Where do UMich students find roommates?
Start with people you already know. Friends from class, your lab or department, student groups and your current housemates are the lowest risk source, because someone can vouch for them. Ask around before you post anywhere.
After that, strangers come from three places. The university's off campus housing site lets you find a roommate or a sublease through a portal that asks for a U-M sign in. Group chats and social media groups for your class, program or student org are where a lot of student to student matches happen. Roommate boards and listing sites let almost anyone post a profile, so treat a match there as an introduction, not a reference.
Wroomly is independent and not run by the university. Browse current places on the listings page, where students who signed in with a umich Google account carry a blue check. The check shows a university Google login and nothing more, so it is a place to start a conversation, not a reason to skip the steps below.
What should you ask before you decide?
Finding the person is the easy half. The harder half is learning whether you can live together, and a few direct questions settle most of it. Ask them in your first real conversation, before anyone falls in love with a floor plan.
Choose on how someone lives, not who they are: their schedule, budget, habits and house rules. Nothing else belongs in the decision.
Here are the questions that decide it, and which answers are deal breakers:
| Topic | Ask | Deal breaker if |
|---|---|---|
| Schedule | When do you usually sleep, study and have people over? Do you work early or late? | Your sleep schedules collide and neither of you can adjust |
| Rent ceiling | What is the most you can pay each month, including utilities? | Their ceiling is well below the places you can both stand to live in |
| Paying on time | How do you pay your share, and what happens if you are ever late? | They get vague, or say money is never a problem so there is no need to plan |
| Guests | How often do you have people over, and do overnight guests need a heads up? | Your answers are far apart and neither wants to compromise |
| Cleaning | What does clean mean to you, and how do you want to handle shared spaces and shared supplies? | One of you wants a chore plan and the other will not discuss one |
| Quiet hours | When do you need quiet, and how do you feel about noise and parties? | You need quiet on school nights and they host most nights |
| Summer plans | Will you stay through the summer, sublet, or leave? Are you open to a sublet? | One of you needs the lease to run all year and the other will be gone |
How do you check a stranger who is also looking for a roommate?
Treat a stranger the way you would treat a stranger offering you a place: friendly, and verified. Scammers copy real listings, swap in their own contact details and rush you to decide, and a fake roommate post uses the same moves.
Run these checks in order, and stop if any one of them goes wrong:
- Talk first in writing, then get on a video call before you meet or commit to anything
- Ask for a mutual contact, a friend, a former housemate or someone from your program, and actually message that person
- Meet in a public place or bring a friend the first time you meet in person
- Search their name along with the address of the place and the management company; an owner name that does not match is a warning sign
- Keep your Social Security number, ID photos, bank details and paystubs to yourself; a prospective roommate has no reason to ask for them
- Walk away from pressure to decide today or to send a deposit before you have seen the place
When is it safe to commit to a lease together?
Money and signatures come last. The university's off campus guide says to never send money before seeing the property in person, and the FTC warns that wire transfers, gift cards and cryptocurrency work like cash and are usually impossible to recover.
Here is the order that keeps you safe, from first message to signing:
Read how the lease is set up before you sign. The university's guide describes an individual lease as one where you rent a bedroom and share common areas, and a joint and several lease as one where each tenant can be held responsible for the full amount, not just their share. What that means for you depends on your lease, so ask the landlord, and a lawyer if you are unsure.
- First message, then a written back and forth about schedule, budget and habits
- A video call, then a meeting in person
- A walk through the actual place together, with the doors open and the kitchen and bathroom seen
- A written agreement between roommates on quiet hours, guests, cleaning, how rent and bills are split and what happens when someone pays late, plus summer plans
- Confirmation from the landlord or leasing office, through contact details you found yourself, of who is on the lease and how rent is collected
- Read the lease together before anyone signs, then sign and pay through a method that leaves a record
What if you find a room in someone else's place instead?
Joining a place that already has a lease changes the questions. Find out whose name is on the lease, whether the landlord knows about you and approves of you living there, and whether you would be a subtenant or a tenant on the lease. Leases commonly say something about subletting and extra occupants, so read it, ask the landlord, and get anything that matters in writing.
The roommate checks above still apply, plus one: confirm that the person offering the room actually holds the lease. Search the address, contact the landlord or leasing office yourself, and never pay a deposit to hold a room you have not seen.
Where should you start today?
Message two people you already know, then check the university's off campus housing site if you have a U-M login. Browse current places on Wroomly to get a feel for what exists and what it costs to share, and save a search so new places come to you. When someone looks promising, start with the question list and the video call, and keep money for last.
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Frequently asked questions
Where can I find a roommate at the University of Michigan?
Start with friends, classmates and student groups. Then try the university's off campus housing site, which has a roommate and sublease search behind a U-M sign in, plus class and program group chats. Roommate boards and listings let almost anyone post, so verify strangers by video call and a mutual contact before committing.
Is it safe to live with a roommate you found online?
It can be, if you check before you commit. Talk in writing, get on a video call, ask for a mutual contact, and meet in public. Do not send money before seeing the place, and never pay by wire, gift card or cryptocurrency. A profile is not proof of who someone is, so verify first.
Should I pick a friend or a stranger as a roommate?
Either can work, and neither is automatic. A friend knows you but may not share your habits around money, cleaning and guests. A stranger starts from nothing and needs more checking. Judge both the same way: schedule, budget, habits and house rules, and put your agreement in writing.
When should I start looking for roommates for next year?
Start as soon as you know which term you need, because Ann Arbor's market moves early and many students commit to a lease for the following fall during the autumn before. Wroomly's timeline guide walks through the usual rhythm. If you miss that window, sublets and relets stay active through spring and summer.
