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We have a modest but nice 2/2 pool home in an older neighborhood. We've lived here over 20 years. I retired earlier this year and we hired lawn and pool services, turned up the thermostat, suspended the FiOS, locked the doors, and went on a 5 month long RV trip to escape the summer heat. We liked that. A lot.
So, after the first of the year we are taking off again with the intention of staying gone longer, hopefully a lot longer. The vexing question is what to do with our house. We aren't ready to sell and we're pretty sure we don't want to turn it into a vacation rental. We've thought long and hard about leasing it as a furnished home, but we also don't want to give it up as our domicile address or lose our homestead tax exemption.
One thought I've had is to advertise it as a "Room for Rent" home. Close up our bedroom and rent out the other one. We wouldn't do anything to depersonalize the rest of the house, but the tenant would have full exclusive access because we won't be here most of the time.
So far, so good, but the devil is in the details. We would want to make sure we have the right to be here when we want to be, just as if we were renting that room while we lived here. If we come home for whatever reason we would want to use the house's laundry and bathroom facilities, even while we would probably prefer to sleep in our RV (there is a pad on the side of the house with hookups where we park it).
Going even farther into left field, we would want our tenant to keep an eye on our mail and be willing to communicate and perhaps send anything important on to us. We also want someone to start the car we leave behind occasionally and do odd bits of landscaping that the lawn service won't do. We would keep the utilities in our name and split electricity & water costs when we're parked at the house.
In exchange for that we would be willing to give a hefty discount over what this house would rent for otherwise. It's a nice house with a great pool and a very private back yard. I'm pretty sure we could find interested potential tenants. It would be great if we could do it without giving up 15% to a property management agency.
Anyone ever done or heard of anything like this? Opinions?
You'll be back here in 6 months or a year whining about all the damage, loss of rent, how to get the tenant out, the cost of getting temporary lodging, can't afford a lawyer. Sob, sob, sob.
There is way too much risk. Tenant's will promise you anything to get a nice place and then tear it to shreds.
I've read the same sad story thousands of times. Your chances of being successful at it are about the same as catching a unicorn.
You have an RV. Good. If you're going to rent out the house, do it on a year's lease, unfurnished, with a well recommended property manager, and park your RV in an RV park when you aren't on the road.
We have a modest but nice 2/2 pool home in an older neighborhood. We've lived here over 20 years. I retired earlier this year and we hired lawn and pool services, turned up the thermostat, suspended the FiOS, locked the doors, and went on a 5 month long RV trip to escape the summer heat. We liked that. A lot.
So, after the first of the year we are taking off again with the intention of staying gone longer, hopefully a lot longer. The vexing question is what to do with our house. We aren't ready to sell and we're pretty sure we don't want to turn it into a vacation rental. We've thought long and hard about leasing it as a furnished home, but we also don't want to give it up as our domicile address or lose our homestead tax exemption.
One thought I've had is to advertise it as a "Room for Rent" home. Close up our bedroom and rent out the other one. We wouldn't do anything to depersonalize the rest of the house, but the tenant would have full exclusive access because we won't be here most of the time.
So far, so good, but the devil is in the details. We would want to make sure we have the right to be here when we want to be, just as if we were renting that room while we lived here. If we come home for whatever reason we would want to use the house's laundry and bathroom facilities, even while we would probably prefer to sleep in our RV (there is a pad on the side of the house with hookups where we park it).
Going even farther into left field, we would want our tenant to keep an eye on our mail and be willing to communicate and perhaps send anything important on to us. We also want someone to start the car we leave behind occasionally and do odd bits of landscaping that the lawn service won't do. We would keep the utilities in our name and split electricity & water costs when we're parked at the house.
In exchange for that we would be willing to give a hefty discount over what this house would rent for otherwise. It's a nice house with a great pool and a very private back yard. I'm pretty sure we could find interested potential tenants. It would be great if we could do it without giving up 15% to a property management agency.
Anyone ever done or heard of anything like this? Opinions?
Post this question in the Retirement subforum. I'll bet you'll hear a LOT of stories from members who've had the same idea!
Basically you want a multi-service housesitter but want them to pay you for the privilege to offset part of your travel costs.
Basically you want a multi-service housesitter but want them to pay you for the privilege to offset part of your travel costs.
We have hired house sitters before. House sitters don't use your address as their own, tenants do.
Still, if it's a better idea to not suggest that at all and find other means, I can do that. The "services" part would be nice, but not vital. It's true that I'm trying to monetize the house, that's the main goal.
Last edited by heySkippy; 10-27-2020 at 02:44 PM..
You would need to advertise more for a roommate. And interview a few and hope to get lucky for the right one. Sounds great if you can find a professional retired single person.
If they are a room mate the will be happy you are gone most of the time.
If they are a regular tenant. They will be unhappy when you do come home and look at it as an invasion of their privacy.
No matter how much you explained beforehand and they agreed to.
You want a house sitter who will pay you instead of you paying them. Good luck with that.
People who rent rooms are the very dregs of the tenant pool. They rent rooms because they can't afford anything bigger, often times because they have personal issues like laziness, dishonesty, or spending too much money on booze or drugs.
You might be able to do an executive rental. Short term for corporate executives, but you can't expect them to take care of your mail or your car and don't expect them to allow you in to shower and do your laundry
Myself, I think it is unrealistic to expect all of your personal belongings to still be there and undamaged. So if you rent your house, remove all items that are fragile or that have any value.
You might be able to get a roommate, but that would be full time, not just for a few months and you would have to be darn careful how you screen because there can be serious issues with roommates. I don't think a roommate in one's personal home is a good idea unless there is some sort of financial desperation that leaves no other choice.
People who rent rooms are the very dregs of the tenant pool. They rent rooms because they can't afford anything bigger, often times because they have personal issues like laziness, dishonesty, or spending too much money on booze or drugs.
Any way to get a tenant for a room rental who doesn't meet this criteria?
Any way to get a tenant for a room rental who doesn't meet this criteria?
Sure, there are good and honest people in every economic strata. It would take some really intense screening to end up with a good roomer. As the years go by, the pool of good and honest hard working poor is getting smaller and the pool of entitled grows larger. I know several landlords who run rooming houses and they aren't getting any premium tenants.
It looks suspiciously like the OP has little or no experience with being a landlord, which would be a severe handicap when trying to pick a tenant to let loose in OP's permanent home with all of OP's personal belongings. Including a car with car keys, for Pete's sake.
The appropriate cliche for this plan would be "the mind boggles"
The quiet, studious daughter or granddaughter of a good friend might work - if such a person exists today.
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