Is there a housing office at his college (as well as others in the area)? Lot of times, they will let you post there.

The ad sounds fine. I agree with Bestyears that the college housing office is a great place to file your available space.

Try the college posting idea. Also, have him take the email response option out of his ad and use a phone number. That cuts down on scammers right away since they prefer to email. Enter the phone number part alpha part numeric - 55five - one 23four. People understand the purpose and work with it. Other than that, the ad looks good. Hope they find a good match.

I think it's a great ad, but if he's looking for a student, he may want to consider providing furnishings for the room...something like "furnished (negotiable) or unfurnished." It wouldn't cost as much as he's losing with a an empty room for a month to provide a CL bed (a single might discourage overnights by guests) and dresser, maybe a night stand. The tenant could then get a desk off CL if they want one.

IMO, the best way is through the college friends the guys already know. They can give them the real story as to whether someone is a partyer, uses drugs, has questionable other friends, etc. The questionable other friends can be a huge problem. When our son was still in college and living in an apartment close to campus with a couple of buddies, a friend of one of the guys stabbed another guy right outside their front door one night! Thankfully the victim incurred just minor injuries from it, but it was a nightmare for us parents! DS also had things stolen by friends of his then roommates. The roomies had no idea it was happening; they just weren't paying enough attention to who they allowed to hang out with them . . . and what those friends/acquaintances were doing when their backs were turned. I also can't stress enough the need to check references from employers, friends, etc. and to not rush into taking the first person that sounds ok.
Lynn

The only thing I find odd is the photo. I have been poking around our CL on and off just out of curiosity, researching rents and roommate situations for my DS, and I have never seen one where they included a photo of the person. Maybe that's a regional thing?

I would email everyone I know. If your son is on FB, have him broadcast it to everyone he knows there. I agree with checking with the college housing office, too.

My son just had to find a room to rent in San Francisco, and quite a few of the ads pictured the current roommates. I do wonder why all the secondary pictures are so small in the ad though.

Why is he limiting the roommate to Florida residents? There's a considerable out-of-state student population that he is excluding for no apparent reason, other than they have permanent addresses elsewhere. If he is having a difficult time finding a roommate, he might consider opening up the potential pool of eligible people a bit.

Also the age range. Lots of quiet, studious grad students are over 25, but might still make a good roommate. He could try putting up posters wherever grad students hang out at his college.

I agree with olychick about the furnishings. There's a large pool of students who would like to get out of the dorms, but don't have furniture. A bed, a table, a chair would be all that he'd need to "furnish" the room enough for someone to move in.

Thank you all!
About the picture, yes it's a little odd but when we talked about it we thought that it would broaden the replies to include females. At first there was no replies from females, I'm sure not knowing whether or not the ad poster was a big scary looking guy or a dirty old man was part of it. After the picture was added he got a reply from a nice gal who was taking a break from school until she decided what she wanted to do. In the meantime she was working with horses out west. It was a bit too far for her to drive in the end.

I think furnishing the room is a great idea! Plus, the walls will not get so banged up from roomies coming and going with furniture.
I'm going to talk to son about finding out if there is a way to post at the college. The roomy does not necessarily have to be a college student though.

Lynn thanks for the heads up on the roomies friends. This is a concern! Hopefully scanning the potentials facebook page will give some clues.

I have to say I was proud of son's decision against the DUI gal who was extremely stunning with very large bosoms. I think his girlfriend would also not have been happy with that. She is a smart secure young lady but I think maybe not open to a Play Boy Bunny sort lol.

Camlan, maybe he should take the Florida resident out. I think he's worried over how the rent will be paid. How do you think it should be worded?

In terms of the rent being paid there should be a full credit check and any of the other things one would do if he were renting the house out and not living there himself.

I think one actually has to be more careful sharing a house that belongs to you than renting it to strangers who meet the criteria.

