Current Events > Help me decide what to do with my rental unit

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm buying a house here in a month that has an upper and lower unit. Both units are roughly 500 SF. They are made for one person, MAYBE two.

MY plan is to live in the upper unit that has a deck and a bedroom and rent out the lower unit to cover 4/5 of my mortgage. The lower unit is just an efficiency with a bathroom.

Should I:
A) Rent it out
B) Not rent it out. The mortgage is like 525 a month. Realistically i'm not sure how a staircase would be built to connect the two. Maybe some kind of spiral staircase.
C) Rent it out as a by the night apartment since it's within walking distance of three bars. People in this town ALWAYS need a place to cheat on their spouses. 40 bucks get you the apartment for the night with fresh sheets on the bed and shit.

The house is cheap because the cost of living in the area is cheap.

---

don't rent it out people will trash the place also you can't force someone to live there you can put out ads but there might be no buyers

landlords are parasites

---

CharlesBronson posted...

don't rent it out people will trash the place also you can't force someone to live there you can put out ads but there might be no buyers

For sure. I have two friends and POSSIBLY a third who want it. So i'm not too worried about being able to rent it out. If push comes to shove I have no problem making the payment but would rather it be earning me money than sitting there.

AlephZero posted...

landlords are parasites

Shrug. People have to live places. I'm charging a reasonable rate for the area. I rented for many years before finally settling down to buy.

---

Get everything in writing

Make an agreement that is clearly a month to month deal, you do not want to get stuck with toxic tenants

Make a list for each room and when they move in you walk through with the person and write down any and all damages or oddities and have both of you sign it

Theres more but it's too early for me

---

I have a month to month agreement got it from the bank then added extra to it on another sheet. Tenant is living in the basement over a year and it's great. Nobody has trashed the place.

I will say even with soundproofing you're still gonna hear their tv unless you go all out on soundproofing. When my tenant isn't around I have my tv and music usually louder. It's nice making that extra money but I'm looking into buying another house to live in and renting the main level at my current house. I hate living like a mouse to a certain degree.

---

bnui_ransder posted...

Get everything in writing

Make an agreement that is clearly a month to month deal, you do not want to get stuck with toxic tenants

Make a list for each room and when they move in you walk through with the person and write down any and all damages or oddities and have both of you sign it

Theres more but it's too early for me

Yeah this will be my biggest hurdle. I had my real estate license in my state so I know some of the laws but not all of them.

The biggest one I am excited about: I don't have to allow emotional support animals. If the landlord lives in the building and it has 4 or less units they aren't required to follow the Fair Housing ESA guidelines, meaning no ESA.

---

bnui_ransder posted...

you do not want to get stuck with toxic tenants

this. i had to deal with someone blasting music through the walls for over 6 months.
it's the bass (not the actual music itself). turning off the bass would help immensely we have thin walls.
---

You won't have a perfect tenant but if you state in writing no loud music or subwoofer it might help. Not everyone knows the tenant rights. I put that in my agreement cause my 2 young kids are at my house every other week. If there was loud music I'd handle it. I have my ways around the system.

---

M_Live posted...

Whenever I see someone with this take, while I don't disagree that renting inherently fucks over the rentee with ridiculous pricing & rules to follow, I'm not sure what the solution would otherwise be. I rent an apartment because I need a place to live.

For sure. My credit isn't great but I just got tired of paying someone elses mortgage. So unless everyone gets free housing or something there will always be landlords. The place is newly renovated, it isn't a shit apartment.

There are two reasons I am buying this place and they are related. One, I don't need a lot of space. I don't have a lot of stuff and I like to keep to myself. Two, I have someone below me that is paying like 4/5 my mortgage payment.

I'll pay it off somewhat quickly and rent out the top floor if I ever decide to buy a new house or get married and have kids or something, or I can sell it.

I have dreams of someday hiking the whole AT. I can rent out the upper level if need be for 6 months or just bite the bullet and pay my small portion of the mortgage assuming someone is renting the lower level.

I specifically like this building because it's so easy just to move somewhere else and make money of the property if need be.

---