Alyse Whitney

In movies and on TV (especially those with the unrealistically large Manhattan apartments for struggling waitresses), living with a close friend seems like the perfect situation: you have your bestie’s shoulder to cry on, someone to share every meal with, and you never have to watch a rom-com alone. (Okay, for guys, you don’t have to watch sports alone and there’s far less crying, but I digress.) But in reality, it’s not all cookies and perfect shared Netflix queues. Just like rooming with a total stranger, you will experience awkward confrontations, learn about interesting living habits, and much more.

You may already have perused BrickUnderground's helpful guides to finding an apartment with roommates, peacefully co-existing with them, and weeding out the crazies from Craigslist. Today we tackle the topic of splitting the rent fairly--specifically, these age old questions: Are all rooms created equal? And if not, how much should you pay? 1. Size matters… sometimes. The easiest way to determine whose room should be the most expensive is who has the most space, right? Nope—only sometimes. If there’s a small room with a balcony and gorgeous views, yet it’s a few feet shorter than the big room with a shared bathroom, those things can equal out.

Summer in New York City is rife with uncertainty, including, but not limited to, how stinking hot it will get, how unbearable the subway platforms will be, and how much wine will need to be consumed to cope with the sky-high ConEd bills. There is one thing, however, that can always be counted on: A competitive and expensive rental market. Unfortunately for me, since moving to Manhattan three years ago, my lease renewals have always fallen in July.

When I first moved to New York last May, I was lucky enough to end up in an East Village sublease. I was interning at my dream job over the summer, renting a furnished room in the middle of Stuyvesant Town--affectionately dubbed Stuytown--and didn't know how good I had it until I moved to the Upper East Side.