Fairness is a funny thing. One person’s fair is another person’s rip-off. So it is important for a rent-splitting calculator to jive with a broadly intuitive sense of fairness. It can’t just be what I think is fair – or what any one person thinks – or it won’t be useful.
In order to validate and calibrate the formula I used for the rent-share calculator on this blog, I did a rather in-depth survey on “apartment sharing fairness” with my friends. Here are the results – enjoy!
How do most people split the rent?
Mostly, my survey respondents either try and adjust prices based on niceness, or just split things evenly. A few (about 20%) do something else. Nobody tries to auction rooms, which would technically be the fairest but is in reality a huge pain and very stressful.
If you, like me, have done the adjust-based-on-niceness approach, this survey is for you!
Factors that make an apartment nice or crappy
One fair way to share an apartment is that people who get nicer rooms should have to pay a little bit more for them, and people with less nice rooms should get a discount. But what makes a room nicer? People have different preferences and priorities. Our goal was to measure what factors make a room nice enough or crappy enough to be worth changing the way rent is shared. For instance, does having a walk-in closet mean you should pay a bigger share of the rent? Does having a private bathroom? Does having no windows justify a discount? To answer this question, we asked the respondents to rate the importance of many factors in determining the way rent is shared. Here were the responses on a 1-5 scale, with 5 being “very important to the way rent is calculated” and 1 being “should not be counted in the way rent is shared.”
These are straight-averages (means) for each factor. As you can see, people think factors related to privacy and personal space should be taken into account when sharing rent. I don’t think this is a big surprise. The importance of secondary factors like closets and windows is pretty intuitive, and this validates their inclusion in the rent-splitting calculator. “Common area size” is the most interesting case – more on this later.
My respondents don’t think distances from other parts of the apartment deserve consideration, and I agree. I must admit, I threw in questions about these factors knowing people probably wouldn’t care about them. It was a methodological trick to give the respondents a sense of perspective and to make sure they wouldn’t just answer “Very important” to everything. Personally, I actually strongly prefer to live close to the living room of an apartment, but some people prefer a room far away from common space noise. It’s not the sort of thing that money needs to change hands over, and the survey confirms this intuition.
This list of factors was used to decide which things deserve inclusion in the rent calculator’s menu of modifiers. Unimportant factors should be excluded for simplicity, so for instance, I combined all sound issues into one choice in the calculator and excluded distances and flights of stairs. Convertible wall was a controversial one, as you can see from the standard deviations of my responses (n.b., axis does not start at zero).
In case you are unfamiliar with the concept of “standard deviation,” it measures of how widely the responses to a question varied. As you can see, the most controversial factors were including common space in the calculation, whether you should factor in sharing with a couple (“double occupancy” on the chart), and the importance of a convertible wall. The disagreement on convertible wall might represent a genuine difference of opinion, but I think this was just an ambiguous term. Based on comments I received, it’s clear people were confused over what a convertible wall is exactly. Is it an accordion style barrier, a piece of drywall which doesn’t separate things floor to ceiling, or a renovation which converted one room into two? Whichever it is, what I think matters most is whether there is “no door” or “bad sound isolation.” So I decided not to include “convertible wall” in the calculator before probing it further.
What’s it worth?
Another way to test for how much each factor should be worth in the sharing calculation is to ask directly how much money you would pay to get a perk or get rid of a problem. Here is some nifty data on how much money you would pay to have a perk or fix a problem:
As you can see, privacy and personal space come up tops again. An interesting case is “lots of windows,” which was surprisingly different from person to person in both this question and the factor question above. The maximum price one respondent was willing to pay was $300 per month for lots of windows, and several listed numbers over $150, while some had numbers in the teens. This raises a philosophical question: If the differences in preference are so great, how can you include the factor in a calculator? Shouldn’t the person who cares more about having windows just get the room, especially if people are friends?
