Find the right roommate

If you are a single guy or girl and moving to a new place, finding a place to stay can be a tough process, especially if it's in a big city. Unless money is of no concern, you would most probably prefer to stay with someone who has a free room. However, you don't want to end up staying with someone who, you are not compatible with. I am sure you have heard of several horror stories.

One lady friend was telling us about her flatmate whose boyfriend started coming over almost everyday and in the end, literally moved in to their house. In another case, one of my friends who doesn't smoke had to endure several months of living with a guy who was a chain smoker and used to smoke everywhere in the house. In the end he couldn't stand it anymore and moved out, even though he was the one who go the flat first. Differences of preference in music, food and even decor can cause clashes among people residing in a house.

One way to avoid such problems is to find someone with similar preferences. Of course there is no guarantee that personality clashes will not occur but the chances are reduced. Roomster.net, an advanced housing rental site serving all the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom has obviously thought about this. The company was founded in 2003 by John S. Shriber (CEO of Roomster) and Roman Zaks in New York. They expanded to include UK listings early this year.

If you are searching for a roommate, you can of course check by location and type of residence, but Roomster allows you to check by gender, age and even zodiac. Other features that can further help you select the right roommates are their instant messenger service, interest, hot lists and profile flagging services. I found it interesting to learn that they have integrated Google maps into their search results. that is something that I feel would be really useful in house/ apartment hunting.

Considering the features, it is no wonder they have become so popular in such a short duration. They are now said to be the leading online apartment and roommate matching site in the US. When I last checked they had 943,697 available listings.