House share: Where to start looking?
Before you type in your sought-after London area code in Google, make sure to know which platforms are reliable when searching for a professional house share. Whether it’s online or in person research, you want to make a decision based on facts from sources you trust.
House share: Who can you trust?
We rate SpareRoom (this is not a brand endorsement) as one of the best platforms for finding a room to let within a house based on your personal requirements. From yoga-loving vegans looking for that one special housemate to take occupation in the available room in their three-bedroom loft, to the working professionals hustling all day, keen to house share with like-minded people, SpareRoom has a wide range of house share options.
The platform is easy-to-use, updated regularly and takes the pain out of figuring out who lives where with whom. The listings are created in such a way that you can see upfront what you will be getting, and whether you’ll be dealing with an individual, a landlord or a property professional.
Facebook Marketplace is another platform to consider, as properties show up based on your location, and it’s also fairly easy to navigate. It is managed by individuals, so you might get some spam-type content before getting to the actual good stuff, but it’s always good to be able to ‘investigate’ a person’s profile before contacting them about a potential house share.
Speaking of which, chatting to your mates about your house share move is always a good idea. Plenty of our current London Shared tenants found a home with us through friends living in our properties. If you’re going to share space with other humans, you might as well do it with good humans.
House share: What to look out for?
London is a charming place, but no one street is the same. In any given area, you can find yourself in a street flanked by gorgeous Victorian houses, and a group of busy cafés in the next. Not only do you want to live in a stunning home, but you also want to live in an area that you can be proud of.
Here is our list of things to look out for:
- Investigate the standard of the house you are thinking of moving into: is the building in good shape; is the house clean; is the street nice and neat?
- Communal spaces can make or break a home. Check out if it is kept clean, what the standard of the furniture is, who looks after what. You might want to find this out before you sign on the dotted line.
- Find out who you’ll be living with. Your fellow tenants can make your living situation fantastic or dreadful. There’s nothing wrong with some light social media stalking to investigate your potential new housemates – everyone’s doing it.
- Know your area, because it will become your new backyard. Google Maps is ideal for determining how close your nearest Tesco will be from your new home; where you’ll be buying your morning brew enroute to the Tube, and so on. You want convenience, because London was built for it.
House share: Do’s and don’ts
Propertymark shared these tips for living in a house share, including keeping the property tidy, sorting out your bills and utilities (at London Shared, we do that on our tenants’ behalf), securing your room, sharing the cost of essentials, respecting your housemates, communicating with your housemates to resolve issues, choosing your housemates carefully, reading the tenancy agreement and talking to your letting agent.
Transparency is something that we champion, and we would add ‘being transparent’ to the list of tips. In return, we offer our tenants complete transparency in terms of rates, inclusions and exclusions – so there is no room for confusion, but only room for a happy occupancy.
You can also read more about London Shared’s approach to professional house sharing.
Top image credit: Image by Loreta Skomra from Pixabay.