What would you do?

[echo419]

so I've been thinking of renting out one of my rooms. I have 3 and only use one. so it's just me and the dog. so I put up an add and I get a call from this guy. basically he tells me that he needs to move Friday and that his girlfriend lives with him.

well first off the idea of 2 people living with me is not ideal. I tell him this and he offers up to pay an additional $100/mo. shit. this would basically give me a $240/mo mortgage for me to pay out of my pocket every month. of course with this comes potential problems.

me 33 single dude....sorta I have a girl that wants to be the "girlfriend". I just might give her the job. he's 22 and works within walking distance of my place. assuming this guy is straight up and pays his bills I could pay off some credit cards, boost the BRZ and generally live pretty high on the hog so to speak. thoughts? risk v reward?

[MonoRaven]

It would depend on what his girlfriend looks like and if they were into swapping...could be a lot of reward!

[GeorgeJFrick]

I had a friend do this until the house was packed; then they moved and still rent the house to 5 people.

It's not for me at all.

For something with less commitment, you could airBnB the room? We're considering switching our rental property to an airBnB unit. Have to furnish it but now you're getting hotel rates.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by GeorgeJFrick

I had a friend do this until the house was packed; then they moved and still rent the house to 5 people.

It's not for me at all.

For something with less commitment, you could airBnB the room? We're considering switching our rental property to an airBnB unit. Have to furnish it but now you're getting hotel rates.

Less commitment? Operating a BnB requires a substantial time commitment. To charge those hotel rates you need to be prepared to provide hotel service and that can be a 24 hour a day task while you have guests. Just the linen washing, cooking and cleaning alone can stack up to many hours of work a week. It also requires a home that has some sort of draw to make people want to stay there. There is little money to be made if you only have a couple of guests each month because your house is in the middle of nowhere.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by echo419

risk v reward?

Any time you do something like this it is a huge gamble. Dude with the girl friend may be the greatest thing or a nightmare and unless you can get some reliable references on them you will never know until they are there.
Personally if I had the opportunity to rent out some rooms I would be all over it. Not using them anyway so why not make some cash. You just have to keep in mid that even if they are the greatest people in the world you will have to make some sacrifices (personal not animal) and they will certainly impact your current lifestyle.

[echo419]

good points everyone. I'll look into this AirBnB thing. not sure how well that would do with me where I'm at and having a dog. though she is super friendly. if I could make some money doing this I'd just have my cleaning lady come more often.

I have all this space and I'm doing literally nothing with it. I feel like I'm missing out and really feel like I should have bought that loft downtown.

[jawn]

I need to move to a city with lower property values, apparently.

[jvincent]

The day I got my first apartment after graduating from university was one of my best days ever.

No more sharing the fridge, walk around the apartment naked if I want to, nobody to nag about cleaning the bathroom/kitchen/etc.

[MisterSheep]

If you have all the extra rooms and you want to rent them out go for it. That's what I used to do. Met a couple of great people that way. I would always meet them first and get to know them maybe over a lunch or something and have everyone (him and the GF) show up so you meet them.

Just make sure to also put down some ground rules as well, whatever they may be;
-their part of the refridgerator and don't eat other people's food (without asking)
-Make sure they clean up after themselves. You're not their maid.
-Be considerate to the other people who live in the household (don't come home wasted as fuck and loud as fuck at 2am)
-etc.

[strat61caster]

Have you never had roommates before? Good ones, like having a friendly neighbor who mows your lawn because it was there and no trouble to do a favor, bad ones make you think "how bad can jail really be?"

It's all up to you, get a good contract/lease agreement, set it at something reasonable, maybe 3 months because you're unsure so you have grounds to kick them out if they suck. Be careful, renter laws can screw you if you do the wrong thing.

[echo419]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

Have you never had roommates before? Good ones, like having a friendly neighbor who mows your lawn because it was there and no trouble to do a favor, bad ones make you think "how bad can jail really be?"

It's all up to you, get a good contract/lease agreement, set it at something reasonable, maybe 3 months because you're unsure so you have grounds to kick them out if they suck. Be careful, renter laws can screw you if you do the wrong thing.

yeah, in fact this is my first place by myself. I've done it before and only one time have I had more space then I do now.

I think I'm going to pass on the couple. I'll hold out for the perfect situation. I'll just lose my mind if they are a PITA and late with the bills or just completely behind.

[GeorgeJFrick]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Less commitment? Operating a BnB requires a substantial time commitment. To charge those hotel rates you need to be prepared to provide hotel service and that can be a 24 hour a day task while you have guests. Just the linen washing, cooking and cleaning alone can stack up to many hours of work a week. It also requires a home that has some sort of draw to make people want to stay there. There is little money to be made if you only have a couple of guests each month because your house is in the middle of nowhere.

By less commitment I meant being able to turn it off/on. You don't sign up and suddenly have to be open/available 365 days a year. I made no claim it was a great idea. He's looking to make money off of his extra room; I mentioned something he could look into. I didn't tell him to start a BnB, I told him to look into AirBnB; which although it has BnB in the name; no longer implies bed and breakfast.

[soulreapersteve]

Originally Posted by MonoRaven

It would depend on what his girlfriend looks like and if they were into swapping...could be a lot of reward!

I second this.

Originally Posted by echo419

yeah, in fact this is my first place by myself. I've done it before and only one time have I had more space then I do now.

I think I'm going to pass on the couple. I'll hold out for the perfect situation. I'll just lose my mind if they are a PITA and late with the bills or just completely behind.

That's what written contracts are for.

[jawn]

Yeah, after revisiting this - I'd only room with someone who's at a similar point in life. There's less chance of lifestyle differences getting irritating.