I think this is a good question, but I also think I have a good answer. The calculator’s purpose in life is to provide a neutral opinion, avoid haggling, and not hurt people’s feelings. Philosophically, letting someone have a nice thing that you don’t care about is OK, but what if you care a little about it? Just because you don’t like windows as much doesn’t mean you don’t like windows at all, and it doesn’t seem fair to reward people for being needy. Basing things on the average values is more justifiable: If they would have been willing to pay more, they still get a bargain and you still get a discount. This gives a deal to people who strongly prefer a certain kind of room, and the amount of extra money they pay gives something back to the others.
The only way to do this perfectly “fairly” in this sense is to create an auction, but this is pretty intense/stressful/unfriendly for all but the nerdiest of economic enthusiasts, and using the average method is a great way to keep things generally fair in light of the overall demand for perks and handicaps.
In general, I used a combination of these dollar and importance numbers to calibrate how the calculator values the various perks. All of the dollar numbers were based on an $800 per month rent scenario in Boston with a specific salary of $2500 per month before taxes, so I had to extrapolate a bit. The way I extrapolated that is not that sophisticated, but it’s not worth explaining here, either. So, moving on:
Share and share alike
The last type of question in the survey involved hypothetical scenarios – situations which asked you to write what you think the fair rent would be for you to pay. This was designed to get at the key issues of “sharing with couples” and “factoring in the size of the common room.” From the factor question, it was clear that there was no consensus how to handle these situations among my friends. These factors had some of the highest standard deviations, and “size of the common room” was the only factor with a bimodal (two-peaked) distribution of importance; however, I do think that there is a clear way to do it, and the survey supports this concept. Split-the-rent prorates the rent by square footage, assuming common areas are shared equally among all people regardless of who sleeps where. I assumed a common space equal to the sum of the bedroom space for a normal apartment, and double or half of that for the tiny and huge cases (see “How it Works” for more description). I then compared this approach to the average response for each scenario. It worked wonderfully.
This is a clear indication that the formula is jiving with respondents’ intuitions. The (C) here stands for “sharing with a couple” and you can read the full description for each scenario here if you’d like. The values above represent a less-than-10% error on each scenario, with some even less than 1%:
Caveats and survey profile
This whole survey is somewhat culturally specific – I’m sure it would come out differently if I did it across different cultures and backgrounds, or possibly even other groups of friends. The sample was an unscientific sample of 42 of my gchat status checkers and facebook feed-readers. But I suspect it is broadly applicable for college educated 20-30 year old Americans, and is probably a good starting point for just about any group of people who agree that people should pay slightly more for nicer rooms.
My favorite survey comments: “Manic survey,” “fun survey,” “Chickens,” “Too many words and numbers!”, and “Goddamn it, Bittner, you’re conducting this survey so you can nail us on being irrational, aren’t you. Jerk.”
Several people commented unprompted that who was dealing with bills and the landlord would have mattered to them, and there were few a concerns like “what am I supposed to consider about bathrooms” and “Are these all with strangers or friends” (I used strangers specifically so that people would not consider trying to be overly generous to their friends). One person was concerned over what differentials for money given in the $ section would be in reference to a baseline of $800 or a baseline over what their friends would be paying (I calibrated the survey to make these differentials to be how much you’d pay above what your friends are paying, since I believe this is what comparison people will tend to make intuitively). Several people suggested a variant of the formula I use without ever talking about it with me, which was a nice confirmation of principle.
The guy-girl breakdown was 46% male, 44% female, and 10% did not specify. The average age was 26 with a standard deviation of 7 years. The respondents had shared apartments 3.4 individual times on average with a standard deviation of 1.7 times. No one who took the survey saw my calculator first or talked with me about how I thought rooms should be shared (to my memory), and if I knew they had discussed it with me, I didn’t count their response.
I hope you find it helpful! Follow me on Twitter for updates and related projects, email your thoughts to split.the.rent.jb AT gmail DOT com, or check out other stuff I’m working on.
The Splitwise Blog 
Jon,
I am trying to arbitrate a living situation for my daughter and want to share some thoughts. Your “SplitRent” site is ingenious! The one thing missing from the calculation is the number of bathrooms.
