Sharing your space with a roommate is a great way to save, but it comes along with certain risks you should be wary of. Does your soon-to-be roommate have a clean criminal history or is he an ex-con? Is she a decent individual who respects each other’s boundaries or a rowdy party animal living a lifestyle that clashes with yours? Does he always pay his rent on time or did he just file for bankruptcy, struggling to make ends meet?

Sure, meeting over coffee may help reveal a thing or two about their character, but it doesn’t tell the full story. After all, you will be living under the same roof as this person and you want to make sure you are safe, and so are your possessions. Don’t worry. In this article, we’re showing you five ways to run a thorough background search on a potential roommate. Read on…

1. Run a background search with BeenVerified

First impressions aren’t always reliable. And just because you two hit it off during the interview doesn’t mean they’ve been all upfront about their past nor does it mean what they said is absolutely trustworthy. If you want to really find out if someone’s been telling you the truth, you should definitely run a background search with BeenVerified.

BeenVerified is a powerful people search engine. Featuring billions of data points, it gives you the power to enter just a name to go full-on detective and dig out hidden truths about people. This may include their available personal info, social media accounts, jobs, licenses, assets, properties owned, judgment liens, and more, which may impact your decision on whether to take a person in as a roommate.

1. Go to BeenVerified’s official website.
2. Enter your new roommate’s name, then click SEARCH.
   
3. Sit tight while BeenVerified scans its database. This may take a few minutes if it finds lots of associated records. BeenVerified will then compile the records into a report, summarizing someone’s life up until so far.
   
   

2. Look up criminal records with PeopleLooker

Sometimes the skeleton a person’s trying to hide isn’t just a poor sleep-wake schedule but a shady past: a history of violence, drug-related charges, or other offenses that have caused your candidate a fine or jail time.

Luckily, criminal records are part of the official records that are available to the public. You can obtain these records by searching your state’s criminal databases or requesting them yourself by going to your local courthouse.

If you don’t have the time or energy to trawl through the records yourself, you can instead, run an anonymous criminal background search with PeopleLooker.

PeopleLooker is one of the largest hubs for criminal records. With millions of records in its database, it allows you to instantly look up if your new roommate was convicted of a crime or faced criminal charges in the past, misdemeanor or felony.

Here is how to use PeopleLooker to check if a prospective roommate has a criminal history:

1. Go to PeopleLooker’s Official Website.
2. Enter your applicant’s name and click SEARCH NOW.
   
3. Wait a few minutes as PeopleLooker combs through its database and generates an in-depth report for you. This may contain arrest records, criminal records (sex crimes included), traffic offenses, and more if available.
   
   
   

3. Ask for a credit report

Having a roommate to share the rent is like starting a new form of a business relationship. Both your names go on the lease and the utility invoices. If they fail to pay their share of the rent on time, YOU will risk being evicted from the apartment. So it’s best to err on the side of caution and request a credit report from your incoming roommate.

A credit report will show you how your roommate candidate paid his or her bills in the past, how much debt they currently owe, and whether there is a judgment filed against them.

In the United States, everyone is entitled to a free credit report from the three major credit-reporting bureaus (TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian). In most circumstances, there is no reason your new roommate will have a problem providing one. If they downright reject or act evasive, consider it a big red flag.

4. Check out their social media

Once you have the bases of your personal safety and reputation covered, you can perhaps take a peek into your future roommate’s social media and decide if you’ll get along with each other.

Often and inevitably, people leave trails of their personal information, lifestyle, interests, and habits behind as they go on social media. You can check out their Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn accounts, etc. to get a picture of who they are and how live their social life. While you’re at it, take note of what they post, who they follow, and how they cope with comments. Even the tone of their interaction speaks volumes about their temperament.

Again, you can go through your new roomie’s social media accounts one by one manually, or if you want to save the hassle, you can use a social media search engine like Spokeo.

Founded by four Stanford students, Spokeo is known as a social media finder. It is capable of searching for someone’s presence on 120+ social networks. This means that whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, MySpace, Reddit, or Tinder, a search at Spokeo will show you all.

Here is how to run a social media search at Spokeo:

1. Go to Spokeo Official Website.
2. Choose Name/Phone/Email/Address/Username search, then enter the information as prompted and click SEARCH NOW.
   
3. Spokeo will start scanning data and find matching results for you. Once finished, it will organize all found records into a detailed report, listing the social networks someone is active on.
   
   
   

5. Get references

If you want to be extra safe, you can ask if their previous landlord or roommate can give them a reference. You can even contact these referees if that’s an option. Just find out all the information you need to get yourself some peace of mind: whether the applicant could keep up with their rent, how well they’ve honored the agreements, what kind of lifestyle they’ve led, etc.

At the same time, you should evaluate their words carefully. A person may speak highly of an ex-roommate if that’s what it takes to get rid of the roommate.

Summary

Finding a good roommate matters because it can make or break your life. To help you verify if a person is good roomie material, we’ve rounded up 5 ways. That is: running a personal background search, doing a criminal records lookup, requesting a credit report, gaining insights into their social media, as well as getting references. Hopefully, this has helped.

If you have any ideas, questions, or suggestions, you’re more than welcome to leave us a comment below. Thanks.

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