having a little bit of a dilemma.

my friend and i recently leased a 2 bedroom town home near our university. however we have two other friends who are dying to live at our place so we can all chop the rent and basically live in a great home for cheap. getting along with them is hardly a problem considering all three of them are like brothers to me and we have all been friends and lived together before for quite some time. the only issue that has come up is the rooming situation.

originally we thought that splitting the bedrooms 2 and 2 would suffice and we would all pay equal rent. however the master bedroom is significantly bigger than the other room and it would be unfair to chop it 4 ways. in addition, the smaller room does not seem big enough to house 2 ppl very comfortably. we considered turning the loft into a room until my friend came up with an interesting idea.

basically what is happening is the master bedroom will be shared by 3 people and i will get the other bedroom to myself. this was concluded because i tend to bring a lot more girls home then the rest and they do not want to deal with me constantly kicking them out while they sleep. obviously i am fine with this plan since i get my own private room and they all have zero problem living 3 in the master bedroom. so the only issue is how much rent each person will pay since i obviously will have to pay more.

our rent is roughly $1000.00 per month. and the numbers we came up with today were i pay $400.00/month while they each pay $200.00/month. does this sound like a reasonable deal? basically they left the decision to me (since i am the "big brother" of the group) in terms of adjusting the price to what i see as reasonable.

is paying double reasonable for the privacy? or should i try negotiating a better deal for myself like $325.00 and they pay $225.00?

Double seems a little excessive. The alternative would be 2 in each bedroom, so you're really only paying to remove one person from your room. The fact that their bedroom is larger makes up for it a little bit, but obviously you should still be paying more. I definitely think the $325:225 is much more reasonable than the $400:200, especially considering (from the sounds of things) they were the ones that proposed this setup and the 2 guys not on the lease are trying to get in after you already lined things up.

i tend to bring a lot more girls home then the rest and they do not want to deal with me constantly kicking them out while they sleep

Thinly veiled brag imo.

that deal seems pretty fair to me

Is getting a bigger place still an option or not anymore?

well fwiw for 500 u could have 2 ppl total, and u would get the master bedroom since ur top dawg, just so u have some comparison.

double may be a lil much, 325 seems reasonable

$400 is a little steep. 300-325 sounds about right.

we wouldve considered it earlier but the problem is my two friends who want to live with us are on much tighter budgets than me and my other friend who originally leased the place.

i for one am not willing to go down to their budget level simply because those apartments around this area are at a much higher risk of robberies, damage to cars, etc. i wanted to live in a better area and since they are my close friends, i do not mind them living with us.

plus even at $400.00 i get a nice discount from the $500.00 that i would originally be paying.

as most have said 400 is a bit steep considering its double... I say 325-350

FWIW... I share a 3 BR apartment with 2 other guys also for $1,000/month... I have the medium sized room good enough for a desk, dresser, and Queen size bed semi comfortably. The big room fits two dressers, small desk, queen size bet, and small couch with large walk in closet. the small Bedroom hardly fits a queen size bed and dresser. I pay 325, big room pays 375, and small room pays 300.

do u have ur own bathroom? will it solely be yours? kinda pricemaker

i do have my own full bathroom. and it will primarily be used only by me. however my friends will be open to use it as long as my access is priority. but all of that is pretty much understood since we have all lived together in the past as well.

that actually helps a lot. i think the medium sized room sounds about the same size as mine.

I'm sure this has been brought up, but you can pay $500 for your own room with 2 people, or $400 for your own room with 4 people. I'm sure you get the picture, bargain that down. 325/225/225/225 is fair.

Btw, you don't know how lucky you are. Rent in LA is so much more than that.

Yeah $400 seems to steep. To be honest though I'm not a huge fan of the situation your kind of forcing yourself into. I think you should think just how comfortable you are going to be with this situation, I mean ultimitely if your not going to be happy with how things will be then it just seems dumb to pay all that money. If they're not on the same budget as you and you don't think it will work out maybe you should talk to them about it and come up with some alternatives for them.

Tree fiddy sounds like a fair price to me

Other people have touched upon it, but living with two roomates is already hard enough let alone living with two other people in the same bedroom. This will end up with at least one person skipping on the rent, or at the very least paying the rent and then moving out- increasing everyone elses rent. 3 people in one bedroom is not sustainable.

we are beyond lucky. because this area is extremely nice w/a line of restaurants and bars right in front of the complex (literally in the front of our place). the townhome is 2floors, 1500 sq ft, pool w/lap lanes (none of that small kiddy pools that most the complexes have around here) and 24 hr fitness room.

and i am also extremely fortunate that my friends would be willing to voluntarily stuff themselves into a master BR for my sake, because they respect my privacy and want me to be happy first and foremost. that is why i am hesitant to ask for less. but so far the consensus is that double is way too steep and i do agree and will bring it up to my friends later.

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most ppl see them stuffed in a room as a bad move because most ppl would never live in that situation (myself included), however we all share a very close brother-like relationship and i am fully confident that they will be okay living together. plus there is an upstairs loft that can be turned into an open bedroom if problems do arise.

they are by no means typical roommates at all. i have had my share of douche bag roommates and i could not ask for better people to live with.

Do you really think these 3 people value your happiness first and foremost? I'd be surprised to find one person in the world who is 100% selfless, not 3 living in the same house.

given the choice between paying $200 to live in a sardine can with two other dudes, or to pay $400 and have my own bedroom, the choice is ridiculously easy.

is the master bedroom that much bigger that it is more comfortable for them to fit three as opposed to 2 in the second room? ..how is this really a comfort factor, is the small room a cellar or what?

sounds like a sick deal for you imo and i think they are crazy so i say take what u can get and $325:$225 sounds pretty good to me...if not loft idea sounds pretty standard to me, i have a 2 br apt with a loft that me and my roommate use for a poker grind area, but could easily be used as a bedroom...pretty open but sounds better than 3 in one room...u get the small room 2 share MBR and 1 in the loft?

I think $400 seems reasonable... 3 of them are sharing a ***** room.

FWIW, in college, I was in a 4BR apt with 5 guys. The two sharing a room paid half the rent of the others.

This. From two years experience of uni your housemates will have a big effect on how good a time you get to have, so the more the merrier. You get nothing but benefits imo, and helps out your mates that're strapped for cash.

The $400 for your own BR vs sharing one with TWO other dudes is worth every penny. Just do it.

Think about it another way: if there were only two people to two bedrooms, what do you think the rent split would be? It surely wouldn't be $350/$650, now would it?

That said, if you really need to finagle lower rent, you could try for $370/$210. But if you think this will cause your roomies to resent you even the tiniest bit just pay the $400.