Help me think of questions to ask potential roommates!

Since my roommate is moving out at the end of May and no one that I know personally is looking for a place to live I have started advertising for someone to take her room. I have received some responses and have been doing my best to sort through the people who are interested and find those I would best be able to live with for several months or more. The problem is that every roommate I have ever had has been a friend and not been someone that I needed to ask for references or anything like that. I have never had to interview someone for something like this before and it strikes me as a weird combination of a first date/job interview.

I am in an excellent position of being able to afford the space on my own for a while if need be so I don’t need to take the first applicant that comes along just to have someone to help pay the bills but I would have to cut out a lot of the more pleasant things in life to pay it all by myself so if I can avoid having to cover all the rent on my own for too horribly long that would be best. Now that I am starting to get responses to my ad I am wondering what exactly to ask them. I have stipulated in the ad that first and last months rent are required up front and that they must have at least two references but after that I am stumped for questions that don’t sound like something you would ask a blind date. (Are you a smoker? What kind of things do you do for fun? What do you do for a living?)

What questions would you ask to someone you were considering having as a roommate? Am I legally able to run a credit check or a background check on them or anything like that? Is there a roommate application somewhere that I can have them fill out or does that kind of thing not really exsist?

Also, I just realized I posted this in the wrong forum…would a mod be so kind as to move this to IMHO?

Maybe this is the college kid in me coming out, but I feel like a simple scope-out of the person should do it, at least for me. Does the person seem fairly articulate in their emails/phone calls? Do they look like someone you could live with? The only questions I might even ask would be about sleeping/partying habits and presence of illegal drug use. Neither of which I asked before I moved into my current place, but have adjusted to.

I see no reason why you couldn’t create your own roomate form, asking for some basic details.

Questions I can think of that might give you an idea of the potential roomies personality (and yes they sound naff, but if you just set the scene of 'ok, these questions sound really naff, but it’s the only way i can think of to see if you’re the sort of person i’d like to live with…):
Do you tend to go out most evenings or stay in?
What’s your idea of a fun night out?
What’s your idea of a fun night in?
Do you have friends in the area?
What types of people are you friends with?
What types of people do you find hard to get along with?
Are you the sort of person who likes to do a big clean every now and then, or do you prefer to do a bit of a clean every day?
Do you like to cook? Would you want to share cooking duties or just cook for yourself?
Are you a morning person or a night person?

ETA: I wouldn’t put these questions on the form, these are more conversation questions where you’d be giving your own opinions too, so your potential roomie can learn about you as well.

I found this in a quick google search. More about compatibility but that’s important too. You need to know if you can live with this person. Even if their background and credit checks out they can still drive you crazy.

Have fun and good luck.

How often do you watch TV? Do you tend to have the TV on for background noise? (If you are a background-TV person, tell them this)
Do you listen to music alot? If yes, what kind of music, how loud do you like it?
How often will you bring friends over in the evening?
How often will you have friends stay overnight?
Is there an SO who will be staying over often? How often?

Can you pay for top tier cable and buy at least a half ounce a week?

Yeah, I haven’t had a roomie since I was 20 or so. :smiley:

Have you ever murdered anyone?
How about rape?
Do you believe that you need to stockpile guns for a future uprising?
Are animal sacrifices part of your religion?
Do you think that an orgy in the middle of the living room is an appropriate weekday activity?
How often do you eat onions, garlic or kimchee?

If you are in the U.S., you probably can run a credit check or background check on an applicant ONLY if you run one on every applicant. If you run one on one applicant, and then later don’t select him/her, you may run into “I was discriminated against because of my race/religion/skin color/ethnic origin, and was taken for a deadbeat/lowlife.” You must treat all applicants the same WRT those things. You must also ask the same questions of every applicant WRT children, which is the area easiest to run into trouble.

Just FYI, if my prospective roommate asked me what I thought a fun night out was, I would send that Criagslist ad and Gmail conversation straight into the trash. In fact, such a question posed to me would scream, “psycho with no friends that wants their new roommate to be their new life.”

