If you cannot afford renting an apartment on your own, living with a roommate is the perfect solution for the time being. Sharing an apartment with a roommate would definitely cut down on your costs as well as split the household chores into two halves. If you are lucky, you might even find yourself a friend for life.

On the other hand, if you find yourself with a thoughtless roommate with dubious hygiene and or eating habits, living with a roommate can be a pain in the ass. However, taking the right consideration in advance would enable you to enjoy the benefits of living with a roommate and to avoid the downsides of it.

Usually, disputes and disagreements between roommates are unavoidable. By choosing the most suitable roommate as possible, you can at least minimize their influence on your daily life. The perfect roommate is the silent and invisible one who cleans after himself and pays the bills on time. Since perfect roommates are rare, it seems like you would have to compromise. The question is: how low can you go?

Do you mind living with a roommate whose cleaning skills are far from being excellent?

How much will it bother you a roommate who runs an unquiet lifestyle, such as hosting frequent dinner parties, listening to music out loud, banging the drums, etc?

What about a roommate who lives in an opposite time zone than you are?

A much younger or older roommate?

A roommate who owns pets?

A roommate whose significant other makes too frequent visits?

A roommate of the opposite sex?

If you are a non smoker: can you share an apartment with a smoking roommate?

If you are vegetarian or vegan: can you share a kitchen with a carnivore?

Answering the questions listed above would help you figure out your priorities. Next, here are the three most important qualities you should look for in potential roommates.

Compatibility a person whose lifestyle is similar to yours would make a better roommate. For example, if you are an early riser, you will have a hard time living with a night owl. It is especially important when it comes to cleanliness, which is one of the most common causes to disputes. A person who is as tidy or as messy as you are, would make a better roommate than someone who would go wacko each time you leave a dirty plate at the kitchen sink or someone whose idea of cleaning is spraying the apartment with a deodorant.

Reliability choosing a roommate is more like picking a business partner rather than making a new friend. A good chemistry is always an advantage and it will be easier to solve problems with a likeable person. However, the bottom line is that you do not have to like your roommate but you must trust your roommate. Since you will be sharing not only the rent but also gas, electricity, phone and other bills, it is important to have a roommate who is not turning senile each time a bill reaches your shared mailbox.

Openness your roommate has to be someone you can talk to. Not necessarily hearty conversation; you should be able to feel comfortable to approach them directly any time you have problem or complaint related to your shared household. If you manage to establish an open and honest relationship with your roommate, any future arguments and misunderstanding would be settled at ease without damaging the overall atmosphere.