Are you scared of being alone or being paired with someone random in your college housing hunt?  Or scared of the high price of living alone if you’re not going to college? Well, you’re in luck we’re here to share some tips and tricks to find the perfect roommate and affordable housing.

If you’re going to college and you’re a first-year and your college has a Facebook page for the incoming freshmen, join the page and introduce yourself and reach out to others in the group. It’s a great way to meet them and learn more about them. If you have a friend going to the same school, you could try to room with them for college.

As you’re meeting new people and learning more about them there are also some things to watch out for:

• if someone is a messy or clean person
• if they’re nice or rude
• if they’re hardworking or not
• if they’re a party animal or not
• not a necessity but related majors and interest
• opposites can work as well
• related hobbies

Those are some things to look for when trying to find a roommate no matter if it’s for college dorms/apartments or not going to college and just looking for a roommate. It’s always easy to just find your friends and room with them, but that can be a big issue when you get into living with them, as you’ve never lived together and could run into major issues with being so close.

Living on your own can be stressful and can cost a lot of money. We all know that not every single person graduating high school is pursuing a degree, but may instead pursue a technical school or are just wanting to work at entry-level jobs and then move onto college or community college. Finding good affordable housing is hard and sometimes tricky as the cheaper places to live aren’t always the safest places to live.

For Rent Ankeny, Des Moines & Metro Apartments is a Facebook group that has homes and apartments listed that are for rent and the available accommodations for each listing. They also explain payments and deposit needed for renting and it’s really easy to contact people putting up a listing.

Apartments.com is a website that narrows down your hunt for a place to rent to just apartments and gives all the available apartments in a city or town and the surrounding area.

This Shows

The area you selected

All available apartments in a certain radius

Different drop-downs that are customizable to what you’re looking for

A commute button to determine your commute from your home address to the apartment you select

This Shows

• How many beds
• The building name and address
• Photos of the apartment complex and apartments themselves
• The available accommodations
• A contact number
• An email to contact them
• The price and when listed

Another great thing is trying to find a roommate even if you’re not going to college and staying in a dorm because living with an additional person can help reduce rent payments and utility payments as those can be expensive while renting an apartment or home.

For more information about college housing, contact your college’s department of resident life (or check out their website on the college’s site). For more information about housing not related to college, check out Facebook groups and Craigslist, just be sure to do your homework about the person you’re potentially rooming with first.