Accommodation Searching / House Sharing

[muddyfox470]

Hello!

I am soon to graduate and am fortunate to have landed a fairly decent job, one pre-requisite is that I need to be fairly mobile, but have a fixed address near to my work place.

Most difficult thing is that i don't know where exactly I will be working until later this month / next month and I have specified to be away from London (so hope they acknowledge that).

It's a great job, and obviously I want to keep costs down, but live somewhere comfortable and safe. The best option seems to be to share a house, but I'd obviously want it to be a smaller affair than the normal student accommodation (5+ living in a tiny place) and want my own space.
Ideally I'd get a place and a mortgage on asap but I doubt that is going to happen [I always see renting as money burning] so need to find somewhere before I turn up to work with my collection of things.

Sorry for the long intro but:

Does anyone know a good website or finding professional room-mates to live with, rather than these really dodgy websites that always seem to crop up after a quick google search?
If you've used one before I'd appreciate you telling me how you found it and how accurate the information was.

I don't mind living with 1 or 2 other people but any more would be a bit too difficult to live with I think. I could wait until the start of the programme and meet other people in my situation, but I think if I find someone doing exactly the same thing as me, things could get boring rather quickly. if I was renting a place on my own I'd worry a little with having to buy all my own furniture to fill up the place, which obviously adds a fair bit to the initial costs...

If anyone can help point me to some useful resources / websites, even if they are local to an area they would be much appreciated so I help my searching.

When I do get my location sorted I will no doubt go and visit and see what I can find when I'm looking around...

Thanks in advance guys and gals.

MODs if there is a better place for this to be please move it

[Bugbait]

I've never shared but the friends who have generally found things through www.gumtree.co.uk.

[0iD]

I second Gumtree
In my experience, student nurses for a houseshare is FTW!

[badass]

LOADS of dodgy people on Gumtree.co.uk
Be very careful.

[muddyfox470]

Cheers guys!

I noticed when I was looking for accommodation over last summer (in London) there were so many people out there to scam you!

Will have a look on gumtree in my area when I finally get my location sorted... should get it soon I think. Hopefully it should be much better for smaller towns/cities. Although I will pop to the area once I know where I'll be to look at what is available

[Whiternoise]

Bear in mind someone recently posted (unwittingly) an advertisment for a property that was clearly a sham from Gumtree. It's like craigslist, some gems there but you have to dig very very deep to find them.

Shop around, don't pay anything up front unless you've seen the property, met the landlords and the current/previous tenant.

If you're only just out of uni, perhaps see if there are any PhD students knocking around looking for a place?

Failing that, ad in the paper/newsagent/etc, you're (imo) much less likely to get lots of people calling up trying to con you. Pick papers with high circulation (in London it's bound to be seen by someone in the are) and see what happens

[badass]

Bear in mind someone recently posted (unwittingly) an advertisment for a property that was clearly a sham from Gumtree. It's like craigslist, some gems there but you have to dig very very deep to find them.

Shop around, don't pay anything up front unless you've seen the property, met the landlords and the current/previous tenant.

If you're only just out of uni, perhaps see if there are any PhD students knocking around looking for a place?

Failing that, ad in the paper/newsagent/etc, you're (imo) much less likely to get lots of people calling up trying to con you. Pick papers with high circulation (in London it's bound to be seen by someone in the are) and see what happens

Just to add, if your guts tell you there's anything at all dodgy, no matter how much you like the place, walk away. You'll be amazed just how many scheming ****s there are on this planet.