or no pets, space for visiting offspring, or other important people in your life, bathroom access, or convenient public transportation. For years, I had a must have of “no TV”.  That made it much easier to find suitable housemates.

The point here is that your “Must Haves” can simplify the time you spend looking for a housemate.

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 housemate is definitely leaving and you are going to have an empty  room in your house.  You had a sense that this was going to happen. Your  housemate is moving on to a new part of life. She/he is moving in with his boyfriend or girlfriend, has taken a job in a different city, has decided to go back to school, or simply wants a different living situation. Great for him/her! It’s a big step to make a change. All this is understandable. But now you have an empty room. And you need the money.

So who has to fill the room?

It’s possible that you have an agreement that says that person has to find you a housemate. This makes them responsible for doing the work: writing and posting an ad, fielding inquiries, making arrangements for interviews. Sounds nice? All taken care of?

Guess what? You – not them – have to live with the person they find. Unless you are incredibly easy going and never spend time at home, I respectfully suggest that you should take an active role in finding your next housemate. You might share the work but ultimately it should be the person/people staying that have the deciding voice about who moves in.

Start at the beginning. Don’t take shortcuts.

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.

There is a longish article in the NY Times about people sharing housing in the suburbs of NY. See it’s happening everywhere!