How to choose a housemate for maximal homeidual harmonisation?

desperaterobots

The Rent is kicking the ass of me and my housemate. We have a spare room.

Unfortunately no one in our extended social network have any need for a room. So we're advertising online. We've had about 20 replies. We're weeding out people who don't suit, and people who cannot spell. So now we've got about 10 people who are going to come through the house.

Does anyone have any tips on making this run smoothly, or tips for picking a good housemate?

This person will have to put on the lease according to our landlord. Does this mean we won't be able to kick them out if they're total asshats?

I know a lot of this will boil down to common sense, but if you've done this and experienced horrors that you could have avoided, I'd be keen on hearing your advice.

Æthelred

If their contract would be with the landlord, then yeah, you can't just kick them out. They'd be on the same arrangement as you.

It is mostly common sense really. All you can do is look out for who has poor personal hygiene and the like.

The Crowing One

You may want to ask for housing references. Speaking with former landlords, housemates etc may answer a good number of questions that you can't ask someone to their face, like "Hey, do you leave half-eaten food around until it grows hair and scuttles under the couch?"

Otherwise, just look for someone who holds a steady job, is articulate and hopefully has at least a few shared interests. Finding someone on the same schedule as yourself is important, as well. You don't want a night owl playing their music at 2:00AM when you need to get up at 6:00.