New college students may be wondering what they can do to survive those years with roommates without losing their mind? Well, there are some great tips that you can use to deal with roommates and get through the experience relatively unscathed while retaining your sanity.

Tip #1 – Get Some Rules

Rules are important for college students that are rooming together. If you don’t set any rules in the beginning, the roommate will think that anything goes. Sit down and talk about the preferences that both of you have. Does one of you like getting up early in the morning or staying up late? Do you have to have quiet when doing homework? Do you prefer listening to the music turned all the way up? Find out about these things early and come up with some rules together. It makes living together a bit easier.

Tip #2 – Learn the Art of Compromise

Okay, so you may not feel like compromising. More than likely you are used to having your room your way. Well, get over that now. Compromise is the name of the game when you have a college roommate. Of course, you shouldn’t be the one giving in all the time. Both of you need to work together to compromise so you can come up with good solutions that you both can deal with.

Tip #3 – Talk to Each Other

Many roommates get frustrated and just hold things in. This is a mistake and will only cause more problems. If something is bothering you, talk to your roommate about it. The more you talk to each other, the more you can avoid conflict and annoying each other even more. Just be honest and save your battles for things that are really important. Complaining all the time isn’t going to get anything done for you.

Tip #4 – Respect Your Roommate and Their Property

When you have seen your roommate stagger in at 3am trashed on Sunday morning, it may be tough to have respect for them, but you need to respect them as well as their property. One big compliant that roommates have is their other roommate going through their stuff. Don’t do this. You don’t want them taking your things, so save a lot of big fights and just respect them and their property. You’ll be more likely to get through your first year of college without getting beat up that way.

Screening tenants is mostly about assessing a suitability based on the experiences with their current employer and previous landlord. Assessing a tenants suitability is a top priority for all landlords and letting agents as it protects your property investment, reduces risk and increases return on investment by simply checking the new tenants credibility.

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Referencing previous landlords and employer is just one part of the tenant screening process. You will also need to assess the new tenants financial stability by taking a look at their credit score. The most important area to look at, and any good online tenant screening company will provide this instantly over the Internet, is if the tenant has any CCJ’s (County Court Judgments) that are satisfied or unsatisfied. These appear on the credit check if the tenant had owed money to a creditor previously and will stay on the credit record for 6 years. It will read as satisfied if the tenant paid after one month and it will read as unsatisfied if the tenant has not paid the creditor in question. Any unsatisfied CCJ’s should raise a huge question mark over that tenants suitability for your property, if they owe money to someone else, why would they pay you on time.

Taking tenant credit checks and vetting tenants seriously can really provide a sound process for accepting and rejecting tenants. The most important thing for landlords and letting agents is having a reliable tenant who pays on time and looks after the property. The loss of money, stress and repair costs experienced when a bad tenant is chosen can be monumental, but by introducing tenant screening procedures into your application process you can protect you wallet and your investment from troublesome tenants and avoid disputes in the future.