Selecting Roommates – Your 6 Step Selection Guide

[BruceW]

With your phone ringing off the hook and email messages piling up, are you still trying to decide how to select your new roommate? If you are, don’t worry, it’s just a matter of getting organized and putting together a roommate selection process that suits you.

The key to successfully choosing a new roommate is to start planning how you will select your roommate before you begin your search. Creating a roommate selection process lets you become more organized which allows you to focus on choosing the right roommate. This means you can make the right choices without needing to worry that you may be choosing the wrong roommate.

The ideal roommate selection process involves 6 distinctive steps. The advantage of breaking down the process into steps is that it allows you to concentrate on each part individually without being overwhelmed by the “big picture”. So, what does the selection process to find your perfect roommate involve? Let’s take a look at each of the 6 steps in detail.

1. Plan Questions for Initial Enquiries

You will need to decide on 4-5 questions you would like to ask during initial telephone and email enquiries. This way you can find out more about a person and decide if you like to invite them to a roommate interview.

2. Create a Short List and Schedule Interviews

Putting together a short list shows you which people closely match the profile of your perfect roommate and would be good candidates to become your new roommate. When scheduling interviews, it’s a good idea to meet with potential roommates a few hours apart, so that you don’t need to cut interviews short due to the lack of time.

3. Interview Potential Roommates

Roommate interviews can be formal or informal and can be held at any place, for example, you could hold casual interviews over coffee in a local Café. Before you start interviewing, you should decide which questions you would like to ask each potential roommate. These questions will help you decide whether a person is the right roommate for you.

4. Select a Roommate

After interviewing all potential roommates, you will need to discuss and select with all existing household members a new roommate. You can do this by comparing each roommate against your perfect roommate recipe.

5. Check References

Talking to people who have lived with your chosen roommate will help you decide if that person will be the right roommate for you. If they haven’t lived with roommates before, try speaking to their friends or family as they can help you discover any hidden surprises.

6. Ask Your New Roommate To Move In

Before asking your new roommate to move in, it’s a good idea to sleep on your decision overnight. If you still feel confident about your choice in the morning, it’s a good sign you’ve made the right choice.

These 6 steps give you the flexibility to create your own selection process by giving you the power to decide how to conduct interviews and select roommates while still working within a framework. Just remember, by getting organized and creating a roommate selection process, you too, will soon know how to handle all of those messages and choose the roommate that’s right for you.

Good Luck and Happy Roommate Hunting!

Enid Steiner is a Director of Flatwithme.com.au, an Australian online roommate service. Flatwithme.com.au lets people find their perfect roommate and provides helpful share accommodation tips, hints and advice.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Enid_Steiner/14232

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