Let me give you her housing scenario without bias. A modern custom home with 5 huge rooms and huge common area. The house has three large full bathrooms and a half bathroom in the common area. The MBR is double occupied with a master bathroom. Two upstairs rooms share the upstairs full bathroom and two downstairs bedrooms share the downstairs full bathroom. So the single occupants essentially have their own rooms and a MBR quality bathroom share… Shared with one other person only. Several of the rooms are bigger than the MBR and all rooms are probably enormous.
Without getting into outside doors and windows… How would you divide the rent?
The rooms should be split according to each persons needs and how much space they need to live comfortably and what each person could afford. If someone has very little furniture and doesn’t need a lot of space, a person should pay less with a smaller room If the total rent is $2,500 a month divide the total # of rooms by the amount then start with the price of the smaller room and add a $ amount for each rooms amenities till you get to the total amount due. All utilities could be split by the # of people sharing the rent.
Hey mate! Great App.
Can I suggest you include a feature in regards to car spaces?
I agree! 🙂
Hey! that’s a great app!
one more variable to add ( the windows face the back of the house = quite – or they face the main street = noise )
thank you!
Hey, I’m a reporter working on a story about rental calculator apps. I’d love to speak with you about your experience splitting the rent. Would you reach out to me? You can reply here or send me a DM on twitter: @zoegberg.
Agree with Cam, want to know about car spaces/ garage spaces.
Please add Studios, Lofts, 1 bath for those living in SF / NYC
I need some help….using this system a four bedroom/four roommate situation came down to one person paying 200.00 more than the person paying the lowest rent. This does not seem fair. the person paying the lowest rent has a large room with a fireplace, but no doors. The person paying the highest rent has a room that is just as large, but with doors…..does not make sense….now the roommates will not negotiate the amounts…..feeling screwed.
The person who is feeling screwed does not have to stay. Find another room mate.
If someone would offer me a room with no doors, I would either pay nothing for it as long as im outside, or I would demand cash for being inside and no way out!
In urban areas, parking can be everything. Crucial piece missing from the calculator. Especially for odd-numbered apts, such as my current 3br 2 parking spot situation.
Parking prices vary wildly by location. Where I live, parking spaces are completely irrelevant, but I used to pay $200/mo for one. If you want to put a value on the space, it’s probably best to compare it to the price of a nearby parking garage, and to adjust accordingly.
Say a parking space costs about $100/mo where you live, and your total rent is $2000. $100 of that $2000 is the cost of parking spot, so the real rent without parking is $1900. You can use our rent calculator to figure out how to split the $1900, and then the person who uses the parking space can pay an extra $100 on top of that.
How about if a homeowner is renting bedrooms in their fully furnished home, as well as, a fully stocked kitchen (minus the food), vacuum cleaner, etc.. So I would think that as a homeowner I would charge extra for use of my stuff, as opposed to roommates coming in and renting an empty apartment or house together and everyone pitching in on furnishings, etc. How much extra would you charge in that regards?
This is great! Agree with other people about things you should add:
– Does the window face the street, or the back of the apartment? Front facing windows are much noisier.
– Parking. I live in San Francisco, and in my current 3bd/2ba apartment 2 people pay extra because they have garage parking spots.
Otherwise, this is great!
I wish this tool listed sizes on the “How big are the common spaces of the house or apartment?” question, and offered a wider range of sizes. Our house has more common space than bedroom space, which is exceptional and probably not even covered by the “Huge” option on the form.
Thank you! Solved a huge problem for my new roomies and me. 🙂 But, please, “jibe”, not “jive”.
Hey, I’m a reporter working on a story about rental calculator apps. I’d love to speak with you about your experience splitting the rent. Would you reach out to me? You can reply here or send me a DM on twitter: @zoegberg.
I’m in a situation where I may be renting the basement (ground floor) of a duplex apartment with 3 bedrooms on the 1st floor that share 1 bathroom. There is a separate bathroom on the ground floor. The space is huge in the basement . The total rent is $3850. I used this tool to and I got a breakdown of $900 each for the 3 bedrooms and $1150 for the basement. Is that not reasonable?? This is a new townhouse apartment in East Harlem, NY. The other roommates were asking $1290 for the basement which would mean they’d paid about $853 a piece. The one thing also that factors in is that the basement has no heat, and only a tiny window in the back corner that barely brings in any light. Thoughts??
