Living With Roommates: Part Four
The thought of living with a complete and total stranger can seem nerve-racking, but the fact of the matter is many apartment dwellers prefer to choose a random roommate to share costs rather than take a friend or relative in and invite a personality or family clash.
According to Sara Zailskas, 27, a Cicero, IL native now living in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood, it is a little scary to move in with a stranger, but services out there such as Craigslist.com, Screenfirst.com and Roommates.com can help people immensely with the search. Much like a dating service, these sites can help you narrow down candidates based on personality and economic circumstances.
“Our lease was up and we had one roommate (out of three) who just didn’t want roommates anymore,” says Zailskas. “So she moved out and got a studio on her own. I didn’t have anybody in mind that I had the desire to live with. We decided to go out and put out a post for a roommate.”
The response, even to Zailskas, was surprising.
“It was instantaneous. We had all kinds of people calling and replying to our post,” says Zailskas. “Some were random people … others were companies calling us trying to place an intern or find a place for an incoming executive.”
Zailskas and her roommate were very careful on the selection process. People that had no desire to see the place beforehand were checked off the list. But the pair put lifestyle choices as first and foremost on the list.
“We still party and go out, but we normally don’t bring the party back home with us anymore,” says Zailskas. “We also made it very clear who we were and what we were looking for.”
In the end, the pair had roughly four candidates to choose from. Mostly the pair talked to candidates on the phone with varying degrees of success, but the one they settled on had only traded e-mails with them.
“We got a good vibe from the e-mails and we said OK, come on over and see the place … after we met and it was all over, we just kind of looked at each other and thought hey, that’s the one,” says Zailskas.
Living arrangements and personality preferences aside, there is one caveat to the selection process. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, when making any posting to find a roommate, you must comply with section 3604(c) of the Federal Fair Housing Act. This law generally prohibits stating a discriminatory preference based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin in any notice or ad for the sale or rental of a dwelling.
While you can’t discriminate, it is important to recognize that things can get a little awkward around the holidays or in the refrigerator if you and your roommates come from different religious or cultural backgrounds. Fair housing is important, but so is free speech—so if you feel that you want the explicit right to choose exactly who is puttering around in your living room, it’s probably a better idea to find someone you know.
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