Move into a house with many (now) vacant rooms without knowing roommates

October 28, 2013 5:12 PM

I looked at this really nice, huge, new house for rent, but the landlord is renting out each room individually, and now they are all vacant because the house's new, so I don't know who's gonna be my house mates!!! Even men or women - I don't know!!

I'm a young female...
Is this generally ok? Especially for safety I guess?
I want to pay my deposit because I really like the room and the house, but I don't know if that's smart... I know I shouldn't rush things, but I feel like the rooms are gonna go fast because they are all nice, especially the particular room I liked...
It's monthly rental, so no lease, there are like a dozen rooms, and a few bathrooms to share...

I'd appreciate your suggestion!!!

posted by pelu to Human Relations (23 answers total)

I think the potential for sketchy housemates is high. All month-to-month, just rooms, no residents to give you a read on who the landlord rents to ... this sounds like potentially bad news. Rooming houses tend to house a more derelict class of tenant than apartments, but without more information on the place, the culture, the landlord, it's impossible to say.
posted by jayder at 5:16 PM on October 28, 2013 [13 favorites]

I think it depends what you're looking for.

If you're looking for a convenient place to lay your head while you work or go to school or do whatever it is you do, it could be fine. It seems pretty transient, though, and if I were you I'd be prepared to find something else at any time.

If you're looking for a solid home where you can settle in and stay for a few years? Nope.
posted by Sara C. at 5:18 PM on October 28, 2013

I would not feel terribly safe, even if I was a dude. Keep looking.
posted by emjaybee at 5:18 PM on October 28, 2013 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks! Yea there's even no application... it's like "give $, sign the paper, and you get the room!!" lol
posted by pelu at 5:23 PM on October 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

This could be a new trend in dealing with large new houses built before the housing market crashed... but I haven't encountered it and wouldn't feel comfortable signing on. If you had 11 friends and you were all looking for a place, this could be fantastic, but if you're on your own and you don't get to meet the roommates beforehand and there are that many rooms for rent in the unit? Seems like a lot of ways this could be disappointing and/or unpleasant.
posted by Meg_Murry at 5:24 PM on October 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

Yea there's even no application... it's like "give $, sign the paper, and you get the room!!" lol

In that case, don't do it. If there was some sort of screening process and the landlord seemed like he gave a shit about who was living in his house, sure, go ahead.

If you really have no other options and need a place to stay, the odds are, this won't be awesome but nothing particularly bad is going to happen. Sometimes, if you don't have any money and you don't have a lot of options, you have to take the hand that you've been dealt. So, I don't want to assume that you can afford to turn this down. If you don't desperately need a place to stay, though, I wouldn't do it.

Also, a "dozen" rooms and a "few" bathrooms? Yikes.
posted by ablazingsaddle at 5:30 PM on October 28, 2013

I assume there are working locks on the bedroom doors? Even so, month to month multi-roomate situations with no input on who moves in is going to be high stress. It might work out just fine, but your only security is the insecurity of the month to month, so you can ditch and run pretty easy.

Unless you have a high chaos tolerance it may be best to move on
posted by edgeways at 5:32 PM on October 28, 2013

This will depend to a degree on what country this is in. In the UK and Ireland, this is typical particularly for students.
posted by DarlingBri at 5:34 PM on October 28, 2013 [3 favorites]

I had a friend who lived in a situation like that. Nothing terrible happened, but it was pretty awful. No one cared about keeping anything clean or usable (e.g., the oven was unusable because someone decided to use it for storage), sometimes really horrible new housemates would show up out of the blue, etc. etc. I would advise avoiding this situation if you can.
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 5:40 PM on October 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

I've done this once (it was a year lease so slightly more stable) and it was fine safety-wise for everyone living there as far as I know. However, there were some pretty strange people that lived there over the various configurations (and sometimes very nice, interesting people as well); once was pretty much enough for me for landlord-selected housemates. I'd mostly recommend against.

A few things: be absolutely sure of the lock situation on your bedroom before signing anything, it must have keyed locks. In general, I agree that the common spaces won't be well taken care of; think hard if you would be sharing a bathroom. (What would be ideal, which I did have in my place above, is a master bedroom with its own bathroom, I wouldn't have lasted nearly as long without that). Be prepared for unpredictable and varying amounts of housemate drama depending on who's currently living there. Overall, be prepared to move again if necessary.
posted by advil at 5:56 PM on October 28, 2013

Have you seen this house in person? Did the landlord show you around and explain what they foresee the living situation to be like?

If so, what vibes did you get from the landlord? Trust your gut.

If you haven't see the house in person, I would be worried it's a scam.
posted by horizonseeker at 5:58 PM on October 28, 2013

You don't say where you are based. Here in Australia, some people build houses specifically for this purposes, and often rent to foreign students, rent including bills and internet etc. They are not sketchy, but living with a large number of people is not very enjoyable.

Conversely, situations like this in Australia can also be called boarding houses, and they service a highly transient, and often highly broke population. Break-ins and drug use are common.

