How To Find A Roommate In Chicago

Moving to a new city is stressful enough, but add to that trying to find a decent person to share a relatively small space—information technology's enough to make a person just move into their parents' basement and hide.

Take no fear! According to U.S. Census Data , roughly 25 percentage of Chicago'due south residents are between 20 and 39. That means a quarter of the metropolis'due south population is in their prime "roommate needing" years. With the boilerplate rent for a two-bedroom coming in at $1,900 and a 1-bedroom at $1,500, you tin relieve a pretty penny past splitting a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate. Plus, add together to that the cablevision, net, and utility bills you'd exist sharing and the savings volition add up chop-chop! Here are some tips and tricks to help you detect a not bad roommate for your Chicago apartment .

Search Your Network

people eating a meal at a long table

Before taking to Facebook or Instagram to announce to the world yous're moving, talk to your close network of friends and family. Do you have a cousin/brother's best friend/aunt'due south hairdresser'southward daughter who lives in Chicago? If it's someone who is roughly your historic period, they may have the within scoop on who's looking for a roommate.

If you already have a job lined upwards and know the Hr Manager at your new visitor, you lot could ask them virtually finding a good roommate. Exist warned though, living with a co-worker can be a lot of fun but it can as well pb to a potentially stressful working AND living situation. Your domicile should be your sanctuary, try to go along information technology that way!

Do Some Interviews

two people talking over coffee

Certain, your friends and family unit might connect you with some awesome people who are looking for a roommate, but existence a great friend and colleague doesn't always interpret to being the perfect roommate. You lot'll want to make sure you do your due diligence and interview each person before agreeing to be roommates.

Sit down with each potential roommate and become some of the basics out of the manner. Are they detail about certain things in their living situation? Do they have standards for how clean the flat should be? Make certain you lot both marshal on your living situation priorities so yous know it will be a expert fit. Take the time to meet with people more than than once; the more you come across with someone the better idea you will have of what that person is really like. Then, you can decide which neighborhood is right for y'all both.

Use Resource for Finding Roommates

three people talking at table while typing on laptop

When you've run out of options in your personal network, there are always online resources. Roomie Match is amidst the pinnacle-rated roommate finders in large cities. The bones service is gratuitous to use, but if they lucifer you with a roommate y'all do have to pay a fee and $19.95 gets you a premium account for one year. The great thing about this service is that bodily homo beings (not computers with algorithms) screen all of the profiles and weed out any scammers.

On the other hand, Roomi has been chosen "Tinder for Roommates" because information technology'southward near every bit piece of cake to use every bit the app. Different Roomie Friction match, most of the burden falls to the renter. No humans are involved in making matches based on your profile—it is, all the same, a completely free service. Roomi also allows you to message prospective roommates without revealing your personal electronic mail or contact info.

You may have to do some earthworks, but the Chicago Housing Subreddit can exist adept place to observe other folks looking for housing. Be wary of scammers though—Reddit doesn't screen its postings. Too, Craigslist Chicago is a decent, if a niggling outdated, option for finding a roommate in a pinch. Again though, beware of scammers and places that seem too good to exist true. For instance, someone who posts that they're looking for a roommate to share a spacious condo overlooking Lincoln Park for $900? It's definitely also skillful to be true.

If you're willing to take your roommate search public, you lot can of course postal service to social media, but the apps and services described above can take some of the legwork out of the process for y'all. In using your personal social network, at that place are certainly benefits in knowing (through of a friend of a friend, or a classmate's sister, etc.)—who you'll be living with.

For more than tips and information, read our comprehensive Moving to Chicago guide.

This article was updated on 6/14/xviii.