Roommate-Finding Apps: Tips and Recommendations
If you’re in need of a roommate for your apartment, why not try a roommate-finding app? Here are some tips for finding a roommate that’s a good fit.
If you’ve ever made the plunge to move into your own apartment, you may be familiar with the difficulties involved in finding a roommate. Roommate-matching apps seem like an efficient solution but are these apps actually that efficient, and more importantly, safe, to use?
Read More: How Careful Should I Be with Online Dating?
Luckily, the app store has seen an increase in roommate-matching apps to help apartment hunters find a compatible living partner. Some choose apps like Roomster, which claims to “connect people at all price points, in 192 countries,” to find someone to fill their empty room or sublet. To use Roomster, users begin by filling out general information such as which city you’re looking for an apartment in, as well as whether you’d like to rent one room or an entire unit. Users can also detail information about their lifestyle habits, including their sleep schedule, dietary restrictions, smoking habits, and more.
Other roommate-matching apps, like Symbi, take the work out of finding a roommate by importing select information from your Facebook profile into your Symbi account. Others prefer Roomi for its simple, Tinder-like interface and secure communication options.
But, as the saying goes, if it’s “too good to be true,” it likely is. Unsatisfied users report that such apps are “hotspots” for scams, noting that some apartment listings on these databases include Google images and other fabricated information. These ploys to gain information like bank details from vulnerable users are common, which is why it’s important to protect your personal information during your roommate search.
Falling for a common Internet scam can make the already-stressful process of finding a roommate even more difficult. Besides protecting your phone from malicious apps, you should also protect your personal information, and be wary of apartment listings that feature apartments for price points which are uncommonly low for the area. It’s worth repeating: if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.