Roommate Referral Service

Start-up cost: $500–$1,000

Potential earnings: $10,000–$25,000

Typical fees: 20 to 50 percent of a month’s rent

Advertising: Yellow Pages, flyers at apartment complexes, Laundromats, supermarkets, newspaper classified ads, Web site with current listings and banner ads from related services

Qualifications: Excellent organization skills

Equipment needed: Database management software, computer with Internet access, printer, phone, credit card processing equipment

Staff required: No

Hidden costs: Insurance

What You Do

With the rising cost of living in many major cities and the rise in displaced folks who need to share rent (divorced people, students, and those who need temporary living arrangements) you could make a fine living playing matchmaker for live-ins. Ideally, you would have a method for screening each of the candidates (police checks at the very least) and a method for securing your payment ahead of time (credit card processing equipment would be helpful). Advertise in places where people generally look for a place to live, and you’ll have found your special niche. Develop a good questionnaire that asks the kinds of questions a potential roommate would want answered. To double your income potential, you could add on other services such as mediation between rumblings’ roomies or budget development assistance. The best advice is to focus on one area first, then branch out your services as you move successfully along.

What You Need

Your costs are incredibly low when compared to most other businesses, mainly because you can create your own flyers to post in noticeable, highly trafficked areas. You can also purchase classified ads in community and university newspapers, as well as post online on sites such as www.craigslist.com. You can also build and maintain a Web site of your own, or pay to have one that attracts roommate seekers.

Even though your income potential is on the lower end of the spectrum, so is your overhead; most of your income is sheer profit. For this reason, a roommate referral service would make a fine part-time supplemental income opportunity.

Keys to Success

The only advice is to be sure you carefully screen your applicants—bad matches are sure to strike you if you don’t. You could always organize your Web site so that roommates choose each other based on profiles they enter on your site.