Does anyone have experience renting out rooms in their home?

[ExcuseMyIgnorance]

I'm a young guy. No kids and not married. But I've been thinking of buying a house as a long-term investment. I'm liking the idea of renting out room I don't use to college students/young professionals. My concern is that I'll be inviting nightmarish situations. Has anyone ever done this before? Are the weirdos usually weeded out with a good in-person interview? What arrangements work best? One flat rate/split all bills/share food/don't share food??

[kork13]

I've done it twice before I was married. I preferred to just do a flat rate for room & board. It was just simpler, and I didn't have to worry about getting bent out of shape if/when he were to finish off the milk or loaf of bread -- I could tell myself that it was all part of the rent he was paying. The trick there is estimating all of those increased costs (namely of increased food/utility costs) at a reasonable level. In my case, in addition to the $300 I charged for the room itself, I added $75 for increased food costs, and $25 for increased utilities costs. Given, both individuals were friends from church, so I trusted them, and I was willing to make the rent intentionally a little lower than what I could have gotten.

[riverwed070707]

We rent our basement. Its about 900 sq ft with 2 bedrooms and a dry kitchen and full bath. Since they have a kitchen we don't share food but we do include all utilities, including internet. It brings in $750/mo, which is more than enough to cover our entire mortgage. Cost for us is about $50 more per month in utilities and occasionally we go over our internet data, which is $10-20 in overages.

We started renting it to my brother. When he moved out, we put an ad on craisglist and ended up with a couple out of state contractors from a nearby construction project. Worked out well because they worked long days and went home to their families on the weekends. This last time, it ended up being friends of ours so that worked out fine too. I was worried we'd feel like we had to hang out all the time and it would be like having company every day of the week but they mostly kept to themselves. It was a little weird to share our space at first cause we are married and we do have a kid but its too easy to make money not to do it. Doesn't bother me now - we've been renting it about 3 years.

[ronb]

We rent our basement. Its about 900 sq ft with 2 bedrooms and a dry kitchen and full bath. Since they have a kitchen we don't share food but we do include all utilities, including internet. It brings in $750/mo, which is more than enough to cover our entire mortgage. Cost for us is about $50 more per month in utilities and occasionally we go over our internet data, which is $10-20 in overages.

We started renting it to my brother. When he moved out, we put an ad on craisglist and ended up with a couple out of state contractors from a nearby construction project. Worked out well because they worked long days and went home to their families on the weekends. This last time, it ended up being friends of ours so that worked out fine too. I was worried we'd feel like we had to hang out all the time and it would be like having company every day of the week but they mostly kept to themselves. It was a little weird to share our space at first cause we are married and we do have a kid but its too easy to make money not to do it. Doesn't bother me now - we've been renting it about 3 years.

What an awesome situation you've carved out for yourself. I need to do something like this. Craigslist rocks

[sandrark]

Yes, we rented out a room in our house for years. My methods:

- Clear, simple ad - Wanted a room mate to share decent house, cats in residence, no smoking. Reasonable rent.

- WRITTEN RENTAL AGREEMENT. It is your protection for when things go wrong! You can find samples on the 'net.

- In person interviews. Not alone, if you're a woman - I had a couple of weird experiences that could have been tragic.

- First, last and deposit. No exceptions. If they can start paying you last, they will. The minute they don't pay rent when due, they get told to move. Some people clearly thought "You have a house, you're rich, I'm poor, don't be so greedy." We are not a bank.

- Did not share food. That led to too many instances when I was the person who had to shop, and I had plenty of other commitments. Buy your own d*mn food, you're a grownup.

- Did not have communal meal schedules. We shared dinners sometimes spontaneously, but not "house dinner every Sunday" kid of thing. If I wanted a commune, I'd have joined one.

It worked well. We're still friends with several of them. And we had years of income that helped fund our IRAs when we were in our 20's and early 30's.

[ExcuseMyIgnorance]

- Did not have communal meal schedules. We shared dinners sometimes spontaneously, but not "house dinner every Sunday" kid of thing. If I wanted a commune, I'd have joined one.

BAHAHAHAHAHA Sounds like it worked out pretty well for you.

I stayed with a great aunt once. What a miserable experience. She took calls at the table and wouldn't speak during meals but she always wanted everyone to sit down EVERY NIGHT for an hour and eat. It was like, "Sorry lady, I have a life." That was harsh but so was taking 1 HOUR of my day.