<p>The reason I am moving in with strangers is because as soon as school ended I went overseas and just got back few days ago. School's about to start so I needed a place to live. Since all my friends found a place and had no available rooms for me, I went online and found an available space. It's a house that has 6 rooms that's pretty close to campus. There will be 4 guys and also 2 girls. I will be one of the 2 girls. They're all seniors and I am a juniors.
I met two of them today and checked out the place and also told them I will move in.
Do you think I am crazy? Did I do the right move? Have you ever had to move in with strangers? if so how was the experience? is it safe?</p>
<p>Many college freshmen share a room with strangers! :)</p>
<p>You’ll probably be fine. It seems rather unlikely that all 5 of your roommates are conspiring against you. And if one or two of them were sketchy, the others would have hopefully warned you.</p>
<p>When I had roommates I conducted a background check on all of them, and I also had a senior private investigator interview their friends under the pretext of a job reference. </p>
<p>It is fine to find out more information about the strangers you will be staying with. Make sure you know exactly who you are dealing with. That being said, I would think that most people who room with strangers don’t have anything weird happening to them. But when something weird does happen, it is usually big news.</p>
<p>i had to rent a place this summer for an internship and found 3 guys through craigslist and secured the place before ever meeting them, as it was in a different city than my home city. first time i met them was when i moved in. it worked out well, but i could see the opposite happening as well. i probably just got lucky</p>
<p>
That’s interesting considering most information you would obtain through a BI is illegal without the individual knowing about the BI going on (usually by them giving written consent) - only under certain law enforcement investigation circumstances can that not be the case. Did they agree to a BI as a condition to live with you? And if they did, then why the need for the PI?</p>
<p>BTW, it’s harder for PIs to swindle information from the past on someone vs discovering information about the person by a current surveillance operation (i.e. to discover past financial or medical history, you would be getting banks and hospitals involved, of which institutions can take privacy very seriously - and most PIs don’t keep inside contacts like that for too long because 1. the more often they use a single contact, the more likely they are to be discovered and 2. there seems to be a shortage of people who are willing to risk their jobs and livelihood for a short monetary gain).</p>
<p>Seriously, it’s not like the movies and stuff like that can take a lot of time and money. Anything a PI would discover in a short period of time would be insignificant or irrelevant to a specific purpose. And surely, any moderately experienced PI would be working for a firm or on their own for big bucks and not doing college roomate check-ups unless they may have been desparate for the income. Most states have pretty extensive reqs to be a licensed PI and they don’t like to waste their time once they’ve gone through that ringer. A PI guised as a job reference checker? Why not just ask for living arrangement references, like most renters do these days anyway?</p>
<p>I’m not saying not to be careful, just pointing out the fallacy of what you did or claim to have done.</p>
<p>EDIT: For the OP, if these roommates are also students at your school, then they would most likely understand the rush for you to get in a place and that’s why they were as willing to let you in as you were to get in and all would be fine. Things do happen, but then again things happen outside of instances of picking roommates hastily, like dorm roommates and etc.</p>
<p>Turtle’s post seriously just made my day.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if turtle’s post is a “joke on a joke” type of thing or if he just didn’t get it, but incase it’s the latter, Thereisnosecret was joking.</p>
<p>No. Secret is a ■■■■■. All of his posts are super paranoid like that. Turtle I’m assuming was a “serious” response to a ■■■■■.</p>
<p>o.O Looked like, and read like, serious trolling to me.</p>
<p>Isn’t that what we all do? Move in with strangers? I think you’ll be fine. You have your own room, right? Good luck!</p>
<p>My D has been subletting rooms in New York City all summer from strangers, many of whom have turned out to be nice and interesting people. Of course, you want to be cautious at first - she would never visit a new apartment situation without a friend along, for instance.</p>
<p>I would recommend against this. I would not consider a house with more than 3 roommates… Too much drama… If each of you bring 10 friends home OMG>…</p>
<p>Make sure your roommates are responsible… bottom line they don’t do illegal stuff that put you at risk (torrenting, smoking pot in public area, stealing your stuff…) and they pay the rent on time…</p>
<p>A background check probably won’t help your too much… btw is it illegal? I think what you get from a background check are mostly public information</p>
<p>@Thereisnosecret: if you have the resouces to run these checks, why not just get a one br apartment?</p>
<p>i make sure to move in first. that way i can just stand in a corner with an ax, grinning when they come in giving an evil laugh.</p>
<p>seriously though its college, its a very high chance you are moving in with people you dont know. people do it all the time</p>
<p>You should live there for a week to see if you like it if possible before paying rent.</p>
<p>I did it all the time in college but that was many years ago. I never even thought anything of it.</p>
<p>I’ve moved in with strangers plenty of times. It’s a pretty normal thing to do at colleges. However, like stradmom said, I always brought a friend along when I checked out a place. In addition, I also always looked up/added my potential roommates on fb. This can really help you get a feel for the type of people your roommates are.</p>
<p>Not moving in with them if they torrent… really now?</p>
<p>People move in with strangers all the time. Look at Facebook pages of large colleges and you’ll see plenty of “looking for roommate,” and “looking for subleaser” posts. Make sure you try to get in touch with them first. Facebook, e-mail, phone call, etc. at least once. </p>
<p>There’s also probably nothing to worry about as far as living with guys, that happens a lot too. And since you all have separate rooms the only thing you really have to worry about is that they pay bills on time, keep the place clean, and don’t use the house to sell drugs. Obviously it would be great if you all became friends too, but it isn’t necessary.</p>
<p>thanks guys, this helped me a lot.
I am moving into a different place. It’s cheaper but has more guys than the previous one. There are about 12 people in the house and I am one of the 2 girls. so I will be living with 10 guys now. as you all said, hope there isn’t anyone creepy among them. I haven’t met them and will meet them on the move-in day. The owner of the place will be living with us.
I don’t know this is my first time having to move-in with people I don’t know. Feel pretty scared</p>
<p>Last year I transferred to a big school and didn’t have a lot of time to find a house. I ended up finding one that had 10 guys and one girl. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world as we did have some fun but all it takes is a few housemates to not take school serious to ruin it for you. Think 15 people parties or midnight exercise music when you have to be at school at 8 a.m. I did meet one good friend at that house though, and were living together again this year, in a less hectic house. It could turn out to be the best thing ever but 12 people is a lot and all is it takes is a few having bad habits to ruin your experience. </p>
<p>P.S. Since everyone signed the lease I’m going to have an equal share in about 7,000 dollars in damages to the house (which I didn’t cause).</p>