during grad school days back in NYC (20 yrs ago), I was on both sides of the equation... did the alt newspapers thing (aka Village Voice - aka BackPage) as well as Word of Mouth.... WoM worked best every time... assuming you own a house (vs leasing an apt/condo/house that would require the would-be roommate to also sign the lease), it is definitively worth while to do a detailed background check, including employment, criminal and financial.... also, get one month of security deposit as a show of good faith and make certain you have an iron-clad lease document that allows you to legally evict them .... back in the day, things were done on a handshake.... now, I have an RE mgmt firm run my rental units - too much risk to be had otherwise .... good luck
|