Room Mates / Apartments

[J6o All In]

My friend and I are moving to Manhattan next year and we are currently looking at apartments. Finding an apartment with a room mate presents two problems:

1) Once we choose an apartment we have to decide who gets the nicer bedroom. I see two ways of resolving this. First we could simply pro-rate the rent by, say, the square footage of the bedrooms. This isn't a great solution though because it doesn't account for things like view. Because of this, I think the best way to resolve the bedroom problem is through the classic "one divides the other decides" method. One of us decides on the prices for the two bedrooms, and the other decides which he prefers. Is this a good idea? Thoughts?

2) Different apartment locations have different commute times for each of us. To insure against this, I think the person with the shorter commute should pay the person with the longer commute a monthly stipend for his trouble. I was thinking of either

(a) (1 - (shorter commute in minutes/longer commute in minutes))*(some factor)

or

(b) ((longer commute in minutes - shorter commute in minutes)/2)(some factor)

thoughts?

[adsman]

That sounds so much more complicated than any apartment sharing I've done. Haven't you heard of paper/scissors/rock?

Or the person who finds the apartment gets the bedroom pick.

[El Diablo]

J6,

If you can't just decide this in a simple way that doesn't involve a ton of math and equations, you probably have the wrong roommate.

Especially regarding the travel one, you just need to agree on a place that works for both of you.

I'd suggest finding an apartment and then maybe the guy who it's more inconvenient for gets his choice of bedroom or something like that.

The way you state things, it just seems like not the right type of relationship for two people who will share a place.

[Elevens]

Find a new roommate or don't have one.

[El Diablo]

ads,

Those are solutions that sound like real roommate solutions.

[TiK]

Have a bidding process. Bid on how much rent you're willing to pay for the bigger room.

[Dids]

[ QUOTE ]


(a) (1 - (shorter commute in minutes/longer commute in minutes))*(some factor)

or

(b) ((longer commute in minutes - shorter commute in minutes)/2)(some factor)

thoughts?

[/ QUOTE ]

I really hope you are moving in with Dcifir, you guys will be perfect for eachother.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

[ QUOTE ]
J6,

If you can't just decide this in a simple way that doesn't involve a ton of math and equations, you probably have the wrong roommate.

Especially regarding the travel one, you just need to agree on a place that works for both of you.

I'd suggest finding an apartment and then maybe the guy who it's more inconvenient for gets his choice of bedroom or something like that.

The way you state things, it just seems like not the right type of relationship for two people who will share a place.

[/ QUOTE ]

dividing the cost unevenly is completely normal. ie in my first apartment after college, my bedroom had a private 1/2 bath and was nicer than the others. so I paid more.

however, you should be able to quickly come up with a number that makes sense without breaking out the algebra.

[Shajen]

I believe the best way is "dibs on the master suite"

[MattSuspect]

OP,

It is a sad commentary, when characters on MTV's The Real World could teach you a few things about living in the real world.

Keep it simple.

-M