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That would be much too restrictive. You can certainly limit the number of guests at any one time to no more than two and mandate that they leave by 10PM and write into your agreement that the tenant is responsible for any and all actions of his guests.
That sounds reasonable. I guess I can offer wireless cable and internet to sweeten the pot and restrict them to the room, bathrooms,kitchen and living room. There is plenty of space to stretch out. I have an additional smaller room but it is close to my bedroom. I think I should keep it as an office.
What were some of the characteristic of your best tenants?
What were some of the characteristic of your best tenants?
Mature professionals (maturity having little to do with calendar age!) with verifiable employment, and prior landlords able to vouch for them. No party animals or drug users (they're really not difficult to spot and I only made one big mistake with one man in his mid-40s who tuned out to be a cokehead and he was quickly gone). Ir was after that that I also added a caveat to the monthly rental agreement noting that any gross violation of "house rules" would result in tenant being asked to leave immediately.
We all have our own habits and basically you have to use your good sense and find someone with whom you simply feel comfortable. Some I became friends with and remained so for a long time after they left but you just have to keep in mind that this isn't the objective and that business is business foremost.
You can even make it a weekly rental to start off with until you get your feet wet.
Mature professionals (maturity having little to do with calendar age!) with verifiable employment, and prior landlords able to vouch for them. No party animals or drug users (they're really not difficult to spot and I only made one big mistake with one man in his mid-40s who tuned out to be a cokehead and he was quickly gone). Ir was after that that I also added a caveat to the monthly rental agreement noting that any gross violation of "house rules" would result in tenant being asked to leave immediately.
We all have our own habits and basically you have to use your good sense and find someone with whom you simply feel comfortable. Some I became friends with and remained so for a long time after they left but you just have to keep in mind that this isn't the objective and that business is business foremost.
You can even make it a weekly rental to start off with until you get your feet wet.
I think that I will take the plunge. I will wait until I get a signed agreement before I purchase furniture. Thanks.
I rented rooms for the past couple of years, with positive-to-mixed success. My goal was more toward friendly roommates rather than strictly boarders, though, so my experience may not be particularly comparable to yours.
When I first moved to this city, I rented a 3-bedroom house and then took on a roommate to keep costs down. (And yes, my landlord was well aware and was fine with it.) She lived with me at that location and then moved with me when I bought a house the following year. All told, she rented from me for almost 2 years with no issues before she decided to move on.
The house I bought was a 4 bedroom, so I decided to take on another renter. In retrospect I kind of wish I hadn’t made that choice. In my own personal situation, 3 unaffiliated individual adults was too many for comfort. Even though it allowed for a bit over 900 square feet per person, it changed the dynamic and made it feel more like a rooming house rather than “home.” The third person was a graduate student who stayed through the school year, and I was not sad to see her go when her term expired. There were no actual problems with her tenancy, but it just wasn’t a great fit for my desires.
My third and final renter was a disaster. After the individuals mentioned above moved out, my partner and I decided to live together and look for a housemate to rent one of the 3 other bedrooms. The person we chose was moving from out of town, so we told her she was welcome to sleep in the guest room when she arrived and we would help her pick up the furniture she bought so she wouldn’t have to pay delivery charges. Thus began a comedy of errors where she stalled and stalled about getting her own bed—taking up both the guest room and “her room” She tore holes in the expensive guest sheets by overfilling the washing machine. She made like we were the big, bad, fat-cat landlords trying to screw over a low-wage worker when the utility bills came due and she was asked to pay her share as agreed. She got back together with her drug-addict ex-boyfriend whom she had moved across the country to get away from. This guy—whom we had not even met at this point—even answered my front door buck naked while we were out of town! Two days before her third month of rent was due, she said she was only going to have half and asked if we could float her the rest for a while. H*ll no! She agreed to be out by the first of the next month, and we were both happy to be able to be rid of her that easily. I could have pursued her for damages, but it would have been blood from a turnip anyway.
As for screening, all three housemates were just past college age and moving out of their parents’ homes. I talked to the parents, but that is hardly a useful metric. I also ran their names through the state database to check for criminal history and past judgments. My renters signed 1-year contracts that became month-to-month after the term expired. The contract included the basic terms like rent amount, utility split, etc. as well as house rules I considered reasonable (no guests for more than 3 consecutive nights without express permission, no smoking or drug use, etc.)
Overall, renting out a room was more positive than negative. The extra money was nice to have, and I also enjoyed having people around when I was new to town. But unless my economic situation changes drastically, I am done with housemates. Since the last of them moved out in November, I have been enjoying my privacy immensely.
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