Hey, I’m a reporter working on a story about rental calculator apps. I’d love to speak with you about your experience splitting the rent. Would you reach out to me? You can reply here or send me a DM on twitter: @zoegberg.
Hi Sydney,
The numbers are in abstract units – all that matters is relative size and total price. “Average” common living space average is assumed to be equal to the sum of all bedrooms. If you’d like to send your specific situation, you can email ask@splitwise.com and we can try and help you.
What about two persons in one room? should the price of the room be split or we should split the total of the rent in the total of persons living in the apartment]?
Why don’t you run it through the calculator?
https://www.splitwise.com/calculators/rent
If you have questions afterwards, please feel free to reach out to us at support@splitwise.com
I recently rented a house with my family; a big mistake. There are 5 of us who are on the lease and my 11 month old son. The house is 4 bedrooms; my dad insisted on not having a room when I was house hunting. I share the master with my 1 year old son. The rent is $1700 a month and after moving in my family decided I would be paying $700 a month plus utilities because I have the master and my dad would pay nothing because he doesn’t have a room. This seems ridiculous and I’m fed up. On top of paying $700 a month I’m expected to clean the kitchen and floors and do everyone’s dishes plus shower my grandma while I work full time and care for a 1 year old. Everything we discussed ahead of time concerning rent has changed. I was wondering if there’s anything I can do.
Hey, I’m a reporter working on a story about rental calculator apps. I’d love to speak with you about your experience splitting the rent. Would you reach out to me? You can reply here or send me a DM on twitter: @zoegberg.
Great calculator.
It would be great to have an option of small wardrobe, normal and large as well.
Also the time spent at home is important to be taken in consideration, maybe one is working in office for the wole day, and the other one is a student or someone who works from home.
Basically they share the space in the mornig and after 18.00 in the evening, but the rest of the day one of them is using the common areas (maybe with a small studio in the common area.)
Any suggestions to address dealing with additional “miscellaneous” factors, both positive and negative? For example, I live in a large house with multiple people in which one person has a balcony; one person rents 2 rooms as a bedroom/office suite combination; the best room, layout and amenity wise, isn’t well insulated (hot in summer, very cold in winter); etc.
Hey, I’m a reporter working on a story about rental calculator apps. I’d love to speak with you about your experience splitting the rent. Would you reach out to me? You can reply here or send me a DM on twitter: @zoegberg.
You should add private balcony and private porch options aswell as options, many houses have those options and they definitely change how you think about room pricing.
The overall number of bathrooms in the house is very important to decide how much value a private half bath has. For example, I live in a 5 bedroom house and we all share one bathroom, but one of the rooms has a private half bath. In this case, it seems to me that the half bath should have more value attached to it than if the house had 2 or 3 full bathrooms.
Hi Jon,
I really like the survey breakdown about what people appreciate in an (shared) appartment. Regarding the calculator, have you had a look at the algorithm that is used by the spliddit app (http://www.spliddit.org/apps/rent)?
I would appreciate your thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of your calculator vs their calculator.
Cheers, Jennifer
hello my name is lola I am roommates with my bfs mother and his son its her home paid off her name but rent is still 1300 we pay 600 for a shared living room with me my daughter and him we get woken up by kids no privacy we have no door our bathroom is shared with her guests and we have no closet her sister just moved into one of the rooms ( we have been living here for 2 years and never got a room because she didn’t allow it but yet we pay 600$ we cant bring guest over for long I don’t find it very fair as well as she talks only bad about us to everyone and I cant ignore it since I have no where to go she has a private room with a private bathroom his son has one room and his aunt another with a baby and her husband I don’t see this as fair and I feel like I’m getting ripped off
We can’t seem too understand the measurement of the rooms in regards to large, enormous, generous ect. What measurements are you using or look at this layout please..
https://trademe.nz/property/residential/rent/auckland/auckland-city/western-springs/listing/1829539613