Either way, I would reconsider. Living with a large number of people is really not enjoyable.
posted by smoke at 6:00 PM on October 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

One more: be absolutely clear on how utilities are to be divided before signing, especially if you are in a cold climate where heating a large house is non-trivial; if it is anything other than the landlord handling the billing for them, I would take that as a definite negative.
posted by advil at 6:02 PM on October 28, 2013

Nooooooo. In my experience, the more roommates, the more potential for trouble. If you value your sleep, think about how annoying it would be to have that many people wandering about (plus a couple SO's that will end up living there 90% of the time.). The place will likely be a mess, at least 2 of the people will end up hating each other and you will likely hear it. The bathroom is likely to always be tied up, the parts of the house you want to use at a given moment (kitchen, living room) will likely be being used when you need it, some of your things may end up going "missing" in the kitchen. Anytime I've usually had a problem with roommates, it's usually been the person I didn't meet before I moved in or someone who moved in the middle of the year. Bottom line, don't move in with people you haven't met. It is a pain in the ass to move in the middle of a school year. Find a place with 1-2 roommates who you jibe well with and talk about the important things BEFORE you move in.
posted by eq21 at 6:33 PM on October 28, 2013 [3 favorites]

I live in a situation like this. I didn't meet everyone before moving in, but discussed them with the current tenant and felt he was being fairly straight with me about what they were like. In general, it's worth it to me to remain here, for now.
Things I like:
- very low cost
- good neighborhood, nice old house, my room is huge with 14' ceilings and amazing light
- 3 out 4 of the (all male) roommates are good guys
- living with four large males whom I know means I feel less vulnerable to other people breaking in
- if I find someplace else I want to go, month-to-month means I can go
- landlord is relatively chill

Things I don't:
- being on the hook for someone else's share of the rent (and I will never move into a situation where that's the case again, seriously)
- the fact that since they're all guys, they don't have the same level of caution as I do, and often leave the front door unlocked or the lights off so the place looks less occupied
- enough dishes in the sink that if I cared about having a clean kitchen, I'd need to devote 30-45 minutes per day just to cleaning up after them there
- their bathroom aim sucks when they're drunk

So, I'd be okay with what you're describing (and would move there due to the shared rent thing, if your place were in Pittsburgh). But I'd wait a month or three before I got comfortable, just in case I needed to get out because of some creep down the hall.
posted by notquitemaryann at 6:33 PM on October 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

once was pretty much enough for me for landlord-selected housemates. I'd mostly recommend against.

This times one million. If the landlord was your dad and you trusted his judgement implicitly, that would be one thing. But this is not that.

Also, advil has it - when I lived in a house like this, a huge fight over the proper temp to set the AC led to people threatening violence. It was three against one, and the ONE was such a fucking nightmare that THREE moved out by the end of the month. YMMV, but yikes.
posted by polly_dactyl at 6:33 PM on October 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

I didn't have a great experience in that sort of situation. You really have no control. My landlord turned out to be a bit of a dick, and because I was only renting out my own room and not the whole house, there was nothing legally stopping him from hanging out in the common areas and getting drunk. If I and some other folks were renting out an apartment together, he would have had to get permission to enter our space.
posted by needs more cowbell at 6:38 PM on October 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

I had a friend that lived for a while in a house rented out by the room - she ended up sharing the place with a bunch of older men, which she didn't really mind, except that amongst them was a pubic hair fairy, magically leaving little curly hairs in delightfully unexpected places. She moved after finding one in her peanut butter.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 8:58 PM on October 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

I am currently living in a month-to-month house and have been here for half a year. In that time, my random housemates have been: a trucker who is relatively new to town (been here the longest), a person who was here briefly til the contract for the house they were buying got finalized, a nurse who was in the process of "definitely not getting a divorce," another person who was fresh out of a divorce, a person in their early 20s who is new to town, and a local who is really into soccer. Apparently I replaced a person who rented a separate room for their part-time child and who stole all the bedroom furniture and a frying pan when they moved out. Everyone locks their bedroom doors, but we all know each other, chat occasionally, and get along just dandy. My partner and the soccer player occasionally need the bathroom at the same time in the morning.

I enjoy living with a changing variety of housemates. If you think you would enjoy that kind of living environment, then go for it! But don't pick the house based on the room alone.
posted by aniola at 9:04 PM on October 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

I've lived in several of these types of houses, and I was fine, but (a) I was a broke student whose primary concern was cost, and (b) I have a generally high tolerance for weirdness. So, yeah, roommate I've lived with for a year and only seen once? *shrug.* Roommate who used to be a b-level opera star in Michigan and likes to reminisce/practice her art in the kitchen at 3am? *shrug," ear plugs and turn up my own radio. Two random guys whom I've never met, having a boisterous argument in an unknown language in front of my door at 10:00 at night when I come home from work? 'Scuse me, guys, gotta get by. Thanks.

You get the general idea. If you like peace, quiet, a reliable schedule, having things tidy and predictable, and generally not having to deal with weirdness, then don't do it.
posted by celtalitha at 9:20 PM on October 28, 2013 [4 favorites]

If you like peace, quiet, a reliable schedule, having things tidy and predictable, and generally not having to deal with weirdness, then don't do it.

This times a million. I thought I could live with other people, but after my experiences in college I realized I'd rather not, and unless you know the person beforehand it can be a bit difficult to navigate conflict. It's tough living with people you do know. But... as was pointed out, if it's a money thing or you're a student and things like that, it could work out. However, I happen to to fall into the category of peace loving individual and I'm not even particularly neat-freakish or anything. But it's really hard to pay and live in a place that you can't really feel comfortable in because as celtalitha points out, those things are not an issue. For me, they would be. Regardless of the choice you make though, always have a back-up plan.
posted by lunastellasol at 12:54 AM on October 29, 2013

I moved into this kind of situation once.

The landlord made a lot of promises about only taking decent potential tenants who fit criteria x, y, and z. Those promises lasted all of about a week. They were abysmal - think pile of plates and pans permanently in the kitchen sink, mouldy food in the cupboards, mess on the floor, trash left lying around.

I moved out as fast as I could.

It's a lot different when there is an established house with stable tenants already living there - you already have an idea as to what they're like. When there are established house 'guidelines', a new person tends to follow them a lot more, since they are a minority.
posted by Ashlyth at 1:35 AM on October 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

If I could personally wrestle up the roommates, I might consider this. But no, it just sounds like a dumping ground for frat-boy city, and I am not about that.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 9:10 AM on October 29, 2013 [1 favorite]