Roomate Questionnaire suggestions please

[BillyJack]

I'm going to be 'advertising' for a roommate/housemate soon. I have a very lovely single family home that is too big/expensive for me to keep by myself soon now that my 'children' are off to college and/or moving into places of their own :-)

SO, I'm going to advertise for a roommate.

I'm a pretty easy-going person, generally. But I realized that there are some things that I should "screen" for compatibility-wise. The top two things I can think of (and there are no right/wrong answers here, it's just preference....and a successful roommate-relationship should have most of the same preferences)...are these:

What is an ideal household temperature for you....in the summer? in the winter?

In general, do you like it quiet in the house or do you prefer the TV or radio always playing in the background?

What do you all think (of the questions?) Should I ask these questions at all? What do you think of the way I asked them? (I don't want to be 'leading'). What other questions should I consider asking? Feel free to tell me that I'm just being *stupid* too ~ no harm/no foul.

[progressoid]

1. What ever you do, don't consult Sheldon Cooper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao4L2pAVM8U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChkY9fzPFrg

Some Articles of the Roommate Agreement

Skynet Clause: Leonard will help Sheldon destroy an artificial intelligence that Sheldon has created that is taking over the earth. (S2 Ep6 )
Body Snatchers Clause: Leonard will help Sheldon destroy someone who they know that has been replaced by an alien pod. (S2 Ep6 )
Godzilla Clause: Presumably, Leonard will help Sheldon destroy a monster that has destroyed Tokyo. (S2 Ep6 )
Article 1, Section C: Sheldon can call for an emergency meeting. (S2 Ep10 )
Cohabitation Rider:
Provisions that are activated when the term of the Rider is fulfilled:
In the refrigerator as opposed to them having two separate shelves and one communal shelf, the three of us now get individual shelves and the door becomes communal.
Apartment vacuuming shall be increased from two to three times a week to accommodate the increased accumulation of dead skin cells.
The bathroom schedule shall be changed to accommodate the the third person.
Terms that must be met to activate the Rider: A girlfriend shall be deemed "living with" Leonard when she has stayed over for (a): ten consecutive nights or (b) more than nine nights in a three week period or (c) all the weekend of a given month plus three weeknights. (S2 Ep10 )
Unnamed Clause: Leonard will name Sheldon as his sidekick if Leonard obtains superpowers. (S2 Ep10 )
Section 9: The apartment's flag is a gold lion rampant on a field of azure and should never fly upside down,unless the apartment’s in distress (S3 Ep22 )
Section 9: If one of the roommates ever invents time travel, the first stop has to aim exactly five seconds after this clause of the Roommate Agreement was signed (S3 Ep22 )
Section 8.c: Roommates shall give each other 12 hours notice of impending coitus(S3 Ep22)
Section 74c: Leonard must assist Sheldon if he ever becomes a robot (S4 Ep2)
Unnamed Clause: If Sheldon turns into a zombie, Leonard can not kill sheldon.

[Chan790]

3. That all seems perfectly reasonable. n/t

[progressoid]

8. Here are a couple more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIm6_2NzIc4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0qDy0T5WXM

[amyrose2712]

10. Bazinga!

[TBF]

2. things to think about -

whether you care if they have pets, kids

whether they are non-smoker or smoker based on your preference

hours they work (if they work at night and sleep all day that might matter to you or not)


I haven't done any google searches but you might find some samples by doing that.

After preliminary questions you'll need to sit down and meet them - don't do this by phone

Good luck!

[MountainLaurel]

4. Questions we used to ask

Find out what kind of hours they keep -- are they going to want it quiet after 7 pm or before noon on weekends? Are they going to come home stomping up the stairs at 1 am every Saturday night? Are they going to be home a lot, or will the house just be a place for them to sleep? What are their cooking habits (if you'll be sharing a kitchen)? That is, will they be taking up all 4 burners and the oven for 2 hours every night, or do they subsist on pizza and cold cereal? Do they consider themselves tidy? How about sharing household duties? I had a roommate once who didn't change the toilet paper roll in the year she lived there. Depending on their age, you might ask about significant others and how often they might have guests over.

