Get Your Ducks In a Row
Boston and Cambridge housing is expensive. Here you will find one of the most expensive rental markets in the country, in the world even. You are hard pressed to find even a studio bellow $1000/month. So even after you've done size, location, price adjustments you may still not be able to afford the Boston dirt.
So, there's the roommate option. No big deal. In addition to lowering your monthly housing payment, you can split the cost of utilities as well as share the burden of furnishing the apartment's common areas and splitting the cost of staple supplies like sugar, spices, paper towels and toilet paper.
But choose the members of your crew carefully. You will have to live with them and rely upon their ability to make rent and participate in common space cleaning. You will have to tolerate them for an entire year if they prove to be awful roomies.
Long before you go knocking on a real estate agent's door, you should hold a serious meeting with your prospective roommates and determine compatibility.
Have a group interview
So, there's the roommate option. No big deal. In addition to lowering your monthly housing payment, you can split the cost of utilities as well as share the burden of furnishing the apartment's common areas and splitting the cost of staple supplies like sugar, spices, paper towels and toilet paper.
Long before you go knocking on a real estate agent's door, you should hold a serious meeting with your prospective roommates and determine compatibility.
Have a group interview
- Talk about location preferences
- Discuss a policy on overnight guests
- Agree on a cleanliness factor
- Create a budget for common expenses.
