Movin in with 2 other guys into a house and we are trying to figure out what each person should pay monthly. I would have the master which is considerably larger than the other rooms. The total rent is 1300 and I was thinking $425/mo for them and $450 a month for me to compensate for the difference. Does this sound like a fair split? The master is double the size of the other rooms

7/17/2008 2:26:16 PM

does it really matter what we think?

7/17/2008 2:27:23 PM

yes, i value your opinions and past experiences

7/17/2008 2:27:49 PM

That isn't fair at all. It should be 400, 400, & 500 for the master. everyone would shell out $25 more to have a room twice the size...think man.

7/17/2008 2:27:57 PM

in my house, i have 3 bedrooms, a small room 10 x 14, a bigger room, 14 x 14, and the master 12 x 20...the rent is $400, $475, $500 respectively

7/17/2008 2:29:15 PM

if it's double the size the difference should be more - does it have an attached bathroom and the others have to share?

depending on the bathrooms i'd say 480 and 410 or 500 and 400 - as ^ said it really only matters what everyone you're living with thinks is fair

7/17/2008 2:29:37 PM

I am also assuming that the 2 other roommates will have to share a bathroom, and you will have your own?

Just the fact that you won't have to share a bathroom makes the 500, 400, 400 scenario more reasonable

7/17/2008 2:31:17 PM

Yea they will be sharing a bathroom. I will reevaluate and move more towards paying 500 a month. Makes sense

7/17/2008 2:34:08 PM

if they go for that, do it. I think they could possibly ask for more, even

7/17/2008 2:34:48 PM

yea i live in a 3BR 2.5BA and the master room pays 500 and we each pay 275

master room also has vaulted ceilings, twice the size, ceiling fan, 2 walk in closets

7/17/2008 2:39:54 PM

i have a 3 bedroom / 2 bathroom house. I have the master and pay $535. I only charge my roommate $400, and he doesn't even have to share a bathroom.

7/17/2008 2:42:36 PM

make the rent porportional to the volume of the rooms.

ie, if one is smaller but has vaulted ceilings, it cancels out.

7/17/2008 3:14:38 PM

doesnt sound fair to me....its only 25 a month more

[Edited on July 17, 2008 at 3:17 PM. Reason : i'd say about 480/410/410]

7/17/2008 3:16:21 PM

Have you thought about asking them what they think is fair? You might find that they come up with a number that is very agreeable and you don't have to worry about trying to come up with one yourself.

That's what I did and it worked out very well. I had a number in mind that I thought was fair. I asked them what they wanted me to pay and it was $25 less per month than what I thought was fair. They couldn't complain either because they proposed the price and I think they appreciated being included in the decision.

If they come back with something ridiculous it would be good to start trying to put a price on square feet, amenities, etc.

Quote :

"I was thinking $425/mo for them and $450 a month for me to compensate for the difference. Does this sound like a fair split? The master is double the size of the other rooms"

Doesn't sound fair at all to me.

[Edited on July 17, 2008 at 3:35 PM. Reason : s]

7/17/2008 3:31:54 PM

sounds dumb, because friends and money don't always mix

but maybe bid on the room

i.e., I'm willing to live in the big room for 475.
well too bad, I'll go 480

and whoever is willing to pay the most gets the one they want

7/17/2008 3:32:11 PM

^ that's how we did it when I had roommates in Cary.

and again, to us, having a private bathroom was way more of a big deal than the square footage of the room.

7/17/2008 3:38:55 PM

Yea, I have been automatically designated as the person to take the master bedroom if we get this new house because the other two don't wanna pay extra for it. I would like not to have to pay $500 a month and if it comes down to it we may have to find another place.

7/17/2008 3:46:52 PM

i agree with asking the other 2 roommates what they think is fair. also, is the majority of the furniture yours or is it a pretty even mix? if the majority of the furniture is going to be yours, you can factor that in as well

7/17/2008 3:58:06 PM

why don't all three of you anonymously submit a bid for the better room

gazillionaire style

7/17/2008 4:13:04 PM

^^just throw the numbers that you originally came up with at them, see what they say.......neither one wanted the master so they have no room to bitch

7/17/2008 4:17:56 PM

we always did it the person with the biggest room paid the cable/internet bill. Usually the $80-100 bill kept things nice & even.

