Post: #1

Hello Forum members. I just wanted to say that for all of you who are thinking about getting a fat pad, and then having roommates so it will not cost as much, think again. I own a house in Southern California. I have two roommates. To put it bluntly, they suck. They do not clean, they definitely do not care about your stuff, and they kill your privacy. No matter how good of friends that you think you are with somebody, you will hate to live with them. I know I do. I am trying to kick them out now. One of the guys is gonna try and squat, so I have to go see an attorney tomorrow. Just remember guys that It aint worth it period!!!

Post: #2

Well that sucks

Post: #3

Sucks to be you. Been discussed on the forum. Should have bumped another thread. All you hear are horror stories when it comes to roommates. Ive beem through 12 maybe and 2 were worth it. You have to find people that are on the same cleanliness level as you. You should have known how clean they were from their previous spot. Most shitty roommates cant pay or arent clean.

Lesson to our young players out there. Roommates are almost never worth it. Just because you save a few 100 bucks doesnt make it worth it. When you are ready to kick them out you need to know your city and state laws. If you want to have them or need to. Dont get on the lease if possible.

Post: #4

I told one of my buddies last year that living with his friends was a bad move and I cited a story from one of my older female friends who lived with her two best highschool friends when she was younger and now she "never talks to them".

Look at it now, I was right. His male roommate is a gigantic cockblock, deadweight financially, and somewhat of an asshole whiteknight mangina to boot.

All he has to show for the last eight months of his is an endless amount of alcohol that he personally funded and didn't get to drink and a lot of jibing at his utter lack of a sex life.

Post: #5

I'm considering getting a place with a friend. The difference for me is that he is a ship electrician(?), and will be gone for work every other month.

Post: #6

Sometimes to live in a nice area with a limited income, you have to. If your game is on fire and you've got chicks over four or more nights a week you might have to modify the guest limitations I advocate.

Main problems: Noise, pets, cleanliness, guests, money.

The first principle is someone who is fun to hang out with may not be a good person for a roommate, they're two different functions.

A roommate is not a friend-- They are someone you just want to quietly and cleanly use the facilities and not get you involved in his problems or his smoke, booze, pets, mess, violence, or excessive visitors. I have a dear friend who let a homeless guy move in for months into his apartment-- I love him but I thought he was insane.

Here are some things I've found that help. This only applies to non-smokers as I am one.

I'm also a musician, but most musicians also have bad habits that make them bad roommates so I'd rather push having the place be quiet than find cooperative musicians unless you are really tight and in a band together and it may help your endeavors to live together.

1) No chicks. They are entitled, and if they start to bring over their AMOG alpha , or rather the AMOG alpha MOVES IN you can't bitch without looking like the jealous bad guy.

2) No smokers ( if you don't smoke). They'll claim they'll only smoke in their room etc, but they always start to edge into the common areas "just for a second" to continue conversations, stand in open doorways, and smokers for obvious reasons are not long term planners ( unless they're planning for cancer)

3) Don't get anyone that uses any illegal drugs. Even if you like to do it, you should keep it secret ( hard with pot) because if they don't want to follow Gubmint rules they are also going to be resistant to yours.

4) Require something going on in their lives that conflicts with being a fuck-up.
If someone just works in a grocery store and is sober when they come over to interview, you still have no idea if they are a total drunk. If someone is a PhD student in Biochem they probably can't be total fuckups because they don't have time or brainpower to waste. I have two roommates who are serious graduate students at a high level university now, they are very motivated to not get in fights, get into conflicts.
One of them is a foreign grad student who has no motivation to cause trouble because if there is ever a problem he is not a citizen so he is not likely to escalate conflicts away from home territory. (Depends if he is from a macho culture of course.)

5) No pets. Everyone goes on vacation eventually and everyone wants free pet care while they're away. They're always asking you to take care of them, even fish smell, and it shows immaturity. I like dogs, so one exception if you have a big place in the country might be a dog. If you EVER have a pet move in make it clear and put in lease that the owner has complete responsibility and must place the animal in a boarding facility if he leaves the house for more than 24 hours.

My roommate got stuck with taking care of a guys dog for days. He said he was leaving for two days and she agreed to feed it, then he called at the end of the two days and said family problems were going to keep him longer than he thought and then didn't contact her for three more days. So not only no pets, but no taking care of others' pets for them.

6) Limited guest stayovers in lease. My roommate recently told me his girlfriend is visiting from Mexico for two weeks. At first he said they'd be traveling for a week of that, then I think he realized he doesn't have the money, next he'll probably be trying to get me to agree to have her stay more than two weeks. It should be strictly in the contract that guests are xx nights a month or whatever you think makes sense.Anything over a certain amount of days has to be agreed on and asked about a xx in advance. If he wants to live with his girlfriend he should get a place with her. This is a problem even with the nicest roommates because they cave in to their exploitive friends who ask for a place to stay. Then once they're there staying for free, it's hard to get them out , because they're the type to impose on a friend so they're the type to gladly impose on you too. It's all part of being that Alpha cool guy who always gets his way.

