If you are at wit’s end on where to live with all the high rents, you might consider pooling resources together with your best friends and buying or renting a house together. A burden shared is a lot easier to handle, and living under a single roof can help with many issues like budget, security, and even companionship. But it is not going to be easy. There are several issues that you need to handle, so here are some tips that should help.
Make A Decision
One of the first important decisions you have to make is which friends you will be sharing the house with. This can influence the entire house-sharing experience, and you need to choose the right friends for it. Unless you are the most laid-back person in the world, there are individuals with who you can’t live. They may have horrible habits or hobbies that you dislike. For a house share to be successful, everyone has to get along, so you and your friends all need to agree on every roommate.
Rent Or Buy
There are two options available when you plan to share a house. You either rent it or buy it completely. Renting is the easier option. You share the rent among how many of you there are. Your only discussion about it would be how much the rent is and your part of it. But if you are ambitious, buying a house is possible. You meet with a lawyer and set up a joint tenancy agreement. You’ll need to all sign it when you purchase the property. This gives everyone a share in the house. Everyone who has a share can sell it off to others in the future, but currently, they would share in all the assets and liabilities of the property. This is a great choice if you are thinking of selling out your share in the future to get the money back.
Hunt Down The Ideal Place
When you’ve decided on your group and your setup, it is time to look for the best house possible. You and your friends need to discuss with each other what you each need in a house. For example, if you work from home, then you need a place that has a good internet connection. Try to find a house that meets all or most of your requirements, so everyone is happy to move in.
Set Down The Ground Rules
After moving in, one of the first meetings you need to have is to discuss the ground rules. These are the basics that everyone should follow. For a house full of guys, it can be an interesting set of rules, but some things should be there. For one, you need to have everyone respect each other. Second, everyone needs to do their responsibilities. Finally, the house needs to be taken care of. Come up with other rules as necessary.
Divide Responsibilities
Another important thing to do is to assign tasks among yourselves. Having a single person be in charge of a particular responsibility makes it much easier to handle. For example, you assign one of your friends to temperature duty. They’ll be making sure the thermostat is at a comfortable level and checks on the air conditioning and furnace. If necessary, they’ll call in an HVAC repair technician to fix things. When something is wrong with the house’s heat or cooling, you know who to turn to.
Socialize With Others
Ensure that you and your roommates socialize. Sharing a house and not seeing each other regularly is a bad idea and causes friction. If you want a harmonious relationship with your housemates, then you need to meet up with them. It also deepens your friendship a bit. Besides that, meeting with others allows you to bring up any issues that need clearing up and urgent matters like rent collection.
Ensure That Everyone Gets Privacy And Security
While being social is essential, you should also give each other space. A person’s room in their house is their private area. You should ensure that you have ground rules about privacy. It is also a good idea to install locks for each room so that everyone can feel secure about their belongings.
Sharing a house can be a big advantage. It gives you a roof over your head for a reasonable price, and it removes a lot of your worries about living alone. But people near each other will cause friction, so you need to ease that. If you take the right approach to house sharing, you’ll enjoy the results.
