Roommate Matching Services To Help You Score A Great Roommate

Let’s face it, living in the city is not getting any cheaper. Apartments in DC, San Francisco, and Boston have been expensive for some time now.  Now rents in Seattle, Chicago, and San Jose are beginning to top the charts. One of the easiest ways to combat the expensive rent is to live with a roommate. I know! I never thought that as a thirtysomething I would be living with anybody else except for maybe a husband and a couple of cute kids. The reality is much different than I pictured but the roommate thing did solve a couple issues:

1: I can live in the exact neighborhood I had dreamed of.

2: We can get the deluxe cable package because we’re splitting the cost.

3: There is someone that will know rather quickly if I don’t show up for a couple days. {Being a single female living a city far away from my family, I find this quite valuable.}

So Caroline and I did not know each other before we moved in together, but she did use to live with another friend of mine. That sense of familiarity made choosing her as a roommate a no-brainer. I know we don’t all get that luxury, so I rounded up some of the best roommate matching services out on the market to help your search along:

Roomi

Available In: Washington DC, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Austin, LA, San Diego, Seattle, and coming soon to a number of other cities.

Cool Features: In-app chat & Facebook integration to assist in matching based on personalities.

WEBSITE

EasyRoommate

Available In: Cities nationwide

Cool Features: The ability to both find a room to rent and to rent a room that you have available, plus helpful statistics about roommates and roomshares.

WEBSITE

Roommates.com

Available In: Cities nationwide

Cool Features: This site had been around before and it’s previously clunky integration has now been replaced with a slick new design, and with 58,ooo+ active members, they may have one of the biggest databases on the web.

WEBSITE

RoomieMatch

Available In: Most major US cities

Cool Features: This service prides itself on doing the work for you to weed out scammers, spammers and “scum” so that you can take a little more comfort in your roommate searching journey.

WEBSITE

Facebook

If all else fails, or if you’re skeptical about the idea of moving in with a complete stranger, turn to Facebook and let your network of friends and acquaintances help you out.  Post exactly what you’re looking for and you just might be surprised by who’s brother’s college roommate’s best friend’s sister is looking for a roommate in your city.

For more guidance on all things roommates, check out our guides to:

How To Find The Perfect Roommate For You

How Not To Suck As A Roommate

How To Prevent A Bad Roommate Breakup

5 Apartment Features That All Roommates Need To Keep In Mind When Apartment Hunting