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Pro and Con List for Roommates |
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Written by Ken Bauer
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Below is a list of pro & cons to help you find your compatibility
with potential roommates; and remember, it is better to cancel plans to
room with someone now than enter a one year or more lease with someone
you will constantly be at odds with.
Pro: Someone who plans out purchasing groceries or simply believes in buying their own altogether.
Con: Someone who rarely buys groceries but always eats them. Beware of
the roommate who wants to “split” the costs of groceries. It is
impossible to consume exactly half of the groceries and nobody that
plans on being on the losing end of this transaction is hyped about it.
Someone that doesn’t mind splitting grocery costs is usually the one
that consumes the most.
Suggestions: Keep it simplified. Keep your groceries in a separate small dorm room sized refrigerator and, or freezer.
Pro: Make sure that written agreements are made out outlining each
roommate’s responsibilities to pay utilities and then have it
notarized. Notarizing is an inexpensive way to turn simple written
agreements into legally binding contracts and the service is abundantly
available. Many banks offer notarizing for free or little charge or
know where it is available.
Con: Someone that is reluctant to sign such an agreement or that even
seems upset when asked to sign it. Many times an early warning of a
delinquent bill payer is when they seem upset about having to pay their
fair share without extremely valid reasons.
Suggestions: Try to evenly divide the utility bills so that each
roommate has some responsibility of collecting from others. This may
provide understanding and empathy towards each other when it comes to
paying and collecting bills.
Pro: Someone that has his or her own computer or laptop. Someone that
is willing to admit that they use internet enough to help pay for it.
Someone who does not have free file-sharing software on his or her
computer.
Con: Someone that does not have his or her own computer and constantly
wants to use yours “for just a minute.” Someone that says they do not
use the internet all that much so only wants to pay a little part of
the internet bill or nothing at all. (Potentially very big problem =
Someone that has installed free (and some paid for) file-sharing
software on their computer. The reason is that internet providers only
give you so many connections to the internet and no matter what that
limit is file-sharing software will use all of them constantly. This
will eventually greatly reduce your internet performance. The reason
that these software programs don’t immediately hamper your internet
performance is that if they did you would be able to immediately
identify them as the source of your internet problems. For that reason
they are designed to slowly start to consume more of your internet
bandwidth, eventually slowing it to a crawl or bringing it to a
complete stop. When you have multiple roommates using the same internet
and just one uses file-sharing software all of the roommates will
eventually feel the pinch. For more on this topic see the technology category of this website.
Pro: Someone that constantly likes a home to be clean. Someone that
never let’s his or her home get too dirty so as to prevent the need for
massive cleaning sessions. Someone that cleans dishes as they use them
or at least rinses them off. Someone that understands the need for the
trash to be taken out every day or two at the most is a very good
thing.
Con: Someone that doesn’t seem to mind food (especially fruit and
vegetables) that has been lying around for days. Someone that doesn’t
mind others having to clean up after them. Someone that doesn’t take
out the trash on their own. All of the fore mentioned creates long
lasting foul smells and creates a haven for pests and rodents.
Suggestions: Use disposable products likes paper plates, paper napkins,
plastic cups, even plastic forks, knives and spoons. Plastic and paper
products can make things flow much more smoothly in a house full of
young people that are less than enthused about cleaning up after
themselves. Still, this will only solve dish cleaning and some linen
problems, it will not solve a roommate that leaves food and drinks
lying around the dorm or house on those plates for days at a time.
Pro: A potential roommate with their own vehicle.
Con: None really. A roommate that needs a ride to the grocery store
every now and then is not the end of the world. You may be the one
without a car. Even if you have a car it may be in ill repair on
occasion and you may need a favor.
Suggestions: Plan out how you will get to the store, laundry, and other
places where you and other roommates will need to go. This will go a
long way and is usually not to much of a problem between roommates.
Back to Roommates
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