After advertising since June, and not getting a lot of responses, this week I’ve received five different calls about my room rental. It appears that a lot of foreign visas have been approved at the last minute, as all of the calls have come from foreign students – from China, from Africa, all over!

It’s been interesting, but in the end, we rented the room to a young woman from China who will be studying at the university near our home. She signed a month-to-month rental agreement yesterday and will be moving in later this week.

To say I’m relieved is an understatement – we don’t need the money, but with me taking a pay cut to accept my new job, every extra penny helps. This will allow us to continue making decent debt repayments as opposed to simply treading water and paying the minimums until I can start earning commissions at my new job.

So in the end, what worked for us? Advertising with the University Students Union was key. All of our calls came through the ad we posted on their website – Kijiji (like Craigslist) was a bust for us. Considering we ideally wanted a student, it made sense to use the university resources, but I wasn’t fussy, and any tenant would have been fine.

I found a generic rental agreement online that met our needs, and we both signed copies. Since this is so new for us, we’ll probably be adjusting the rules and expectations a little as we go along, but the girl we chose is studying a difficult degree program, and she was quiet and friendly. The two friends she brought along (for her safety – smart girl) were also quiet and friendly. So far, all seems ideal, but even if it doesn’t work out, either party has the right to end the agreement with 30 days notice.

This is very odd for us – I haven’t had a roommate since I moved in with my first serious boyfriend (my future ex-husband) in 1992. Before that I lived with a friend for 6 months. Having a non-family member to share our home feels strange, but for $450 a month, I’m more than willing to give it a try. That money will pay off one of our smaller debts (the Visa card), and can eventually be put toward some of the trips we want to take to participate in triathlons. That’s a win for me.