How to message a potential roommate?

[miss match]

It's that time for me to start looking for a roommate, as I will be a freshman next year. A lot of people on Facebook post about looking for a roommate and there are some people I would like to message. I don't want to directly ask if they're rooming with anyone yet because
1. I want to know more about them first
and
2. I don't want to make it hard for them to say no if they're not interested

If you have any ideas of how I could ask to get to know more about them (without just saying tell me about yourself or asking a bunch of questions) please let me know! I'm having trouble initiating a conversation where I am not like "Hey wanna be roommates?" and not knowing anything about them.

[MM]

"Hi, I'm roommate-hunting, and your profile looked interesting. No pressure, but if you're looking, maybe we could chat a bit to see if we're compatible?"

You can be upfront about what you want without making any promises. Anyone who doesn't get that probably isn't going to make a good roommate anyway.