I don't know how heavily weighted your state/city is toward renter or landlord, but where I live, the renter has most of the advantages, and it can be very difficult to get someone out. In my area, the only ways to get someone out are if they are dealing drugs from the house, prostituting from the house or have not paid any rent for something like 90 days, and then it can be up to a year with red tape. The other reason is if you need to move into the house yourself as owner.

Not to be so grim about it but unless he needs the money I would only rent to someone he is 100% sure about living with. If it is a matter of extra income, I would be more likely to tighten my belt first if I was not completely comfortable with the roommate.

I have usually had a bunch of crazies respond to anything on Craigslist, I am wondering if he could go through a Real Estate Agency who specializes in something like this. It might be worth a month's rent or whatever the fee is.

If I were in your son's shoes, I'd try to advertise on campus to grad students, or go around to campus ministries and place advertisements on their bulletin boards.

I just read the ad and if they are looking for a person of college age, I can see why they are not getting many responses.
We rent properties and only describe the space, location and what is included in the rent. When the person calls, (they can email their interest, but the next step is the phone call) We read them the riot act about how we run a quiet building. That said, although our tenants are young, they are not students.
If I were a young student, I would be afraid to respond to this ad. It comes across as very controlling. What exactly are they ALLOWED to do if they decided to live here?
I think you should rewrite it in a more positive way. Then , explain when you speak to them what you expect. You are looking for a graduate student between the ages of 20-25 who is focused on their studies and wants an environment conducive to this life style. It is basically what you are saying but in a less abrasive way.

Is this a town home that you own? I'm wondering because often landlords require everyone living in the house have their own contract in our area.

Otherwise, I agree that the ad needs to be friendlier and more inviting.

I agree he should definitely target graduate or professional students since they are pretty much never home. Also, international grad students would probably also be a good option since they are already "vetted" by the university, and the guys may get someone who's an international cook. Having the room at least partially or fully furnished is also a bonus especially for people who moved from far away or who might be moving from campus housing.

During my masters I rented a room in a private home. It was pretty much furnished, and someone else had the finished basement. I found her through the campus housing office, but a former classmate of mine had lived there previously. She owned the home when she was married and after she got divorced having roommates helped her keep the home. My former "landlady" and I still keep in touch. She was very picky about what she wanted, but she rarely had a problem though she did this for almost 20 years. I think she only recently stopped taking roommates.

What you are all saying makes a lot of sense. And I agree the ad needs to be reworded. Ellendi I'm going to talk to son about using your wordage. I am thinking we will also take out the Florida resident part. After that if nothing happens within a month I'm going to mention using an agency as Pal suggested.

Golddust, I do not own the townhome my son does. I'm helping him by reading the replies and passing on those who do not sound too insane or those that I cannot find questionable backgrounds on in the public record searches. He takes it from there. Unfortunately his last roommate and friend had to move back home due to cancer, it's a sad story.

One son is a 21 year old 40 year old man (the owner). He was born old.
The other son is an ex Navy Operations Specialist 26 year old and is just like that dragnet cop "just the facts mam just the facts" lol.

I noticed that the ad states that the renter must be employed.

So maybe adding that a full time student with a parent guarantor would also be considered would widen the pool of applicants.

For liability reasons, do you want the renter to be 21 or older? (So they are legally responsible for themselves as related to drinking and conduct and can't get your sons in any trouble.)

As to the ad, I would say roommate wanted, then

Renter to share spacious townhome with two "normal" brothers who are busy working and going to college!

Maybe it's just me but the "normal' bothered me. I'd omit it.

Marie, yes I think maybe they are not that normal for their age :)

Julie, parent guarantor...that is good.

The first ad was a bit wordy and I know and it is true that finding the right roommate can be a universal problem.
However, this is Florida and we do have an abundance of whack jobs down here. Everyone who is fleeing something comes to the warm weather state. It is especially bad in the season "winter" because the whacks do not like to be cold. I think you all remember the show America's most wanted well the bad guys were usually found in Florida.