7) Know how they are going to pay the rent and have late fees. If you have to advance the money to cover for them you should make a profit. This goes along with #4: who are they? . Don't believe things like "I'm going to get a job ..etc" I don't know how to get credit checks but all aprtment complexes do it and they're checking for eviction histories I believe. I would never put someone through the hassle of evicting me, I'd live in a tent if I was broke-- so if they've been evicted I think it's a bad, bad sign. I would also get some ID.

8) Have a signed lease so there's no memory problems "I didn't know there was going to be a late fee" , "I thought it was all right to get a cat." etc.

Post: #7

Not sure about Cali law, but as an owner in possession you have many rights and they have few. This is a very different situation than if you owned but rented the whole place out. I don't think standard renter protections apply to them, but check your local county code and/or lawyer.

My guess is that without paying rent they have at best 1 month to stay before you can put all their stuff outside the house and change the locks.

Post: #8

(03-25-2013 06:27 AM)Menace Wrote:  Not sure about Cali law, but as an owner in possession you have many rights and they have few. This is a very different situation than if you owned but rented the whole place out. I don't think standard renter protections apply to them, but check your local county code and/or lawyer.

My guess is that without paying rent they have at best 1 month to stay before you can put all their stuff outside the house and change the locks.

Not sure if I explained correctly, I don't own anything, I was talking about choosing roommates because I can't afford my own place in high cost areas without.... working.

Post: #9

(03-25-2013 06:59 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:  

(03-25-2013 06:27 AM)Menace Wrote:  Not sure about Cali law, but as an owner in possession you have many rights and they have few. This is a very different situation than if you owned but rented the whole place out. I don't think standard renter protections apply to them, but check your local county code and/or lawyer.

My guess is that without paying rent they have at best 1 month to stay before you can put all their stuff outside the house and change the locks.

Not sure if I explained correctly, I don't own anything, I was talking about choosing roommates because I can't afford my own place in high cost areas without.... working.

I understand. The OP indicated he owned his house, so this was really mostly addressed to him. Agree that roommates can be a problem, although I have had pretty good luck with all of mine, but of course I am the landlord so I have the imprimatur of authority.

Post: #10

I'm loving my new roommate. He gave me his rent money for the month a couple days ago.

He buys food and bottles of alcohol for the apartment all of the time, bought me HDMI cords for my TV. Bought a new flatscreen and xbox so I could move mine into my room. Free styles all of the time, he's always talking about girls. He even takes out the trash every now and then.

Plus, he is gone for most of the day, so if I want to work from my apartment like I am doing today, I don't have to worry about any distractions.

I give him an A+ roommate rating.

Post: #11

(03-25-2013 04:59 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:  A roommate is not a friend-

This exactly. Do not move in with friends, because they will soon become former friends and you will tire of having to constantly deal with their shit.

In all seriousness, I'd rather not have a roommate.

I'd like to add to that list, though.

• They don't eat my food or drink my booze without permission
• Don't make too much noise after ten o clock during the week. The weekend is a bit more flexible.
• I don't mind smokers as long as they go outside, as I am one.
• They clean up messes that they made and they don't spend inordinate amounts of time in the bathroom/shower to masturbate.
• Don't cockblock unnecessarily. There's a bit of grey area here, such as if the girl in question is looking to move in or get favors such as someone to look after her pets, buy her shit, or drive her places. Women are pretty good at getting free shit.
• If they smoke weed, they do it like proper adults outside of their room, or they eat the weed.
• They don't invite sketchy fuckers over who steal stuff, break things, or vandalise. I've had this happen before and it's a real shitty deal because if you accuse their friends of doing any of those, they'll side with their friend before they side with you.
• If they ask a favor, they reciprocate the favor, pay me back, whatever.
  

Post: #12

Not worth it.

I have been living with one of my closest friends of the last 11 years for the past 4 months.

I haven't spoken to him in a month and a half. Seeing the way he behaves with his finances, women,the gap of intelligence between us and the direction I want my life to go in compared to his aimless bumbling about has been a fucking eye opener.

Post: #13

Living in an overpriced city I have no choice to be a room mate in someone else's house. Right now the drama llama has moved in. An old guy won't move the fuck out despite my landlord wanting him to go because he doesn't get along with anyone, is passive aggressive, bitches about everyone to the landlord and is behind on his rent. Also, we have potentially batshit insane Asian immigrant female. Comes from a rich family, good education, good job, but about to become old maid by Chinese standards and now I know why. I spend as little time as possible at home.