You’re looking for someone to help you deal with the economics of the real estate market. You want someone that isn’t insane, doesn’t smoke pot in the house, can pay the bills, and not leave a mess in the kitchen, not a romantic life partner. If you want to be good buddies with the people you live with, live with a good buddy.

Anyone in Pittsburgh want to put me up for 10 weeks over the summer?

Get. References.
While you want to keep things friendly, knowing that your roommate isn’t going to skip out owing you three months on utilities and back rent is important and keeps things from getting unfriendly. Do not let this happen to you.

May I speak to someone you have lived with before please?
May I have the name and contact details of your next of kin/ the person who will cover your bills in the event you fail to pay them?

And here I was all set to say the exact same thing.

On the plus side: We all left that apartment, though it was still ugly (but mostly from a different roommate, not the douchebags.) I am in the process of taking them to court to get my money back. I know I’ll win, but that still doesn’t mean I’ll get any money, or at least all of it, since they are poor as shit because they blow all their money on heroin, or whatever other drugs they were always on.

Agreed.

I found my current roommate on Craigslist and have been living with him for about a year and half now. In this situation, I was the one coming to live in his apartment, so he was in the OP’s position.

Before I even saw the place, we exchanged Myspace profiles. He then invited me to come see the apartment and asked me questions regarding my job and my general habits. He got back to me a few days later, and I was his roommate as soon as my check for two months’ rent cleared.

I get the thrust of the “What’s your idea of a fun night out?” question, but wording it in that way absolutely would have made me think “psycho who’s shopping for a new best friend,” when you could just say something like “Do you stay out late? Are you looking for someplace where you can bring the party home?”

And I have friends who have totally wound up with that psycho roommate who wanted them to be their best friend/mother; it’s definitely something that some applicants will be on the lookout for.

I meant to ask. Thanks for coming in and updating.

You must watch the film Shallow Grave. (hey it’s got Ewan McGregor)

It’s a great movie and it has a hilarious sequence of three people interviewing for the 4th room mate spot.

It’s makes Simon Cowell look like Sister Wendy Beckett.

“How YOU doin’?”

One of the first things that popped into my mind involves the shared facilities. Shower in the morning? Before bed? Together?

Just all the myriad things that have to be scheduled so that everyone gets their thing done.

I’ve never “shopped” for a roommate so I’m pretty much clueless.

“Do you have season tickets to the Met?”

“Can I interest you in an…”

Ah, never mind.

:smiley:

Some things we wish we’d have thought to ask our current housemate…

Do you make loud slurping noises when you eat?
As in, are you practicing for one of those disgusting Carl’s Jr. ads where they put a microphone in the guy’s mouth as he eats a hamburger?
Do you politely demur if something we’re having for dinner is unappetizing, or do you holler “EWW! Mushrooms! GROSS! I can’t *stand * mushrooms!”?
Do you pick at your toes in the family room?
Do you come home from work covered in dirt, plaster dust and fiberglass?
Do you have some odd compulsive need to keep every hand towel in the house in your bedroom?
How many vehicles do you have, are they insured, and where were you planning to park them?
Do you consume so much milk that we need to give serious thought to renting a cow?
Do you know that light switches also have an “off” position that’s useful when you leave a room?

Because this is a funny train of thought to continue, I’ll add mine.

Do you ever come home late at night tripping on acid and decide to ask me if I want any of the ham you’re about to cook?
Do you often invite people to sleep on the couch?
Are you and all of your friends music majors who practice all the time?
Do you and your friends get high all the time and eat whatever food you find, regardless of owner?
Do you and your friends engage in minor illegal behavior and then come dump the evidence on the living room table?
Do you and your friends EVER buy your own goddamned cigarettes?
Do you assemble large trashbags of things and dump them in the living room for days or weeks on end?
Do you do the same, but strewn about and not collected in any convenient way?
Do you hold down a job at all, or do you just pay bills at your own leisure when the parents send money?