How to Split the Rent If Some Rooms Are Better Than Others
You and your future roommates have successfully found a new apartment. Congratulations! Now the hardest part: who gets which room? And how will that affect how you split the rent?
No one likes to talk about money with their friends, but talking about rent is an important bullet to bite into. You don’t want to assume you’ll be splitting the rent just for the person who gets a tiny windowless room to end up with a rough deal. Here’s your guide to figuring out how to split the rent fairly when some rooms are obviously worth more than others.
Use the bidding system
There is no single correct way to determine how much different rooms cost for different people. Of course, you can calculate the size of a bedroom and set the rent from there, but the cost of a room isn’t always that accurate. How do you factor in sunlight, bathroom access, closet space, and all the other factors that go into how much one person is willing to pay for these things?
The bidding system is a solution for finding out how much different tenants are willing to pay for their chosen room. This Reddit thread has some examples of how betting on rooms can work. One approach might be to first divide the rent into equal parts, and then each bid in $10 increments until they reach the limit of what they think the room is worth. Our advice is to keep bidding under control, otherwise someone could pay more than a reasonable portion of the rent.
Another way is to try closed bets where everyone writes down the highest amount they are willing to pay for the best number. Of course, you don’t have to keep someone in the exact amount they offered. The auction process is inherently useful in identifying who really cares the most about getting which room, as well as how much that person can afford to care. On this note…
Divide rent by income
Sometimes all rooms are comparable, but you and your roommates are working on completely different budgets. In this case, it makes sense to break down the rent by individual income.
One way to approach this is to calculate your share of the rent from your percentage of the apartment’s total income. To do this, add up the total income of you and your roommates; then take your individual income and divide it by that number. The percentage you receive can be used to calculate your share of the rent.
Refer to an unbiased calculator
An online calculator is a safe way to avoid interpersonal drama when calculating your rental price.
The New York Times calculator is your best bet if you want to bid on different rooms virtually, while the Splitwise Rent-Splitting Calculator is ideal for determining a fair split after factoring in factors like room size, layout, windows, and so on. .
What if you want a simple calculator to split your rent based on the total size of the apartment you rent, the size of each member’s bedroom, private bathrooms, and shared bedrooms? Then Good Calculators will help you.
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Some numbers clearly cost more than others, while some people are willing to pay more based on your income. Even if you’re sure it makes sense to just split the rent in half, it’s an important conversation with your future roommates. Talk about sharing the rent now or you run the risk of accumulating a lot of resentment over time.