Those are a few things that come to mind immediately.

[Chan790]

5. Are you renting furnished or unfurnished?

Everything below the line is gripe and not really useful advice.

If furnished, get in writing what is and is not communal-use property and the terms of usage of all material items. In any case, get terms over sleepovers and cohabitation, what constitutes cohabitation and how cohabitation affects rent and utilities.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In my case, it would have helped to have a stipulation on what language apartment meetings would be held in*, but you probably don't need that..our apartment meetings are like the argument scene in Le Auberge Espagnole where everybody is yelling in a different language that no more than 3 other roommates understand.

Doing this would have prevented my landlord's mother who speaks no English from dirtying all my pans, throwing out my tupperware, camping out on my floor for 4 months, hoarding the TV, staying up all night, leaving offal in my pots and pans. It would have allowed me to insist that my landlord A maintain those communal-use items. It would have prevented roommate L from assuming that my toiletries were communal-use and that his girlfriend J could squat for 2.5 months, run up the utilities and not contribute to household expenses.

My other roommate Steph is a saint, I'd trade the three bad ones for five of Steph.

*Languages:

I speak: English, Arabic, German, Spanish and ASL.
A: English, Albanian, Greek, Bosnian, French, some Spanish
His Mom: Albanian and French.
L: English...presumably Dutch and some dialect of Zulu but I don't know which.
J speaks Valley.
Steph: English, French, Spanish, Ethiopian and what I'm assuming is Algerian but might be Moroccan.

[BillyJack]

6. That's so complicated!

Sorry that ....

:eyes:

[Chan790]

7. It's more a commentary on bad roommates than anything.

I swear if I didn't stipulate that they couldn't steal my underwear and I didn't lock my bedroom door...they'd steal and wear my underwear.

Edit: I edited the previous post to make it easier. Basically, it's "if you're renting furnished, specify what that means"

[BillyJack]

9. You and I probably differ in that I believe most people are honest

and want to honor their debts/obligations.

MOST people won't steal you blind.

But thanks for the *heads up* to you....b/c I think someone like you WOULD steal a person blind.

Again, thanks for the heads up to your being a thief (in the waiting or in the 'now').

[Chan790]

11. No, these are my actual roommate experiences.

Right now: :rofl: at you.

I'm so honest that it's amusing actually. But no, my roommates and every roommate I've ever had in 15 years of apartment-living, including my best-friend...will take every advantage of you that they can.

I know most people are not honest when it comes to living arrangements, Pollyanna.

[BillyJack]

12. You proved my point

"will take every advantage of you that they can."

All TAKE, no GIVE.

aka, THIEF

[Chan790]

14. Would you feel better if I pointed out,,,

that I'm the one who cleans the apartment because otherwise we'd live in squalor. That I'm the one that hired a plumber when the sink was leaking. I'm the one that scheduled and paid for the vent-cleaning so they could turn on the heat. Mind you, I'm not the landlord of this condo, I just don't want to live in filth and my roommates take advantage of that because they're pigs. They use things and break them and don't replace them or clean them.

That I'm the only person living here who owns any pots, pans, utensils, dishes, bathmats, towels. In fact, the only item in the apartment that I use daily that I don't own is my bed...and that was broken when I moved in and I had to fix it myself.

My roommates take because, with the exception of Steph who wisely locks all his stuff in his room, none of these people own or contribute anything. They're not poor. Two of them work at the World Bank, another is a lawyer. I work out of my home, my bedroom is my office. I'm the poor one.

[WildEyedLiberal]

13. Wow, you think Chan is dishonest/a thief because he had a bad roommate experience?

:wtf:

This whole post is so seriously nasty and uncalled for. At least he's just laughing about it, but WOW, where do you get off making such an assumption?

And yeah, if you really think everyone out there is honest and trustworthy and you can invite them all into your home without repercussions, well, have at it. But don't say you weren't warned.

[BillyJack]

15. Not b/c he had a bad roommate experience

please read again ....

[HopeHoops]

16. Do you wander around the place naked often?

If the person applying is of the opposite sex, this would be considered a "plus".