Off-Campus Housing Part Two: Who to Live With?

"Off-Campus Housing Part Two: Who to Live With?", December 2007

Before you can even begin looking for a place, you need to think about who you are going to live with. You may have had an awesome roommate this year, or you may have had a terrible one. Do you want to live with this person again? Did you have close friends on your floor, or down the hall? Generally, a group of friends looking for a place together is what happens.

At this point, there are two kinds of people I think you should avoid living with when you start looking for your place.

The first are your partying buddies. If all you do with these people is drink, you’re likely to only do that next year. All the boozin’ will not only affect your marks, but it will also affect your wallet. Possibly even your health and well-being. If you don’t see that as being problematic, go ahead, but I know for some people at least it hasn’t been the best idea.

Secondly, I suggest not to live with your significant other. NO HOUSECEST. What if you break up? How awkward and potentially aggravating, and possibly infuriating could that end up being? VERY. What about when they bring over their new partner for the first time. Even more awkward. You’ve got your entire lives to be together (assuming you make it out of university still together [Me? Pessimist? Psh. Noooo. ]). You don’t need to start now.

Now, back to the main focus of this article...Do you want to live with only one other person, or do you want to live with four, or five or more. Typically, if you are going to live in a house, most have rooms for around five people. Some houses go up to eight; it all depends on first who you want to live with before you can even start to look.

Speaking from experience, you should also consider if you are all going to be looking for a place in the same cost range. Some people can afford to pay over $500 a month, some people can’t. Find out if you have some common goals (price, location etc), and go from there.

You also must remember that living in a house with a group of people is difficult. In fact, it can be downright impossible at times. There are a lot of things that need to be discussed, and dealt with, and quite often this can lead to fighting. Sometimes the people you choose to live with ultimately will not work out. From year to year the number of people in your house may change. Just because these people are your friends doesn’t mean it makes it easy to live with them; in fact it can even make it more difficult.

Now, once you’ve figured out who you’re going to live with, you can start actually looking for a place.