Living with Roommates: Negotiate for the Master Bedroom

When living with roommates, it is essential to lay out the separation of expenses and space prior to moving in together. Often, you may find that the bedrooms available to you and your roommates in your apartment are different sizes and may or may not have a bathroom attached. Should you want the master bedroom in your apartment, you might need to negotiate for it by giving certain concessions to your roommates.

Pet Particulars

Having a cat, dog or other pet may make it imperative that you occupy the master bedroom. The ability to have a private space for your pet to reside and for you to contain your pet when away from home is best accomplished by having a private bedroom and bathroom. This is especially important if your roommates have any pet allergies or if you wish to keep your pet out of reach of any visitors. In this instance you may not need to make any financial concessions as your pet and roommates safety should be important enough to permit you to occupy the master bedroom.

Work Requirements

If you work out of the home either by telecommuting or as a student, you will need space, privacy and quiet in which to work. These things may necessitate you to occupy the master bedroom, especially if it is further away from other main living spaces.

More Furniture

Should you bring more furniture or other items to the apartment for everyone to use, you may be able to ask for the larger bedroom as an exchange for your contributions. This is particularly true if your contributions include kitchen utensils or larger and regularly used electronics.

Offer More Money

Residing in the biggest available bedroom means that you will be taking up the most space. The simplest way to negotiate your way into this room is to offer to pay more rent. If dividing the rent anything but equally is unreasonable, try paying more for the security deposit or other initial lease payments. The bonus in this action is twofold. Not only will you be paying more for the space you occupy, thereby placating your roommates, but you might also have this money returned to you when you leave the apartment.

Offer Other Services

As an alternative, you may want to offer to pay more in utilities or even offer to pay for a cleaning lady for the entire apartment. Alternatively, you could offer to be responsible for outside maintenance, if any, or something simpler such as buying groceries for everyone once a month. These options may actually be cheaper for you than paying more in rent.

Another option is for you to offer the use of your car to the other roommates for errands one day a weekend or to drive them to work so they save on gas.

Negotiating with your roommates for the master bathroom is not difficult, but may require some ingenuity. There are several reasons you may be able to use to obtain the space without having to pay more money. However, as a last resort you can always offer more money to even the balance.