7/17/2008 4:38:53 PM

Quote :

"That isn't fair at all. It should be 400, 400, & 500 for the master. everyone would shell out $25 more to have a room twice the size...think man."

7/17/2008 5:03:14 PM

i have the same situation


i charged 240 for mine and one roomates rooms since they are the same size and 285 for the other roomate who had a master bedroom that was double the size of our rooms and its private bath

never had a complaint

now when it was just me and the master bedroom roomate i had rent split right down the middle since i had access to as much stuff as she did before the third roomate moved in

7/17/2008 5:21:06 PM

if you think 450/425 is fair..... then i'd get kiwi to call you names.

7/17/2008 5:41:48 PM

500/400/400

7/17/2008 6:13:55 PM

$25 more isn't fair at all

i'd got with the 500/400/400

7/17/2008 6:51:24 PM

just take the square footage of each room

sum them up

then take a ratio of the room they occupy to the total and multiply that by the rent

that is how much each person should pay

example: (master bedroom square footage / total square footage of all the bedrooms) * total rent

do the same for the other rooms

you cant argue with this system

[Edited on July 17, 2008 at 6:55 PM. Reason : 

7/17/2008 6:53:57 PM

470/415/415? I would go somewhere in the middle of what you said and the 500/400/400 only because they don't want to pay extra for the master either.

7/17/2008 7:17:31 PM

I'd ask the rm's what they think is fair. Try to take a long-time view (like $25/month=$300/year).

7/17/2008 7:29:56 PM

^^


take the square footage of the entire house, excluding the rooms and divide that among the roommates


for each roommate and their alloted rooms... take the footage of each room and times it by 3 ( since you usually spend 3x the time in your room than another other room )( also, this includes the bathroom/s *3) and add it to the footage you had previously ( for each roommate with their alloted room ).


take the percentages of each and times it by the total rent.

and there you have the appropriate $$$ rent for each roommate

[Edited on July 17, 2008 at 7:34 PM. Reason : x]

7/17/2008 7:31:48 PM

hahahahaha $25 more??? if i was paying $425/mo for rent i damn well better be getting my own bathroom!!

7/17/2008 7:55:35 PM

^ ZACTLY. that's what I have been trying to say, but everyone else keeps focusing on the size of the room.

7/17/2008 8:22:54 PM

at first i thought 500/month sounded too much

but 5/13 and each other roomate paying 4/13, sounds pretty fair

7/17/2008 8:25:18 PM

500 sounds fair especially since you get your own bathroom and they have to share, plus have smaller rooms

7/17/2008 9:18:18 PM

What we do w/ three people and THREE different room sizes:

Master: On its own floor, actually has overhead lighting, private bathroom, huge closet, ready attic access - $355

My room: Shared toilet + shower, same sq. footage as master w/o other amenities and smaller closet - $335

Third room: Same as mine but smaller by about 20 sq. ft. - $320

It works pretty well. Just make sure everyone's agreed on how to split it before you move in. My first two roomies here kinda did and then got on each other about it later and it was awkward.

And if the master really is double then you should pay much more than the others as this thread suggests.

7/17/2008 10:55:34 PM

dont be bitches and just split it up evenly and whoever found the house gets the best room. That's what my roommates and i did when i was there.

7/17/2008 11:20:56 PM

800 for the master
200 for the secondaries

7/19/2008 8:14:34 PM

if you want to be completely fair, go by square footage

divide the total by 1300

that gives you $ / ft^2

then take all the common area, divide it up by 3, the shared bathroom by 2, etc, for $/ ft2 for each

then add up each persons rent

example, with two people:

1000 ft^2
$1000

$1/ft^2

200 ft^2 master and bath

700ft^2 common/2 = $.50/ ft^2

100ft^2 bedroom

tenant 1 200*$1+700*$.50 =$550

tenant 2 100*$1+700*$.50 =$450

7/21/2008 1:58:57 PM

again, I think not having to share a bathroom is more of a value than square footage.

