London is an interesting place to be looking for a flat, as what you get is never as good as what you want it to be, yet expect to pay through the roof for it. We advertised last week for a flat mate, but after having gone through the process, we learned a few lessons posting an advert for them. Admittedly, one of our other housemates posted it, and they didn’t exactly put too much effort into it.

Here are a few good things to put into an advertisement that might help weed people out and give people looking a better idea of what they’re getting before you have to arrange for people to come around and visit:

• Number of rooms in the house – The number of rooms in the house gives people a better idea of how big the place is.
• Number of people in the house – It’s not uncommon in London for people to room-share, or even just for couples to be flat sharing in a large house. Talking about the number of people in a house gives you a better idea of what the dynamics of the household might be like.
• Talk a bit about the people who live in the house – Their backgrounds might help determine if people want to live with you (such as if you’re all students, or all professionals, or all Antipodean).
• List all of the amenities – Talk about things like how many bathrooms, toilets you may have, talk about if the kitchen is fully equipped, what is included in the room, whether or not you have a washing machine, how many fridges you might have.
• Discuss the additional features – Such as whether or not it has a lounge room (such a rarity in London), balcony, garden, etc.
• Talk about it’s location – How close is it to the tube station(s)/train station/buses, what major things are nearby (supermarkets, parks, high streets, etc).
• List all of the costs – List the monthly rent (especially if you pay by the month), how much the deposit is going to be, any additional fees (e.g. reference check by agencies, etc).
• Discuss the bills – People like to know how much bills average a month, and what things are included (gas, electricity, TV licence, council tax, Internet) or not included
• Type of person you’re looking for – We were trying to keep a balanced household, so we only were looking for females, but sometimes you don’t want students or want people staying for longer than a certain period of time.
• Room availability – Discuss when the person needs to move in.

Finally when you have listed details about the place, it’s also good to ask for details for the people who are viewing because you will need to weed people out, and it helps to have more information than less. Think about asking for their:

• Name – Believe it or not, people with obscure emails without a number ask to see a place, yet forget to tell you who they are.
• Gender – Sometimes it is important to know, especially if their names are not indicative of a particular gender.
• Profession – A good indicator of whether or not they’ll be able to afford the rent and/or have issues with paying bills. It also means a good indicator to the lifestyle they might have.
• Mobile Phone Number – When you’re ready to organise viewings, it’s much easier to do it over the phone and get an immediate response from someone than it is to do it over email.
• Availability – When you are available to move in, and when you are available to see the flat.