alison, my rental agreement is very bare-bones. Cover the very basics (rent, late fees, responsibility for damages, notice required) and that's about it. The only thing maybe a bit odd that's in there is I prohibit firearms to be brought on the property because I just don't want someone whose temper, drinking habits, etc I'm not intimately familiar with to have a gun in the house I live in. Right to bear arms is all fine and dandy, but not in my home. I do not under any circumstances do anything other than month-to-month, and potential roomie/tenants are aware that this is to give both of us the option to get out of the arrangement, no questions asked or reasons needed, if there is any conflict or disagreement or lifestyle incompatibilities. I also figure that since we're sharing living space, I'll find out pretty quickly if they're throwing wild parties that annoy the neighbors, or smoking in the house, or sneaking in non-housebroken pets, or other issues normal landlords might address in the lease. So, although it may be counterintuitive, I feel I need to be a lot less of a stickler about making small stuff into legally binding rules; it just doesn't seem necessary. You probably won't have quite the same level of transparency, but more so than an off-site owner. And, obviously, if there were a year's lease in place, that would be a completely different situation; you could get someone that was just intolerable but unless they're doing something in violation of the lease, you'd be stuck with them. I try to be as brutally honest as i can, both about my own lifestyle and annoying habits and what my tolerances are for others. I will not even consider anyone who doesn't want to share that kind of information about themselves; they might be very nice people, but if they aren't interested in making sure we're compatible, I think they don't have a realistic idea of roommates and it is not my job to educate them. I will not consider anyone who is in any way inconsiderate of me during the process (traffic sucks, so if someone is late to come see the house, I understand, but if they're two hours late and didn't bother to call and let me know, they're out). I don't need to live with anyone who is not going to be considerate. I do not talk to people other than the renter (parents, boyfriends, etc)... they are welcome to tag along and meet me and see the place, but I want to talk to and handle arrangements with the person I'd actually be living with, because it's the only real indication I have of how well we'll be able to deal with each other. Because of the m2m, and that I'm renting a room in a fully furnished home, and I live in a high-intern area, I tend to get a lot of short-timers; primarily grad students doing internships for 2 or 3 months. This can be annoying (they just get settled in then I have to start the process over), but they tend to be a pretty responsbile bunch, and don't generally have a lot of friends in the area wanting to hang out at my house all the time. Then again, current roomie's been with me almost 2 years, and the last one stayed for a year, so the m2m doesn't preclude people staying a while, either. Honestly, I have been very lucky and never really had a bad roommate or situation. There has been an applicant here or there that made me uncomfortable for some reason or other (so I just didn't rent to them), and I have occasionally had someone get mad at me for saying no for lifestyle/compatibility reasons (which just demonstrated to me that I was right). One thing is that unless you have local laws to the contrary is you will not be subject to federal fair housing laws, so you can reject people for pretty much any reason, and don't have to worry about articulating or documenting why to legally cover yourself. Family's teenage son gives you the willies, don't have to rent to them, where an apartment complex can't make that same choice because they can't discriminate against families.

same Birthday, different lifestyles & attitudes, yet there is a commonality among the quoters I find interesting, wonder what an Astrologer would make of this. I enjoyed today's reading very much I noticed all have a fodness for cats

The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines. It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn't in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals. How I miss Charles Kuralt.

That was quite a long read today and an interesting mix of occupations. Seldom is a business man credited with quotes and those are good. Stephen Sender is an unknown to me but definitely a poet even in his quotes. Ellis Peters is one of my favorite mystery writers, I have her Brother Cadfael series and they are not going out with a bunch of others, as well as other books, written with other names. Of course it has to be a government member who will write the most. Madeleine M. Kumin is also a diplomat in her writing, love her quotes. Don, thank you for a nice after dinner reading.