Finding roommates moves into the age of the Internet

Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2000 | 9:40 a.m.

Introduction to each episode of "The Odd Couple," September 1970-July 1975, ABC:

"On November 13th, Felix Unger was asked to remove himself from his place of residence. That request came from his wife. Deep down, he knew she was right, but he also knew that someday he would return to her. With nowhere else to go, he appeared at the home of his childhood friend, Oscar Madison. Sometime earlier, Madison's wife had thrown him out, requesting that he never return.

Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?"

Can anybody?

Playwright Neil Simon fashioned a Tony-winning Broadway play out of that simple premise in 1965, turning it into a popular movie in 1968 and the television series in 1970.

Almost 35 years later, people are still asking the question and getting mixed answers.

Yes. No. Hell no! Maybe.

Actually, people have been sharing living space since the days of the cavemen, but with today's soaring rental rates people are being faced with the age-old question of compatibility in even greater numbers.

If you are one of those, the Internet is one place to turn to for help.

There are several online roommate matching services available to Las Vegans. The most recent to join the local computer revolution is RoommateAccess, based in Boston.

"We get between 25,000 and 50,000 user sessions on our website a week (in our major cities)," Nelson Rodriguez, founder and CEO, said.

RoommateAccess has been in full operation in Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Orange County, Calif., for more than a year, its success driven largely by rent increases that have seen the cost of a Boston apartment increase as much as 60 percent in the last couple of years.

In New York, if you can find a one-bedroom apartment, it may cost $2,000 a month or more.

Las Vegas and 20 other densely populated cities are being added to the RoommateAccess service area. Rodriguez said there were a number of reasons why they decided to come to Las Vegas.

"We are looking to provide the service in the most wired cities in the country, those with the most computer access," he said. "And it's the fastest-growing city in the country, with a younger, professional demographic."

Most clients -- unlike Felix Unger and Oscar Madison -- are not looking for roommates because they have been kicked out of their homes but because they are fresh out of school and on the threshold of their careers. According to Rodriguez, most of those seeking his service are single and between the ages of 20 and 35.

"Not many married couples or people who are 40-plus are looking for roommates," he said. "They are mostly young professionals with entry level jobs and they don't have big bucks. Apartment sharing is an economical option. Once they come out of college they can't really go home. This is the next best thing."

With today's changing mores, any mix of roommates can be found -- male and male, male and female, female and female, gay and straight or any combination thereof.

Occasionally one looking for a roommate with whom to share expenses may run into an ex-con just released from prison after serving a couple of years for beheading a cellmate in a fit of uncontrollable rage, but those are rare. And Rodriguez says that his online service will create even greater security and reduce the chances of pairing up an Unger with a Madison.

"We are a matching service," Rodriguez said. "Nothing is more uncomfortable than having to turn someone down. We try to alleviate that. We only set you up with people you specify by whatever criteria is important to you -- age, college education, straight, gay. One member contacts another.

"There is a high level of safety. You don't have to post your phone number. You can do e-mail contact, look at the profile, figure it out from there. There is a high-level privacy."

Roommate Express spokesman Robert Ninehuis says that his online service, found at e-roommate.com, also is concerned about screening clients and security. "We do a lot of screening beforehand," said Ninehuis, whose company is also going nationwide after years of being a regional service in Nevada and the West Coast.

The increasing popularity of the Internet has caused Roommate Express to change its marketing technique, using the computer as its primary tool. "It makes it a lot easier for the client," he said. "Everything is spelled out. The information is easy to process."

One Las Vegas home owner uses the Internet as well as newspaper ads to keep her spare bedrooms rented out to help her pay for the home. Her biggest concern has been deadbeats who skip without paying their rent.

"One ran off without paying, but I had his deposit so it worked out OK," she said.

Deadbeats are a major consideration, but not the only one.

One Las Vegas woman who answered a roommate-wanted ad said she just recently discovered that the man she shares a house with is an alcoholic. "I didn't know him when I answered the ad, but a real estate agent vouched for him and he presents himself very well at first and so I moved in," she said.

She left town one weekend and when she returned found the house filled with smoke. "He got drunk, went to bed and forgot to open the flue to the fireplace," she said. "So now I'm looking again. This time I will be more discriminating."

To help people avoid the roommate minefield, Sylvia Berthold, of Fountain Valley , Calif., published a book in 1997 entitled "Sorry, the Boa's Gotta Go." In it she discusses many of the pitfalls in finding acceptable roommates.

She said that online matching services have their place, and can be useful tools, "but you have to do your own research, too."

"My book states emphatically you never allow a person into your home as a roommate without first doing a complete credit check and background check," the 59-year-old Berthold, who has had several roommates over the years, said. "I have found that anybody who has an iffy background will not submit to a credit check and definitely would not pay for this service.

"My book goes into a lot of detail as to what you are looking for in a credit/background report and how to get this service."

She said that the background and credit checks are no guarantees that you will be problem free when it comes to an acceptable roommate. "The reason I wrote the book was because I had a disastrous situation with a roommate that literally could have cost me my home and probably my sanity. I didn't want this to ever happen again and needed to warn others who were thinking of getting roommates," she said.

"I know of some real horror stories -- from someone moving in who 'flashed' himself in front of (his roommate's) young daughters, to another person locking himself in his room and shooting his brains out."

Bergthold says that people need to know a lot about themselves as people before attempting to let someone move into their living space. "After all, the type of person you are will directly reflect what type of roommate you will want," she said, adding that people must realize that having a roommate is a business arrangement.

"That is why I am flatly against having your best friend as your roommate," she said. "They don't establish rules because they are best friends -- but I can almost guarantee: not for long! I think friends end up saying this statement too many times: 'He/she won't mind if (fill in the blank) because were best of friends.'

"This includes borrowing without the other's permission everything this roommate owns ... and forgetting to pay the rent or utilities. It is never a good idea for friends to be roommates."

Just ask Felix and Oscar.

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