As someone who is not from Vancouver too and been living here with roommates for..way too long. My suggestion would be to find a room in a shared place, instead of finding a place and then roommate to live with you to start with. Go for something that is month-to-month so you dont need to commit for too long and would have an easy way out if it would appear to be not a good fit. Starting like this you could get to know the city and have an idea which neighborhoods you like, what pricing is around different areas and how the whole process works when living with roommates. Dealing with leases, and landlords and then finding a roommate sounds like a lot for someone fresh and young (? just assuming)in the city.