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Assuredly – Live with People You Trust

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Re: Assuredly – Live with People You Trust

#31
post #4

This strikes me as odd: is it cultural? In my experience, people choose to live with friends. If they can't do that, they ask their friends for recommendations. And if they can't do that, they try very hard to live alone, in a closet if necessary, until they can make some friends. The ways somebody can be a good or bad apartment-mate go much further than anything that I imagine can be discovered by a third party maki…

So...if you're a person from Wichita Falls moving to NYC knowing basically zero people, what exactly do you do?

When I was in university, I got some awful roomates in my dorm - and now that I can pick my roomates, I'd love to be able to check if these people have caused problems in the past.

Re: Assuredly – Live with People You Trust

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of people here in Lisbon - particularly university students, but not only - seek to share apartments because they can't afford anything else; if you make minimum wage, the rent of a reasonable house in the city will easily eat 3/5 of your salary. We rent rooms in a couple of 3-bedroom houses and, as far as I know, our renters aren't friend, though they're usually friendly, they don't really socialize. I think…

maybe you misused the words, but are you talking about renting whole HOUSE in largest city & capital of a western europe country? Places like that I've been, normal people (not on minimal wage, rather average salaries) cannot afford renting a proper house in the city even if they give out full single salary. Edge if the city yes, but anything usable in the city - nope.

Not all capitals western europe countries are the same.

In Madrid I'm paying less rent for a studio in the center than what I was paying for a room in a shared flat in London Zone 3.

Re: Assuredly – Live with People You Trust

#33
post #23

As someone with a life-long obsession with bathroom neatness (I've been driven to violence by roommates who don't respect my toilet paper roll orientation rules) it's comforting to know I can find a sane person to live with.

Sheldons should live alone!

Disrespecting toilet paper roll orientation conventions can be a form of micro-aggression.

Re: Assuredly – Live with People You Trust

#35

How the hell did we end up with a world where companies run background checks on rooomates? Fuck this. I'm out.

I was thinking the same thing. I didn't realize that finding a roommate was such a formal process these days. What happened to just sitting down with someone over a cup of coffee?

Re: Assuredly – Live with People You Trust

#37
Boooo. No fun. Do what I did. End up living with the other two people who ended up in front of a door you've never walked through in Alphabet City, NYC in response to a Craigslist advert. Did one of those two people stop paying rent without letting us know, and did we have to find out three months later by way of threat of eviction from management? Yes. But, he went by the name "Cash" and the guy who eventually replaced him was insanely good people. And, I got that story.

Besides, "Cash" did have his references checked by the management company. And we all three signed separate leases along with co-signers (I didn't need one, but the management company insisted per policy, and I really wanted to rent this place). It all came down to communication. Not reference checks.

And,,, "Trust". I think there is a misunderstanding shown in the use of that word in this context.

Re: Assuredly – Live with People You Trust

#39
Hey HN, this is the Assuredly team. Thanks for all of the feedback, this was exciting to wake up to this morning.

We’re certainly not trying to be creepy or move us all toward a bleak authoritarian future.

Reference checks, though time-consuming, are already performed by many leasers looking to fill a room. Our goal is to simplify the process to the point where it becomes feasible for anyone wishing to learn more than what can be uncovered in 15 minutes over coffee. All checks that we perform are done strictly with the permission of the applicant; we’re not doing any sneaking around.

Many of us have had bad roommate situations unfold after seemingly smooth interviews - from financial disagreements to apartments nearly burning down. We’d like to help you avoid those situations.

We’re in the experimentation phase. The first round of checks are being performed this week and we hope to learn more about the underlying needs and what we can do to help.

Re: Assuredly – Live with People You Trust

#40

How the hell did we end up with a world where companies run background checks on rooomates? Fuck this. I'm out.

To be clear, we’re offering reference checks, rather than background checks, for roommates.

Many leasers already perform reference checks. Take a look at any article about finding a good roommate and you’ll see that almost every one recommends this step. We just know that it’s a pain, so we’d like to make it easier for those who don’t have the time to do it themselves.

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