Poll of the Day > Thinking about reverse renting a room.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I have a big house, but it's expensive. I blew all our savings on medical bills when my wife was sick, and I'm only planning on substitute teaching this next year.

Meanwhile, just to live in my house costs $380 for HoA fees, $500 a month (6k a year) for taxes, $350 (1/2 of 700) for the mortgage (only $125k left on it), $1000 a month to the other owner (Friend, we were all going to live here), and $300-$400 in utilities/cable/internet.

Net total spent per month is $2600-$2700.

Pretty crazy amount considering I use 1 room (my bedroom) the bathroom attached and the kitchen and that is about it.

I rented out the downstairs before for $1000 a month + 1/2 utilities, but that didn't work out, and I was still paying about $1500 a month.

Now I live in Olympia WA where you can rent rooms (including cable/internet/utilities for $400-$500 and you can rent a 2 bedroom apartment for $900 a month. Sadly, I can not rent out my whole house because the HoA requires it to be owner occupied.

That leaves selling it, or...what I am thinking about trying to do, reverse renting a room in it *lol*

Basically I'd move all my stuff downstairs and live in the second (Very large) living room down there. It has a small mini-kitchen attached and it's own bathroom. There is a bedroom down there, but I would not need it, and would rent that along with the rest of the house.

That would be 4 bedrooms (or 3 bedrooms and an office) 2 bathrooms, large living room with gas fireplace + view of pugent sound (amazing at night), large kitchen, large pantry (huge really), dining room, and a laundry room (would share that though...but it's also large...lots of storage space in there, cabinates (more then most kitchens) another sink etc...none of which I would need.

Whole place used to rent for $2000, but that was quite awhile ago and probably could be rented for more, so I'm thinking of trying to rent it out like that, for $1800...which would mean I would only be paying about $500-600 a month (About what I would pay for a small 1 bedroom or renting a room in someone elses home.

That makes far more sense when I'll be making maybe $2000 or so a month as a substitute teacher. What do you all think?
---

Oh, when I was looking for renters, I got another idea.

I may just run an Air BnB:)

I can still work while doing it probably (especially since sub teaching allows me to turn down classes if I want). I was looking at places in the area, and I could rent the upstairs bedroom/bathroom probably for $40-50 a day, and the downstairs for $80-100 (depending on how I set it up etc.

I have extra TVs already, but would probably set just one downstairs in that living room, and one in the living room upstairs.

That could actually net me more money, and....I will need to look into the legal stuff, but I might be able to make and sell meals as well (I love to cook, imagine getting paid to do so!!). People would freaking come to my house just for my lasagna heh.

Could be a totally great solution!!
---

it's clear that you cannot support yourself, or your house.

move somewhere cheaper.
---

Well, I could, but it doesn't make sense.

I can keep living here by myself, using one room out of the whole thing, and paying 3x as much as renting a place would. I'll be making enough money to do that, but it's a huge waste.

And i'd enjoy running a B&B:)
---

If you can afford to stay and like the house, then stay.

But reading between the lines I'm guessing that you are getting lonely in that big house all by yourself. Time to find a roomie mate.
---

helly posted...

it's clear that you cannot support yourself, or your house.

move somewhere cheaper.

yeah he makes these topics like once a week about how expensive his house is and getting a roommate

i don't get it wolfy.

just post and ad and get a freaking roommate
---

I did, and I had a few people I was considering but....none of them want to rent more then a few rooms and pay more then $1k a month (which makes sense due to the prices around here).

I was seriously considering renting to this guy named mike and his 13 year old son. They are nice and would have made good roomates, but honestly even if I do that, I'll still be shelling out $1700 a month. I could rent a really nice 2 bedroom for half that in this area (and so could mike etc).

Yeah, it wouldn't have this view, but I cover my windows in my bedroom as the light is too bright in the morning anyway. A view is not worth an extra 800-900$ a month to me (and also having to live with someone else).

If I do tha Ab&B though, I actually can choose when people live here (or stop any time I want), and I'm looking into being able to actually prepare/sell meals as well (which would be totally awesome).

It would be like my own little side buisiness outside of teaching, and would let me take care of people without all the responsibility that entails.

So it sounds pretty good over all. It would be an initial investment as I'd need to get more beds and do some work on the place, but it would pay off very fast.

The other option was to move downstairs and rent the whole upstairs, which I am also considering. That would rent for at least $1500, which would make me pay at most $1200 a month in expenses. That is much better, but I'd need to move all my furniture downstairs which would be a huge pain in the neck. It's an option though that I can look into if the AB&B doesn't work out.

That being said, I did research last night and 1 bed/bath rents for around $50 a night, and something like my whole downstairs (and entire apartment with kitchen, laundry services, bathroom, bedroom living room and balcony (With a view of the sound), would rent for at least $100 a night.

Even if I only rented 20 out of every 30 days, that would still net me about $3000 a month which would cover all my expenses and a bit more. If I could prepare and serve meals and charge for them....I could freaking live off just running the place (and I'd love cooking meals for tons of people).

I'm the king at getting food cheap at safeway, and then I can cook up extremely delicious meals for people and make a great profit. My house is nice, but word of mouth would get around about my cooking i'm sure. I'd probably have people lining up just for my lasagna hehe.
---

Yes I've known homeowners that rent out most of their house and live in a separate basement. But it can be tricky finding people to pay to rent a house that want someone else in it
---

Doctor Foxx posted...

Yes I've known homeowners that rent out most of their house and live in a separate basement. But it can be tricky finding people to pay to rent a house that want someone else in it

Yeah, it probably makes sense for me just to sell instead of doing that, unless I find a perfect family or something (or if I had friends that wanted to do it). It could still work, and be easier then selling, but i'm hoping the air b&B will work out instead. Could kinda give me something to build/work on over time, would let me cook, and I could meet lots of new/different people.

Course I'm sure there are horror stories out there as well, so shrug, it's just an option I'm looking into. Anything is better then blowing almost 3k a month and using 3 rooms out of 18.
---

just get an apartment and sell the dang house dude
---

"Reverse renting" isn't a term. You're renting out one of your spare rooms or leasing it.
---