7/21/2008 2:00:33 PM

http://elusivity.com/eg.jpg

what do you guys think would be fair in this case?

Master - WIC/Priv Bathroom 13x13'6
Mid - 13x11
Sm - 9'6 x 11'8

rent is $725. Obviously no one wants to get stuck in that piece of shit insanely small room and I definitely want to get into the master, but my buddy has been in a small room situation for a year now and I almost feel bad. That said, there is no way my bed would even fit in the small room and it's gonna be just barely for the other.

I have kind of taken all the initiative securing the place and going out, looking, taking pictures, talking to landlords etc. His parents pay the rent so he's not really going to see any price downfall if he takes it but only benefits.

damn this is a small place. =\

7/28/2008 2:43:28 PM

bah, i only paid $20/more month to have the master

but then, i was the only one with a steady girlfriend who stayed over all the time

7/28/2008 2:45:11 PM

^^ $325, $250, $150 or maybe $300, $250, $175?

Or maybe even it up some, but let the person with the tiny room put their desk/computer and some shelves for storage in the dining room.

[Edited on July 28, 2008 at 2:55 PM. Reason : l]

7/28/2008 2:52:43 PM

Quote :

"Obviously no one wants to get stuck in that piece of shit insanely small room "

That's not that bad, as long as you have a single or (maybe) full bed. I lived in a 9'6" x 10'6" room for three years, and managed to fit a twin bed, a large desk, a small desk, a small bookshelf, and a small chest of drawers in there. Creative furniture placement ftw.

To the original poster, I'd say 500/400/400 would be fair, but rather than proposing that yourself, ask each roommate what he thinks is fair. If their answers are reasonable, take the average and go with it. If they're out of line, propose 480/410/410 and settle on no more than 500/400/400.

7/28/2008 4:18:04 PM

For one year I lived in a 2 bedroom with a master and smaller bedroom. We had a conversation where we raised the price of the master until we both preferred the smaller, then backed off slightly and flipped for it. However it only worked because we both valued the master roughly the same (and it helped that neither of us really cared that much).

7/28/2008 4:33:02 PM

Secret ballot where everyone puts in a bid for the master bedroom. Whoever bid the highest wins and pays the average of the two highest bids. Make it a rule that all bids must be in multiples of $20.

rent $1300, A bids $450, B bids $480, C bids $500; C gets the master for $490 a month, A and B get their rooms for $405 a month.

In this setup, if everyone is cheap then the rooms work out to about the same rent. If everyone is eager for the bigger room then the price rises until only one person is happy in it. Of course, it works best if the three are unfamiliar with each other preferences. If person C is pretty sure that both A and B are going to bid low then C can bid low and still be sure of getting the room. As such, even person A has an incentive to put on a poker face and pretend to be desperate for more space. Then, and only then, will people bid their true opinion on the master.

7/28/2008 4:59:12 PM

maybe spend more time looking for houses next time so you don't have to spend 1300 dollars on a 3 bedroom.

7/28/2008 8:29:06 PM

what if all three rooms are the same square footage, but the master bedroom just has the walk in closet and own bathroom. What's fair in that respect?

7/29/2008 5:45:30 PM

I just moved out of a 3br/2ba where the rent was $1200. The rooms were small, medium and large where the large was almost twice the size of the small and had its own bathroom. We split it up where small was $350, medium $400 and large $450. It worked out great. Your roommates are idiots if they let you get the bigger room and pay only $25 more. 500/400/400 sounds to be the best deal. You will be paying $100 more a month for a much better room.

[Edited on July 29, 2008 at 6:04 PM. Reason : ]

7/29/2008 6:04:03 PM

We ended up with a house for 1200 and I got the master with bathroom for $430/mo while the two of them are paying $383 or something. Seemed more fair, thanks a lot for the advice

7/29/2008 9:58:13 PM