As much as I would like to live by myself it isn't possible.

I was thinking about buying a house and renting the other rooms out but now I am having second thoughts.

Post: #14

How often do you guys get into it with your roommates? I've had three roommates since I was 19 and there has only been one quarrel.(My fault)

But even that was water under the drawbridge after a month.

Post: #15

When I was 26-28 I lived with 2 other buddies. I owned the house and it was way too big for me so I let them move in because they were relocating from our hometown. Overall we had some great times but their lack of respect for my place caused some problems. I even punched one out when he got into an egg fight with another buddy in my kitchen. The other thing to was that they both made big money but at any given time they were a couple months behind in rent. At one point one guy was 3 months behind and the other guy was 4 months. So I went away for a couple weeks and had the utilities shut off. They paid up right away.

After 2 years I was sick of the shit so I went and rented my own place, kicked them out and to this day I still own the place and rent it out fully furnished to the same couple since day one. I am 31 now and I would never live with a roommate for an extended period of time.

Post: #16

Decent 1br with a balcony all inclusive $600/month in Montreal. Sign me up!

Ive had some decent roommates in my life and some bad ones as well. Worst was the floor/wall peeing guy. Don't know how he managed doing that but he found out pretty quick to stop. Another roommate I had to thoroughly explain why you use a sink trap instead of letting the food go down the drain. The 2 female roomies I had were both pretty cool and were super tidy and quiet but Canadian girls are different from bitchy Merican ones.

Post: #17

(03-25-2013 06:27 AM)Menace Wrote:  Not sure about Cali law, but as an owner in possession you have many rights and they have few. This is a very different situation than if you owned but rented the whole place out. I don't think standard renter protections apply to them, but check your local county code and/or lawyer.

My guess is that without paying rent they have at best 1 month to stay before you can put all their stuff outside the house and change the locks.

Actually, I live in Cali. My squatter has rights as a tenant because he A. lived in my house for more that 2 weeks, and B. gets his mail delivered to my house. Thankfully I am selling the place now to go back to live with family. That way a 30 day notice is valid if you have a contact with a realtor to sell. Otherwise it is a long process for eviction and you have to file about three different petitions to the court, and the lawyer is gonna be close to 1000$. I hope that when I served his notice that he thinks its a joke. When I had it out with him, he was going on about how I couldnt kick him out and he had rights. Since I am selling, he has 30 days. I just hope that I get the chance to have the sheriffs come over and make him get out. Dude trashed my house, I have Zero tolerance for grown men who live like swine.

Post: #18

(03-25-2013 06:03 PM)kickboxer Wrote:  I'm loving my new roommate. He gave me his rent money for the month a couple days ago.

He buys food and bottles of alcohol for the apartment all of the time, bought me HDMI cords for my TV. Bought a new flatscreen and xbox so I could move mine into my room. Free styles all of the time, he's always talking about girls. He even takes out the trash every now and then.

Plus, he is gone for most of the day, so if I want to work from my apartment like I am doing today, I don't have to worry about any distractions.

I give him an A+ roommate rating.

You sir are lucky. I will never chance this situation again. Life is too short to have to clean up after people who are not your immediate family. It just isnt worth it.

Post: #19

(03-25-2013 07:48 PM)Lazarus Wrote:  Living in an overpriced city I have no choice to be a room mate in someone else's house. Right now the drama llama has moved in. An old guy won't move the fuck out despite my landlord wanting him to go because he doesn't get along with anyone, is passive aggressive, bitches about everyone to the landlord and is behind on his rent. Also, we have potentially batshit insane Asian immigrant female. Comes from a rich family, good education, good job, but about to become old maid by Chinese standards and now I know why. I spend as little time as possible at home.

As much as I would like to live by myself it isn't possible.

I was thinking about buying a house and renting the other rooms out but now I am having second thoughts.

Do not do it. You will regret it. If you cannot swing it all by yourself, then it is not worth it at all.

Post: #20

(03-26-2013 02:25 AM)bigdrov1x Wrote:  Actually, I live in Cali. My squatter has rights as a tenant because he A. lived in my house for more that 2 weeks, and B. gets his mail delivered to my house. Thankfully I am selling the place now to go back to live with family. That way a 30 day notice is valid if you have a contact with a realtor to sell. Otherwise it is a long process for eviction and you have to file about three different petitions to the court, and the lawyer is gonna be close to 1000$. I hope that when I served his notice that he thinks its a joke. When I had it out with him, he was going on about how I couldnt kick him out and he had rights. Since I am selling, he has 30 days. I just hope that I get the chance to have the sheriffs come over and make him get out. Dude trashed my house, I have Zero tolerance for grown men who live like swine.

