The right flatmate can make a big difference in any flat or house share. The right mix of flatmates can be one of the biggest differences in making a house feel like a home. Unfortunately, when living together, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. This means knowing how to find the perfect flatmate can be hard.
Here are a few of the best tricks to use during your search for the perfect flatmate.
Decide what makes a flatmate perfect for you
A perfect flatmate can mean very different things to different people. For some people, the perfect flatmate is someone who stays quietly in their room.
Others want someone to go to Wetherspoons with every night, or want to find someone who is as neurotically clean as they are.
If you really want to find the perfect flatmate, know what a good one looks like to you. Knowing the type of person you’re looking for will give you a much better shot at finding the right person.
Start your search with mutual friends
Be sure to let all of your close friends know you are looking to find a flatmate. Chances are your interests and living style will line up much better with someone you are already friends with, rather than taking your chances with the basic internet flatmate query.
Don’t underestimate the power of posting a Facebook status. Those slight acquaintances we call Facebook friends can be very helpful in a flatmate search. Your university lab partner that you are still connected to might just be able to give you an introduction to the perfect flatmate.
Meet in person
There’s no better way to feel the vibe of someone than to meet them in person. Lots of people can seem amazing via email or text messages but be completely different in person.
If you already live in the flat, have them come to the flat to visit. You can also attend flatmate search meetup events to meet a lot of potential flatmates at once.
Ask a lot of questions
You never really know someone until you’ve lived together. Even if you’re moving in with a friend, make sure you ask a lot of questions. Learn as much as you can about their living habits.
While there are many questions to consider, the most important ones are those that are specifically relevant to sharing a home:
- Are they employed?
- What time do they go to bed?
- Do they like to have guests over?
- When do they tend to shower?
- What are their cleaning habits?
These are all important things to consider when living with someone else, and you can use this full list of questions to make sure you cover all ground.
Ask what a perfect flatmate looks like to them
Knowing what they would want in a perfect flatmate is also important to make sure you’ll be a good match.
If they’re hoping to find someone who wants to barbecue every night and you’re a vegetarian, that could be an early sign of a problem.
Make a lucky, right decision
Ok, this one isn’t really actionable, but sometimes you’ll just have to see how things go.
Even if you ask all the right questions, you can still get it wrong and end up living with the wrong person. Some people are great at introductions but turn out to be very different when you are actually interacting every day.
If you do end up living with someone who isn’t right, try to talk to them about the problems you have early on. The sooner you talk about the problems, the easier it is to get things resolved.
Plus, one final tip – living with flatmates will be even easier if you use acasa’s bill splitting app to track and split your shared expenses!
