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 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.

A good roommate ad has five types of information. It should list the location and the rent. It should also include a description of the room for rent and the larger house,  something about yourself as a housemate, and a description of what you are looking for in a housemate.

The location and the rent should be easy. The descriptions take a bit more thought and care with the words you use. You want to make it sound attractive and you need to be honest.

If you’ve done spent time thinking about who you are as a housemate and what you want in a housemate, it is much, much easier to write your descriptions. If you are a neat-freak, you describe that. You want a housemate for whom living with a neat-freak is a good thing! If the room for rent is small you say so and also something interesting.  For instance, I used to rent a room in my house that was tiny. But is was also light-filled and the house was close to public transportation. Those benefits outweighed the smallness of the room.

The usual sort of things to list include ages of current housemates, sex, occupations (nine to five? or other schedule) attractive features of house/location/room, and something interesting that would signal to a reader that you would be a good housemate for them.   Look at other postings to get good ideas but remember that you are a unique person. Communicate that.