The notion of adding a roommate is something that many people ponder each year.

While living on your own may be more to your liking, can you afford to do that for a prolonged period of time?

You may end up discovering that it would be wiser to have a roommate to cut down on expenses and so on.

With that in mind, will adding a roommate be a good decision over time?

What Should You Know About a Prospective Roommate?

In thinking about having a roommate, here are some things to mull over in your mind moving ahead:

1. Financial aspect – One of the reasons for having a roommate is to save on rent and other such expenses. Having someone living with you can mean you split the rent for starters. You can also share such bills as utilities, food and more. At the end of the day, you need to decide if saving money is your top priority or not. If you are more of a loner and tend to like your space, a roommate may not fit into such a lifestyle despite the savings.

2. Can you trust them? – You are also going to want to be able to trust anyone potentially moving in with you. Unless it is someone you are related to or have been friends with for a while, how well can you trust them? Do they have the financial support that will allow them to pay their fair share of the bills? Could they have a personal past or even presence that can lead to drama for you? As an example, they are in the middle of or coming out of a nasty divorce. What if they do not tell you any of this information? You could go online and do a little background research on them. With their full name and any other key details, you can do a public divorce records search. Such a search can lead you to discover if they are being upfront about their divorce info they may give you. The bottom line is knowing as much as you can about the person before going in together on a living arrangement.

3. Taking care of property – When you give the go-ahead on rooming, one aspect to cover is taking care of the property. With that in mind, have a plan in place. Who will do the cleaning of the property? Will you shop together for groceries and more or stick to your own things? How will bills like utilities and other such expenses be handled? Will they be split right down the middle? These are but a few of the things you and your roommate will have to decide on. You also have to think about if you will be close with the roommate or keep it strictly a business move to share costs.

In deciding if adding a roommate will be a good decision, take the time and effort to get the call right.

The last thing you want is to be miserable day in and out.