They click: Ideal roommates can be found in cyberspace

Kimberley McGee

Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2001 | 8:12 a.m.

In August Jason Palmer moved into a two-bedroom apartment in east Las Vegas with a new roommate, who was referred to him by a friend of a friend.

The ink on the six-month lease was barely dry when his new roommate packed up and returned to her parents, leaving Palmer with a rent payment he couldn't afford.

"I was furious," Palmer said. "And I was kind of worried."

The 21-year-old TGI Friday's waiter went online to search for a roommate because he needed someone to rent the room to as soon as possible. No amount of tips from kind customers would cover his $650-a-month rent.

He signed up for RoomMateClick.com's online roommate service and posted an ad for a nonsmoking, male or female roommate.

The New York-based service requested specific information about sleeping, eating and drinking habits questions Palmer hadn't considered asking during his own previous roommate searches. It helped narrow his choices and made him think about what traits he actually wanted in a roommate.

After posting the ad on RoomMateClick.com for $19.95, Palmer stumbled across a room-wanted ad on the site posted by a man in Baltimore, who was moving to Las Vegas and needed a room to rent fast.

Palmer called him and the two talked about baseball, girlfriends and, more importantly, their aversion to smokers.

Two weeks later Palmer had a roommate, the rent payment and a friend when Jesse Logan moved in.

They play racquetball together, grab lunch occasionally and watch sports on TV.

"It's tough because you are living with somebody you really don't know," Palmer said. "But we managed to click."

As have online roommate services with a growing number of people looking to connect with potential roommates.

Using the Internet to locate that near-perfect roommate offers its advantages, such as speed, a large pool of pre-approved candidates and a discreet selection process.

More and more potential roomies are searching for mates on the Internet because it offers anonymity as well as security.

Online roommate services such as Housing Helpers, Roommateexpress.com and RoomMateClick.com join the haves with the have nots. And those numbers are rising, said Don Twining, owner of Housing Helpers at 5785 W. Tropicana Ave.

Locally the company has more than 2,000 clients who have used the service since 1999, he said.

"People move in here (to Las Vegas) quickly and need a place to live, fast," Twining said. "We match them up and offer some help."

The roommate services can also discern between a potentially good or evil roommate match through its extensive applications.

It also performs professional background checks through conversations with friends, employers and former neighbors, and runs credit reports on potential roommates by request.

Home matters

Housing Helpers locates apartments and homes for clients, as well as plays matchmaker for roommates. About 30 percent of its business consists of online clients searching for roommate situations.

"We can offer -- and we recommend -- background checks for roommates so we can let you know if that person is a risk or not," Twining said. "Once they are in your home, they are in your life."

For an annual fee of $50, clients can advertise their room for rent. Those looking for a room can join the service for $30 a year.

When Randy Jurgilanis needed a roommate to help cover the mortgage payment on his 1,200-square-foot home in northwest Las Vegas, the 40-year-old small-business owner opened the newspaper to the classified section.

The long list of people looking for rooms to rent included little or no personal information. But in the corner of the page was an ad for Housing Helpers.

After joining, Jurgilanis logged on to the company's website, housinghelpers.com, and found a list of people looking to rent a room -- similar to what he had seen in the newspaper, but with more personal details.

Jurgilanis didn't want just any roommate to move into his quiet, gated-community home next to a sprawling golf course. He didn't want someone who would lounge in his living room or come home late after a night of drinking.

"It's not easy to find someone you can live with just like that," Jurgilanis said.

It's not fun either, he said. But the services and advice Housing Helpers offered made the rental transaction almost enjoyable, he said, and a lot less stressful.

Of his roommate choices, the staff at Housing Helpers told him who had a shady past and who didn't. They also offered advice about a rental agreement and what to look for when interviewing roommates.

"It's been a longtime since I've had a roommate, and the main thing I didn't want was to get someone who wanted me to be their best friend," Jurgilanis said. "I wanted someone who had a life and just needed a room to rent. That's it."

The service narrowed his choices so that people who weren't the right fit for his needs weren't calling him at home inquiring about his room for rent.

Instead, the rental referral service offered him three women who fit his description of "NS, ND, NP SF 20-40" (a nonsmoking, nondrinking, no pets, single female between the ages of 20 and 40).

"They were all great," he said. "It was nice to have a choice."

A young receptionist, Heather Woodworth, who was pleasant, quiet and friendly, became his roommate. They occasionally had dinner at home and watched a movie together once a month, but otherwise lived their lives separately under one roof.

Woodworth moved out two months ago, however, to be closer to her family. Jurgilanis quickly rented the room to someone he didn't know much about -- a decision he regrets.

"She's exactly what I don't want," Jurgilanis said. "She's always around."

He has asked her to move out -- and soon, he said. He wants to be able to go home and relax without the daily tension of living with someone he doesn't enjoy.

"There's always some awkwardness," he said. "But the service cut some of that out. I won't use the (classified ads) again."

Safety first

Jennifer Miller moved to Las Vegas from Colorado a year ago and began looking for a place to live. She didn't want to shell out $900 to live in a one-bedroom apartment, she said, but also knew she didn't want to return to a roommate situation with just anyone.

Her last shared-living quarters involved a cat, a soiled bedspread and a ruined friendship.

"I learned you can't live with your friends," Miller said, "if you still want them to be your friends."

The 23-year-old casino marketing employee said she turned to the Internet to decrease her rent and increase the odds that she would like who she lives with.

The anonymity that Roommateexpress.com offered appealed to Miller. She could pick and choose who she wanted to call, as well as check their references.

"It's such a scary thing," Miller said, "especially for women."

Through the site, she found a woman who had a room to rent in a townhouse close to the Strip and Miller's casino job.

"It worked out really well," she said. "I found someone I liked, quick."

Roommateexpress.com, based in Tempe, Ariz., came to the Las Vegas market four years ago via the Internet.

Most of its clients are single, divorced women in their 30s with or without children who need a roommate to help cover mounting bills, owner Dan Ross said.

Clients prefer to use the service, he said, because it offers some semblance of safety.

"People are living more cautiously," Ross said. "The Internet offers confidentiality where people can be more selective in the people they allow into their homes. They can choose the sex, age, sexual orientation, lifestyle. It's very specific."

The company's Las Vegas market has increased in the last few years, he said, with more people co-habitating platonically to share the costs of living.

"A lot of people have bought homes in the past few years and they are in over their heads," Ross said. "Now they need a little help."

But not long-term problems.

"There is no recipe for the perfect roommate," Ross said. "When it comes down to two people living together, that's a tough situation to measure on paper."