1. Use Roomie Match! Seriously, you DO want to find out a lot about a potential new roommate ahead of time in order to insure a happy outcome . . . instead of a sob story to your friends about how you got stuck with the roommate from hell.) Roomie Match is an easy and convenient way to do that.

2. Usually the best roommate for you is someone that's similar to you on a few to several lifestyle, basic personality, and household variables. This is not to imply you're not an open-minded person. BUT, there's a difference between "intellectually" tolerating or even appreciating folks that are different than yourself out in the rest of the world -- and having those folks currently disco dancing in your living room when you're a light sleeper who needs to be at work in 3 hours. Or, vice versa (you need to disco dance in your living room in the wee hours but your cranky roommate wants you to turn off the stereo every night). Then, extrapolate this example outward for practically any household situation: messiness, bill-paying, overnight guests, alcohol consumption, shared items, etc. Our profiles cover these things and more, and if you don't find out beforehand you'll most likely WISH you had later. We say, avoid aggravation from Day One!

3. Be as open-minded as you can about very basic demographic variables like gender, age, and sexual orientation. But do NOT be so open-minded on specific behavioral things that are important to you (see #2 above). But you will be better off if you avoid relying on stereotypes on the basic demographics. For example, a lot of folks over the years have written in their "freetext" areas that they'd rather live with women because they're tidier. Whether or not that's true in some overall or very general sense, folks that have had several roommates of both genders will usually tell you they've lived with some very tidy men and/or some women whose impact on an apartment was like a small tornado. If neatness (or anything else, fill-in-the-blank here) is what you're after, look at that specific question on the profile. Don't rely on stereotypes, they're often inaccurate and you don't have to rely on them with Roomie Match, you get the actual information elsewhere in the profiles.

4. When in the process of using Roomie Match, check your email often and contact anyone that interests you ASAP. We keep our database as current as possible via a number of methods, but each day you fail to respond to a good roommate match is a day less likely they will still be available. Finding a new roommate is a "you snooze, you lose" proposition, so in order to avoid a good roommate match picking someone else first you have to stay on the ball and check your email often. Many subscribers also provide phone numbers, use those as well.

5. When contacting potential new roommates, you might want to "mind your manners" as much as is comfortable for you. Make sure the emails you send out present you in as flattering a light as possible. Be friendly, nice, and polite. Profanity or other vulgar language may be perfectly acceptable to you, but understand it may NOT be to others. Use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation to sound as intelligent, educated and sane as possible. Make your initial communication as interesting and detailed as possible, something that would likely invite a response. (Just writing something like, "hey i saw yer ad and im writing cuz i need a room," may not qualify as inviting for many folks.) First impressions mean a lot to many people. To the extent you do not make a good one, your response rate may suffer.

6. Make an agreement ahead of time with your future roommate about the issues most important to you. (You can even print out a copy of the profiles you receive via email (for your own PRIVATE USE, of course) if you like.) Form a verbal or written agreement about conduct on those items, and sign or shake on it. This will lay the groundwork for the most agreeable situation in the longer-term.

7. We're received word of a "roommate scam" that's been circulating around the internet. We're not aware that any subscribers to Roomie Match have fallen for this, but since it is possible someone might, we wanted to post this warning as a public service. No, this is not reason for widespread or undue panic, or non-specific worry about finding a roommate on the internet or anywhere else. The vast majority of folks you could possibly meet from Roomie Match are law-abiding citizens who are not out to illegally "scam" you or anyone else. What this IS is a reminder that with this and all of your other adult endeavors you should exercise good common sense. If you can do that, you need not worry at all about this.

In general, if someone you don't know gives you a check/money order/cashier's check for a large amount of money, don't ever assume it cleared your bank as a valid payment until your bank assures you the deposit was good. Money orders and cashier's checks are forms of immediate payment AS LONG AS THEY ARE NOT FORGED. If you're not extremely familiar with the issuing bank, assume you don't know what one of theirs would look like, no matter how "official-looking" it might seem to you. In addition, sending a relative stranger large amounts of money unnecessarily or as an unnecessary and unrequested "overpayment" is very odd behavior in and of itself. If someone seems to be doing something a reasonable person would find suspicious, don't trust them completely and immediately, especially with large amounts of your own money. This is good advice for roommate seeking and really, pretty much anything else in life.

More specifically, the details of the scam are reportedly as follows: Someone contacts you with an interest in renting your room, and would like to secure the room from afar by sending payment in advance. Then they spin a "Tall Tale" (the reasons vary, but all are equally "fishy" and should arouse suspicion in and of themselves) about how they need to send a check/cashier's check/money order for hundreds of dollars MORE than the required amount. After you receive it, you must immediately and with great urgency and speed (meaning, before your bank would be able to completely process the deposit) refund them their "balance" by getting it back to them somehow (mailing them one of your checks back, wire service, etc.). The scam is that the form of payment they sent turns out to be forged, so the money you sent back as their "balance/refunded amount" just comes out of your own pocket, and then you never see or hear from this would-be roommate ever again. If any of your roommate matches say anything vaguely like this to you, tell them you don't want any form of payment that's for more than the amount required for first month's rent, deposit, etc. Not a dollar more than the minimum required to secure the room. Let them know as well that if they ignore your request and send more than the amount required anyway for any reason whatsoever, you'll not be able to refund them any balance until:

1) Your bank has assured you the payment cleared, and this applies to cashier's checks and money orders as well as personal checks and
2) They can pick up their balance in person whenever they're ready to move in with you. You'll not be refunding any "balances" long distance, only in person.

If whoever is a legitimate room seeker, they should have no problem with either, and you can tell them we said so.
If they do have a problem and/or continue insisting upon some ridiculous scenario along the lines of that described above, let us know about it immediately and we'll delete their profile. We are also on the lookout for this, but we'd appreciate your assistance as well if you notice something we might not have yet. By this we do mean someone on Roomie Match, and we would need the email address of that subscriber and a copy of the email they sent you with the offending details. We don't need you to forward along the latest internet gossip about this, just specific details if you think someone in OUR database is attempting to do something illegitimate with any of our other subscribers, ok? Thanks!