It’s hard to find and rent a room in New York, but finding a roommate to share an apartment can make this easier.
In New York City, housing is ridiculously expensive. In fact, it’s the most expensive place to live in the United States.
A modest 350-foot apartment costs about $2,000 a month — two or three times the national average — and that’s for a shoebox studio along with a shared bathroom-kitchen combo with no storage space.
If you’re not making anywhere near that much money, but still want to live in Manhattan itself, then roommate-sharing is an excellent option for stretching your dollar.
You may be asking, what is the best way to find affordable housing in New York? The answer is roommate-sharing. Millions of successful partnerships have made this process easy by enabling you to get the most out of your budget, and enjoy your stay in this amazing city. You can visit the SharedEasy website to learn more about rooms for rent in Manhattan.
There are hundreds of apartments for rent in New York City. Before you commit to moving there, you might like to read on for some advice about thinking to rent a room in New York.
Table of Contents
Before moving in
Before moving into a rental apartment, there are a few things you should consider. Your living arrangement may change from year to year as you move from one place to another, so it’s a good idea to know all the traits and habits that you’re looking for in a roommate. And you should also be honest to others about your traits and habits.
What exactly should you consider when planning a shared housing arrangement? You have to think about cleanliness, safety, and the overall value it will bring to your experience in college. As you search through amenities in shared housing, be honest in listing yourself as a potential tenant.
Think about how much time it would take out of your week to clean large shares or apartments from all the clutter from previous students from the year before. The more personal space you have the better, but keep in mind that certain amenities can add to your lifestyle when living with other people.
Cleaning
Cleanliness is next to godliness, and when it comes to sharing an apartment with roommates common courtesy will go a long way in making you (and them) happy and maintaining a stress-free and harmonious living situation.
It is a good idea to make a cleaning schedule at the beginning of the year no matter what type of living arrangements you’re in. For example, if you have a room with a private bathroom make sure you leave the area clean and tidy before going out for the night. If your bathroom has a private sink you should take responsibility for it as well.
Supplies and Household Expenses
If you need to purchase supplies, like soap or paper towels, for the apartment that are only used once, then it makes sense for everyone to pool their money together and buy them. However, if you’re talking about things like toilet paper, detergent and garbage bags, they would need to be purchased on a regular basis so it’s probably wise for each person to take charge of those bills.
You could also donate these supplies if you wanted to keep costs down. For example, it’s not unlikely that someone has some old soap they don’t need anymore. Also agree on who will replace light bulbs and pay the cable bill.
Lifestyle
A very important factor in determining whether you’re going to have a great experience living in a shared apartment or house is understanding your roommate’s lifestyle habits. Along with the type of person that they are, there are other facts to discover about your roommate to ensure that personality types are compatible and you will get along well enough to both make living together enjoyable.
In every group, one person is louder than the rest. In rooming situations, this is usually the person who shares a room.
This roommate is usually the one who plays the stereo down the hall, or the one who talks so loud late at night that the other roommate can no longer sleep. This roommate is usually the one whose bed is closest to the door, and the one who snores the loudest.
Some roommates don’t get along. But most do, though sometimes not very well. If you can tolerate your roommate’s annoying habits, and if the two of you have compatible lifestyles, you might not even notice the relationship. On the other hand, if you have very different lifestyles, it will be a constant struggle.
Guest policy
A common scenario in a shared apartment is for roommates to have different ideas about the number and frequency of guests to be invited over. Although this may seem like a topic that can be argued about endlessly, plenty of compromises can be made to help reach a compromise. If you both make a list of everyone you would like to have sleep over and how often you want them to do so can help speed up the process.
Conclusion
Private rooms in NYC can be surprisingly hard to find, after all, the city that never sleeps is also pretty busy and full of people.
If you like the combination of privacy and access to shared spaces, consider living in a cooperative living space such as the ones that SharedEasy has to offer.
You can rent a room in New York a shared living structure for an affordable price and share the cost of utilities and amenities like internet and cable. With your own bedroom, you can get a lot more privacy and make your own necessary belongings clutter free. If you want to be independent and enjoy living with roommates without having to worry about paying for rent, all of this is possible with co-living housing.
