Why use a flatmate finding service?

moove2london on 12 May 2010

If you move to London and are thinking about moving in with ‘randoms’ (aka people who you’ve never met before), then the best way to find potential flatmates is to use a flatmate finding service.

The reasons for this are plentiful:

• Location You can start looking before you’ve arrived in London, or even whilst you’re still overseas
• Convenience You can use an Internet-based flatmate finding service at any time of day and can scour people’s profiles from the comfort of your own home, or at work when the boss isn’t looking
• Cost It’s usually free to sign-up for a basic profile for such a service
• Comfort You might feel more comfortable contacting potential flatmates via email rather than trying to suss out if someone is a freak (harsh but true!) face-to-face.
• Speed The automated technology that a flatmate finding service offers, allows you to wittle down potential matches with the click of a button. This is much quicker and easier than spending hours circling ads in a paper.

Easyroommate is an example of a flatmate-finding service.

It offers a quick and easy sign-up procedure and allows you to search for free.

When choosing your search criteria, you can choose to tick or untick boxes such as:

• Areas
• Age
• Gender
• Smokers or non-smokers
• Sexual orientation
• Professional or student

Upon hitting Enter, a list of resulting flatmates/rooms matching your criteria will be returned to you. If the results are too narrow or too many, you can simply go back and amend your Search Criteria. You’re then able to Contact the person listed in the ad.

Easyroommate offers different levels of membership. You can either sign up for free for a basic membership, which allows you to search for rooms/flatmates as well as receiving automated emails that match your criteria. As a basic member you can contact or be contacted by Premium Members, but you’ll be unable to contact basic members yourself. With Premium Membership you can contact anyone on Easyroommate’s database. You can also choose to have your phone number displayed if you wish. Even though there is a small cost involved in taking out a Premium Membership (price varies depending on duration), you’ll have a strong advantage over Basic members as more people will be able to contact you. If you add a photo to your profile you are also 3 times as likely to be contacted, so this is an option that is well worth taking!

One of the best features that Easyroommate offers, is the
‘Flatmate Teamup’ facility allowing fellow randoms who want to live in a similar area, to ‘team up’ with each other and think about moving in to a brand new property together, as opposed to searching for a room in property where flatmates already reside.

You don’t need to take our word for it though, if you are looking for a flatmate when you move to London, then sign up for FREE with Easyroommate and browse before deciding whether or not it’s for you!