I saw that you can also file 3-day notices. Is that applicable here? Cali has some real tenant-friendly laws on thebooks.

However, check this out: http://datinternet.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/i...mation/116

Post: #21

Turn the utilities off and have or pull the power meter. Before that pull the breaker for the hot water heater and move the fridge out. Pull the front door off as well and his bedroom door.

Post: #22

(03-25-2013 12:41 AM)bigdrov1x Wrote:  Hello Forum members. I just wanted to say that for all of you who are thinking about getting a fat pad, and then having roommates so it will not cost as much, think again. I own a house in Southern California. I have two roommates. To put it bluntly, they suck. They do not clean, they definitely do not care about your stuff, and they kill your privacy. No matter how good of friends that you think you are with somebody, you will hate to live with them. I know I do. I am trying to kick them out now. One of the guys is gonna try and squat, so I have to go see an attorney tomorrow. Just remember guys that It aint worth it period!!!

You fucked up.

I've had two really shitty roommates, and the lesson I learned with the first I did not apply to the second. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

The great thing is that it sounds like you've got an out (selling the place). It's not that living with friends is automatically a bad idea, it's not that having roommates at all is a bad idea, it's that you didn't vet your new roommates well enough.

Anyone thinking of having roommates needs to spend some serious time thinking about what is really important to you and then screen potential roommates based on that. My last two roommates have been great, because I didn't play the victim and took charge of the situation. They haven't been perfect, but they hit all my MUST-HAVES and had no problem agreeing to a sublet agreement that specified many things mentioned already in this thread (such as overnight guests, partying, cleaning, etc...). I now MAKE money (or spend less for my own rent depending on how you look at it) and my roommates are a benefit in my life, not a determined. They aren't perfect, but they are close enough that any issues are minor.

I lost my best friend since 4th grade once I lived with him. It sucked. Badly.

But now I'm a better person for it and good riddance to him.

Post: #23

(03-26-2013 02:30 AM)bigdrov1x Wrote:  

(03-25-2013 07:48 PM)Lazarus Wrote:  Living in an overpriced city I have no choice to be a room mate in someone else's house. Right now the drama llama has moved in. An old guy won't move the fuck out despite my landlord wanting him to go because he doesn't get along with anyone, is passive aggressive, bitches about everyone to the landlord and is behind on his rent. Also, we have potentially batshit insane Asian immigrant female. Comes from a rich family, good education, good job, but about to become old maid by Chinese standards and now I know why. I spend as little time as possible at home.

As much as I would like to live by myself it isn't possible.

I was thinking about buying a house and renting the other rooms out but now I am having second thoughts.

Do not do it. You will regret it. If you cannot swing it all by yourself, then it is not worth it at all.

What about real estate investment in general? Is renting out to others worth it? Or is it too much of a headache for the ROI?

Post: #24

I've had good roommates and bad roommates.

I moved in with one of my best friends once, and long story short, we aren't friends anymore.

I moved in with a friend of a friend who I didn't know before he moved in, we became good friends and are still good friends to this day

I moved in with someone I didn't know at all. He may have been the easiest guy I've ever lived with.

I think overall, it just has to do with the type of person you are and they are. Even if the person is your best friend, they can be a pain in the ass to live with. A complete stranger can sometimes be much easier to live with than your best friend. The most important things I feel are paying rent on time (obviously), being clean, and respect. I don't mind if my roommate smokes weed, that's not a problem for me, but no excess of hard drugs. Shit if he wants to blow lines once a month, not a problem for me so long as he doesn't bring a bunch of coke heads over to the house to blow lines with him. I smoke cigs, but I DO NOT smoke in my house. Never have, never will. Even if I lived alone I still wouldn't. My last roommate didn't smoke weed, I do sometimes. I never smoked in the house out of respect. It wasn't a big deal for me because weed isn't that important for me. If I wanted to burn I would simply go outside or to the beach, no problem.

Post: #25

(04-02-2013 02:54 AM)InternationPlayboy Wrote:  I've had good roommates and bad roommates.

I moved in with one of my best friends once, and long story short, we aren't friends anymore.

I moved in with a friend of a friend who I didn't know before he moved in, we became good friends and are still good friends to this day

I moved in with someone I didn't know at all. He may have been the easiest guy I've ever lived with.

I think overall, it just has to do with the type of person you are and they are. Even if the person is your best friend, they can be a pain in the ass to live with. A complete stranger can sometimes be much easier to live with than your best friend. The most important things I feel are paying rent on time (obviously), being clean, and respect.

I've had more probs with clean freaks than slobs. Except drunks who make noise when I have to get up the next day to work.

One place I would wash my dishes immediately , but then he would bitch that I hadn't put the dishes AWAY after they dried. Was I supposed to wait exactly two hours for the dishes to dry...?