Two shared apartments can be difficult to compare when one has better photos and the other seems cheaper. A short decision worksheet helps you separate what you have verified from what you hope is true.
Choose a small number of things that matter to your daily life, collect the same information for both rooms, and make any unanswered questions visible. A score is useful for organising a decision, but it cannot turn missing evidence into a good home.
Start a comparison with advertised facts
Here is a starting record for two real adverts checked on 13 September 2026. These entries describe public listing fields; no viewing or household interview was carried out.
| Advert | Advertised rent and furnishing | Decision still unresolved |
|---|---|---|
| Bucknor room in a flat | ₦450,000 annually; unfurnished | Exact room coverage, setup purchases, complete initial quote and your route |
| Ajah room in a two-bedroom apartment | ₦1,500,000 annually; furnished | Included inventory, complete initial quote and your route |
Do not award the Ajah option a better privacy score or the Bucknor option a better overall cost score from these fields. Furnishing, room coverage and travel need evidence of their own. Fill those gaps before applying the weighted example below.
Listing snapshot checked 13 September 2026. Prices, terms and availability may change; reopen the advert and confirm the current offer with the lister.
Set your non-negotiables first
Write down the conditions that would rule out a room regardless of its other strengths. Examples might include the need for a private bedroom, access compatible with your working hours, a particular move-in window, or a maximum initial payment.
Keep this list short. If everything is a non-negotiable, the worksheet becomes a description of a room that may not exist. Separate true requirements from preferences such as an extra shelf or a larger living room.
Use the same comparison fields
| Field | What to record for each room |
|---|---|
| Space | Private or shared bedroom; bathroom users; storage |
| Cost | Rent period; initial total; recurring extras |
| Route | Actual destination; journey at your usual time |
| Utilities | Demonstrated setup; charges; unresolved questions |
| Household | Schedules; guests; cleaning; current occupants |
| Evidence | Viewed, confirmed in writing, or still unknown |
Do not put “good power” in one column and a detailed electricity breakdown in the other. Ask both households equivalent questions. Otherwise the room with fewer answers can appear simpler than the room that has been transparent.
Try a weighted comparison
For an illustrative method, give cost and commute a weight of three, privacy a weight of two, and storage a weight of one. Rate each verified category from one to five using standards you define before scoring. Multiply each rating by its weight and add the results.
Suppose Room A scores four for cost, two for commute, five for privacy and three for storage. Its total is 31. Room B scores three, four, four and four respectively, totalling 33. These invented ratings show how a slightly more expensive room can fit your priorities better. They say nothing about any actual property.
Leave unknown categories unscored. Do not assign an optimistic three because a lister has not replied. A high total with several unknowns should trigger more questions, not confidence.
Use a tour to generate questions for the worksheet
This Lagos tour includes a bedroom and workstation around 0:37–0:44. For the comparison worksheet, that suggests questions about usable desk space, privacy and where calls would happen if someone else were resting.
Record those as questions until you have checked the room you would actually rent. The clip covers one home; its title does not establish an average Lagos rent. Neither this tour nor its visible furnishings establish a currently available shared-room offer.
Check the decision against a normal week
Imagine a routine weekday from waking up to returning home. Who needs the bathroom at the same time? Where would you take a call? How would you enter if work ends late? Then imagine a weekend when everyone is home and a week when your routine changes.
This exercise often exposes a practical issue that photographs miss. A room can look ideal at noon while the household's peak bathroom time clashes with your departure. Discuss the conflict rather than assuming people will rearrange their lives after you move in.
End with questions and a next step
For a Lagos shortlist, the Lekki location questions help clarify an address-level decision, while the Ajah route checklist shows how to organise confirmed and unresolved details across several options.
For each shortlisted room, write the three remaining questions that could change your decision. Ask for those answers before making a payment commitment. If neither option meets a genuine requirement, keep searching rather than lowering the requirement simply because you have spent time on viewings.
Use the shared-apartment directory to build the shortlist. The full-cost comparison guide helps fill the money fields, while the power, water and internet questions help turn vague utility claims into usable answers.
About this guide: Prepared for Flatmate with AI assistance using labelled hypothetical examples, dated public adverts and the attributed video tour. Video notes were checked against captions and selected footage; they do not establish a current vacancy or a match to a listed property. The guide is not a property inspection.