Kiana

Hi everybody, I could really use advice on locating a roommate to compensate for the lost income of A. I understand that with the economy as it is the market is glutted with people that have rooms and house-shares available, but have you been able to recently find/screen a decent roomie? Given that family and friends have no "known" others needing a place, I have had some roomie ads out there for some time now but the ads I've been running have not had any success.

Tuffgirl

There are lots of options for marketing for roommates. Your community's paper, if it has a classified ad section. Craigslist. The local university/community college campus. Churches. Bulletin boards at community centers. And some towns have roommate matching services (mine doesn't) so call a realtor/property manager and ask.

Screening is a different issue altogether. But I do know there are services on the internet that can do background checks deeper than normal folks have access to. Public records are available for all to review. My town has a website, maybe yours does too? If not, there are websites like pipl.com and of course, Google.

Lastly, word of mouth works well, too. Are you involved with an Al-Anon group? That's a great place to share requests like this.

Good luck!

Kiana

Thank you. The ads I have out there have had many responses, but no success (eliminated at initial screening) and so far networking hasn't come up with anybody needing a place. Once a few things are in place I can get out and about to meetings and church.