Apartments don’t come cheap. As of 2014, the average cost of rent was $934. Unless you’re able to pay $1,000 for an apartment and still have money left over for your other bills and groceries, you’re going to need a roommate to help you cut the costs. But know this: you should not sign on to live with someone until you know more about who they are. The perfect roommate you thought you found on Craigslist could be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
If your roommate is terrible, the amazing rates you found on renters insurance quotes with CoverHound will be the only silver lining, because if your crazy roommate should steal your stuff or burn down the kitchen, your renters insurance will cover it: it just won’t cover your sanity.
You’re always going to need renters insurance, but you don’t need roommate drama. Here are three personality types to avoid when looking for your new roomie.
This type of person is slow to bare their fangs, and when they do, it’s only for an instant. This roommate will leave post-it notes on the thermostat telling you not to raise it above a certain temperature and will do every dish in the sink except the ones your dirtied. The passive-aggressive person does this in an effort to show you that the dishes you’ve left in the sink for a few days won’t be washed by anyone else but you.
According to Psychology Today, the reason some people are passive-aggressive is because they think expressing anger is socially unacceptable, so they display their anger using other means, and usually not until they’re ready to explode with frustration. During the roommate interview process, make sure you ask about ways they like to communicate when they are unhappy or unnerved by something. If they say they try to ignore it, run.
When you have to be up at 6:00 a.m. and your drunk roommate comes stumbling in through the front door at 3:00 a.m., it’s fair to say you might be a little cranky, especially if they have an equally drunk and rambunctious posse of friends right behind them.
Your home is supposed to be a place of relaxation and comfort, you shouldn’t have to worry about a stranger walking through your door and vomiting on the jacket you left hanging on the dining room chair. And if your partier roommate is causing a raucous in the living room that you can clearly hear, your neighbors probably can too, eliciting a complaint to your housing management’s office. If it’s deemed that you and your roommate have caused too many disturbances, your landlord can terminate the leasing contract, turning you out on the street corner.
Before agreeing to live with someone, ask them questions about their social life and hobbies. You’ll quickly learn how they entertain themselves. If they need booze, music and loud music to have a good time, then that roommate applicant should be a no-go.
If living with someone who keeps the apartment clean, comes home at 5:00 p.m. every day and makes all of their monthly payments on time sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is. A perfectionist sets a very high expectation for themselves, at school, work and in the home. That high expectation doesn’t stop with them.
Perfectionists expect the same amount of care and hard work of you as they do themselves, and if you let them down, there will be hell to pay. Perfectionists and passive-aggressives are similar in that they both try to take complete control of a situation, and when they can’t, they become angry. They show it in scowls, notes and slammed doors.
When interviewing your potential roommate(s), ask them what they want in a roommate, including personality traits, cleanliness and roommate availability. If any are different from yours, such as not being able to keep a clean space or share meals together, then this partnership is over before it could even begin.
It’s not easy finding someone cool to live with, but it is easy to find affordable renters insurance. For a free quote, visit CoverHound today.
Insurance shopping simplified
Insurance shopping simplified
