Apartments.com Crowns Its Third Annual Roommate Of The Year; Awards National Title and Grand Prize of Free Rent for One Year + $10,000 to Jesse McLaughlin of Arlington, Va

CHICAGO, Sept. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Apartments.com today announced the grand prize winner in its third annual Roommate of the Year Contest. Beating video entries that came in from across the country, ranging from the realistic to the rap-a-licious, Jesse McLaughlin of Arlington, VA has been named the 2011 Roommate of the Year. McLaughlin earned the title, as well as the grand prize of free rent for one year plus $10,000 cash and a one year membership to freecreditscore.com, by demonstrating he is America's best roommate. McLaughlin's video, entitled Roommating MVP!, provided a play-by-play breakdown of his superior roommate abilities. McLaughlin's video was a huge hit with both the online voters and the Apartments.com judging panel.

"Judging the contest proved very difficult this year due to the high caliber of entries we received, but Jesse's video was definitely unique and stood out from the competition," states Tammy Kotula, public relations and promotions manager, Apartments.com. "As evidenced by the number of votes and comments his video received, the sports analogy scored high marks with many sports fans and the witty voiceover was enjoyed by everyone."

Entering his video in The All-Star Roomie category, which recognizes those special qualities that transcend more than one area of roommate greatness, McLaughlin showcased his talents ranging from taking out the trash, to making bananas foster and even performing the two minute clean-up drill that he's practiced all week (including instant replay!). Other contest categories included The Purr-fect Pet Owner, The Environmentalist and The Loveable Compulsive.

Once McLaughlin and 10 others were named as finalists, the public vote was open and America weighed in on who should be named Roommate of the Year. McLaughlin claimed top honors from the elite field of finalists when his entry was evaluated with equal weight on originality and creativity, overall "wow" factor, persuasive argument and style and production by the Apartments.com judging panel.

McLaughlin, a security analyst at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, currently resides in Arlington, VA with his girlfriend and roommate, Lisa Harbin, who agreed McLaughlin is definitely Roommate of the Year!  

In addition to the grand prize winner, four other contest entrants were named 2011 Roommate of the Year Contest runner-up winners. The runner-up winners, each of whom received a cash prize of $500, included Mike Giancola of Farmingdale, NY who flexed his musical muscle singing about all the amazing things he does as a roommate in All Star Roomie; Alex Goldstein of Scarsdale, NY who demonstrated that his meatloaf is almost as good as he is in Your Room Just Found a Mate; Bryce MacManamy of Fort Worth, TX who saved his roommate from a horrible living situation in Roommate Rescue; and DeWayne Stevenson of Los Angeles who rapped about his wicked roommate skills in The Super Duper Best Roommate.

Jesse McLaughlin's grand-prize winning video submission, Roommating MVP!, as well as all four runner-up videos, can be viewed at www.roommateoftheyear.com.

About Apartments.com

Apartments.com (http://www.apartments.com) is a leading national apartment Internet listing subscription service with more than 50,000 unique addresses representing millions of rental units from managed properties, newspaper classifieds and for-rent-by-owner properties. By incorporating the most relevant products to reach renters including personalized searches and highly visual ads featuring live chat, real-time rent, online video walk-through demonstrations, professional photography, a mobile website and iPhone app, Apartments.com creates easy access to its listings. Providing unmatched exposure to its advertisers through an intuitive name, strategic search engine placements, featured partnerships including Yahoo! Real Estate, Univision and more than 120 newspaper websites and innovative emerging media, Apartments.com reaches millions of renters nationwide, driving both qualified traffic and highly-engaged renters to leasing offices nationwide. Apartments.com is a division of Chicago-based Classified Ventures, LLC. The Apartments.com network of apartment rental websites includes Apartment Home Living (http://www.apartmenthomeliving.com), a leading social media apartment website distinguished by a "live for fun" community experience, proprietary lifestyle matching and local living guides to help renters find their perfect place to live.

SOURCE Apartments.com