Today we’ll be talking about how to split up room cost between roommates when it comes to fancy Texan livin’ and their huge closet spaces.
Dear Splitwise,
I am currently in the process of moving into an apartment for the first time with 3 very dear friends of mine. It’s all really exciting but we are having some problems figuring out exactly how much everyone needs to pay a month. Two people will be sharing the master bedroom, while the other 2 will get their own rooms.
A problem we are running into is explaining to everyone involved why the 2 people sharing the room can’t just split the price of that one room. Also, we are trying to take into consideration of their closet space, which is quite huge. I used the calculator but I don’t think I can incorporate this aspect of their room. Any way you could help me figure this out and explain it to us? The rent is $2100.00 a month. Any help would be appreciated! I included a picture of the floor-plan below.
The Floor Plan:
Thanks,
Cactus Jane
Hey CJ,
The way our calculator works is by taking into consideration the amount of personal space people have (aka your bedroom) while everyone splits the cost of the common area. We’ve done a ton of research on this and you can read about it on our blog here. You can also show your roommates this to back up your numbers, so they don’t think you just came up with some random answer.
So while the two sharing the room should be splitting the cost of the room square footage, it won’t just be half of the others because they need to pay their share of the shared square footage.
In your case, the fact they also have their own personal bathroom (combined with the other rooms layout amenities) is what’s really changing the price around. I inputted the the walk-in closet as “Huge” in the calculator (that’s the size it was intended for). I’ve also inputted both room 2 and 3’s room and closet size as normal (I know room 3 is slightly smaller than 2, but it needs to be about a 25% difference to be considered “small” in the calculator). Room 3 also doesn’t have a window, so I added that in there too. It ends up breaking down to this:
- Master (same as room 1 on your blueprint) – $1086.06 ($543.03/person)
- bedroom 2 (same as bedroom 2 on your blueprint) – $539.64
- bedroom 3 (same as bedroom 3 on your blueprint) – $474.30
In the end you were right about your assumption that they can’t just split the room cost and call it a day. That room is worth about the same amount shared as bedroom 2 as a single! They may not be happy when you bring the numbers to them, but at least you now have someone else to blame it on.
~Splitwise
If you have a fairness or money sharing etiquette question you’d like Splitwise to address anonymously for you, email Dear Splitwise at ask@splitwise.com.
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