What I find odd is that no one paid a lot of attention to the long list of requirements in the original ad anyway and just went ahead and replied regardless of their criminal background or no employment or both. So time for some rewording!

Maybe put up a flyer in the libraries or bulletin boards of any nearby medical or law school. This will reach a pool of fairly serious grad-students who are probably pretty busy studying, and not partying (well most of the time, anyway.) They also may be attending year-round so no need for summer fill-ins.

It might be agood idea to act soon on this as the end of term may be coming and that's sometimes a prompt for people to move.

I was wondering about the inclusion of a picture, too. And wondering if it was a subtle form of social, well, for lack of a better word, redlining. Also the emphasis on "normal" strikes me as a little odd. What characteristics would be considered non-"normal"? Since I don't know what is meant by the word, and assuming it just means non-whacky, average-joe, easy going, pair of brothers, perhaps it might say instead ... "share house with with a pair of brothers; just regular guys who are working & etc."

I think it may take a month or so to find the right person, and well worth the trouble to do that since a bad house-share is H**l.

L.

Hi Lirio, I'm not a 100% sure what social redlining is. Son and I talked about it possibly being less scary for the gals to reply if there was a face with the ad. Yes he does need to hit the bulletin boards asp. If some nice CL furniture can be had at a good price the unfurnished room part will change as well.

I live in a college town and was just looking at some of the ads to see what they say here for decent housing.

I think, rather than proof of employment, (you might get a full time student) you could say, "Must pass background and credit check." Also, "references exchanged" so they know they are getting into a "normal" situation.

A few ads here use the term, "no drama household." along with the no drug/smoking/partying caveats.

I also think you will limit female applicants by stating there is a shared bath. Most women are not going to want to share a bath with a strange man. You could leave that out and if you get a strong female applicant, you could tell her she can have a private bath (if she could). And then you could tell male applicants the bath is shared.

Liriodendron makes a strong point. Is your son adverse to renting to minorities and gay people? After all, one can't tell by a picture how "normal" someone is so his picture seems strange.

I don't know, he's pretty dang cute! If I were a young woman, the pic might entice me to call. I don't see posting a pic as being any kind of "message" about normal. Gay men might find him just as attractive as straight women!

But all that said, it isn't usually done in my area, so seems a bit odd to picture the landlord.

Golddust, that's funny! My son's girlfriend is a minority and her father is gay. It would not dawn on either of my sons to think in the way insinuated. If the potential applicant is prejudiced against white guys, well I guess they might not be interested but I can't help that. We are leaving the picture as he has gotten more female replies since added and he wants to stay open to males or females. Granted most of the gals were not right in more ways than one. One reply went something like this; is the room still there? I'm in a bad place emotionally and want to leave my husband. I have to get out of here, and I live near. Please call...
Olychick, since we are rewording I think "drama free" is a good one.

Drama free is a great term. Wondering if he should take the revised ad, print it out and post it at places he frequents and feels connected to (like a gym, dog park, health food store, coffee shop, etc). He may find like minded people there.

Son just got a great reply from a gal who is out of school and works for FPL which is nearby. She even posted her facebook account. She did say she will be gone on week-ends to Ft Lauderdale. I sure hope she is not another crackpot who wants the rent adjusted for days she decides not to be there (he has had a lot of those too).

I am assuming she is getting the smallest room. If so, and if she does mention a reduction, your son whould say that is already accounted for as this is the smallest room! (LOL)

Hi Ellendi, I'm waiting to hear from son how the conversation went with the gal. He did get another reply today from a guy who is also out of college and works near. So far the quality of people looks a little better since the rewording. I did have a flash back of Lynn's response above though when looking at the latest guys FB page. He is also a hunter with a large gun collection lol. Coming from up north I know this isn't always a bad thing though as there are some who have great respect for their hunting gear. Still, my boys did not grow up in that environment.

Yes, roommates can be a nightmare. Your children seem to have good heads on their shoulders. Looks like they are getting some action and hopefully they will have someone soon.
Goodluck and keep us posted!