craigslist apartment woes

[Bob]

alright, so i'm back to stressing over craigslist apartment issues, only this time, i'm on the opposite side; i have two empty rooms that i need to find roommates for.

how risky is it exactly to give a room to someone you've never actually met in person? there are two people that sound just about perfect from what i've been able to gather from e-mail conversations (but not "too perfect"), but the only problem is that they won't actually be able to see the place in person until the day of the move in. i'm in boston, one's in montana, the other is in alaska. they're both friends with each other though, so that's cool; we won't have to worry about the new roommates getting along with each other, and we can fill both open rooms at once.

i know it's generally a bad idea to do this, but...why is it a bad idea exactly? they don't sound psycho or anything (and i don't know how you're supposed to know whether someone's crazy or not from just meeting them for a few minutes in person anyway) and they don't appear to be scamming us. How would a scam like that even work? they're not getting anything out of it.

so i dunno, i need someone to tell me whether or not this is a good idea (serious replies would be more helpful than joke replies but if you just came in to say "they're going to murder you in your sleep" go ahead, i'm ready)

[Otis Driftwood]

#1 No fundamentalist christians. Worst experience I've had with about 20 flatmates.
#2 Get someone who is on the internet as much as you are. People with "a life" will try to blame all the electricity costs on you.

[russhie]

I moved into my first share house without meeting any of my new housemates - I remember unpacking boxes while everyone was out then chilling on the couch and greeting them when they eventually came home, it was surreal. But also alot of fun.

I'm a pretty laid back, tolerant person so when we had some interesting people in to share over the time I lived there, it was more fun than not - there was a girl with a thing for identity theft and fraud, a couple who used to wrestle each other (proper fighting) on the front lawn when drunk and argumentative...the landlord's son lived with us and he was unemployed and pretty much constantly high. It's not always murdered-in-your-sleep type stuff, yeah.

[na§tee]

yeah, i'm going through the motions of trying to get a new flatmate to fill our spare room atm, too.

first off, i don't think you should just settle for these two people because they are friends. you will be living with them, you should meet them first to see if you click. but if you're willing to take a gamble, sure.. go for it.

it's strange for us because this is the first time we've had to live with a stranger, really, since university.
i had two people look at our room last night, we have 5 tonight and 5 tomorrow.
scott, gary, louise, paddy, lindsay, dominic, sarah, joni, jamie, natalie, kevin, sharon, could YOU be our potential flatmate? roll up, roll up!

it's funny how people try to market themselves in emails. i had one guy list his qualities. he was like
- i can make sushi. i have a part-time job in a japanese restaurant.
- i have worked in IT for six years. if you have problems with your computer i can fix it!
- i am into many kinds of music such as pop, rock, soul, hip hop, and bossa nova (woooahh!). i have more than 20,000 songs on my laptop!
etc etc.. hehe.

i've received dozens of texts, too. hint: potential flatmates, if you text like this (http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c361/nastee/0d5ebf40.jpg), it's an immediate no from us, sorry.

[jabumbo]

have you talked to these people on the phone? i think you can pick up a lot more from the phone than just a couple emails.

do you have another roommate? or is it just you making this decision?

[Praying Mantis]

get a deposit from them

[taquitos]

they're going to murder you in your sleep

[na§tee]

18ish people later and i think we found the perfect gal last night.

she has the same name as the person leaving the room, sarah. she has red hair and is hella cute. she's a journalist and moving back to scotland to start a television reporting job. she didn't flinch at our weird jokes. i think we'll take her. she is so pretty and cool and has an extremely successful family with a designer-for-donna-karan sister in NY that i fear lil ole me may become jealous, but i only think that when my self esteem is minus 50 instead of the normal minus 20. haha.

i got an email last night from someone who sounded so completely up their own arse we were still LOLing about it with sarah when she arrived.

i know it's good to have detail, but this many adjectives?

"27-year-old female, non-smoker, clean & reasonably tidy, a pretty good cook. Friendly, optimistic, creative, energetic, hard-working, open-minded, reliable, responsible, curious."

"A novice gardener, DIY-er, and techie. An occasional baker, seamstress, and kite flyer. Gay-friendly, eco-friendly, leftwing, etc." (kite-flyer?!)

with the sort of flatmate she is looking for, she says she wants someone..

"..intelligent enough to have interesting conversations, with some knowledge of the world beyond sport and fashion" which we just found so incredibly sanctimonious. she also requested that the people she live with be good cooks as she likes to share meals on a regular basis. "no tories or control freaks, either" which i guess is fair enough if it means that much to you but geez woman.. lighten up a bit.

[ms.peachy]

"no ... control freaks, either"

Because that is clearly her job, and really you don't need more than one of those under the same roof.

You might want to reply to her letting her know she's clearly not as 'open-minded' as she thinks she is.

[na§tee]

You might want to reply to her letting her know she's clearly not as 'open-minded' as she thinks she is.
ha - that is an incredibly good point.

there's actually more to the story about this person. i recognised her name. i cover all the press/news/PR/comms coverage for the university i work for, and she is a PhD student here. she writes a monthly column for the scotsman newspaper about higher education/learning which, actually, is ostensibly about herself. my colleagues and i, most of whom are ex-journalists, are like "why the fuck are they still running her column? it is so incredibly boring". anyhiz, she criticised the uni's strategic plan ("a slick, toxic-smelling booklet..") just.. because.

her research area is human ecology and earth activism, spin and social change and global citizenship yadda yadda so i guess she is naturally.. critical but lordy, she goes over the top a bit. anyhiz, why she criticised the institution that will give her her award is beyond me, but she got into a bit of trouble resulting in a letter from the principal, oo-er. she's just a bit... precious. "i want to live with someone who understands the demands of academia".. yeah honey, those sports-and-fashion people lack a cerebral edge :rolleyes: she writes a LOT about intellectual craftsmanship, intellectual indulgence (ha!) and seems to populate her columns mostly by listing the variety of subjects she talks about at dinner parties:

"Conversation ranged from the multi-dimensional nature of identity to the existence of truth and the purpose of science.... Also deaf culture in Britain, public policy in Australia, European energy politics, the unusual immune systems of mussels, a counselling technique that combines psychotherapy with meditation, and at least a dozen other things that would be difficult to capture in soundbites...."

she runs a peace organisation for fans of the goo goo dolls. not peace.. in general. just goo goo doll fans' peace.

i'm yapping on a bit but that sort of, yes, intellectual indulgence that she herself is guilty off pisses me off a little bit.

[ms.peachy]

Gosh, she sounds like great fun!

You know what chick like that really wants? She wants to get bent over the hood of a pick-up truck with a gun rack and done up the butt by a guy whose just come back from hunting deer and chopping down trees and whose conversational output to her consists of nothing more than "Take it, bitch!"

I think she'd be a much happier person after that.