rent out a spare room in your house/apt ?

[iowaguy]

Has anyone rented out a spare room in your house/apt?  I'm considering doing so during grad school as a way to make some extra spending money...

 

Any tips or cautionary tales?  Specifics to put into a lease?  Thanks in advance!

[VBD]

If you are currently renting an apartment and want to sublet/rent out a spare room: You should make sure that your current lease allows this. I've seen some poor students get evicted for not reading their apt's lease well. Also if you are currently living while with a subletter, I would heavily consider renter's insurance.

If you do this, you definitely need to set some ground rules (maybe even put it in the lease). ie. What you will do if they are late on payment, WHO the payment should be to (to you or the landlord?), pet issues, building rules, the usual.

If you are going to rent out a room in a house: Some landlords have to abide by rules like lead paint issues, so make sure you follow any similar rules in your municipality.  Otherwise, the whole thing is rather simple, especially if you are in a college town, this helps with monthly costs. I know of grad students who have successfully bought a house and rented out extra rooms which helped pay the mortgage. One thing that you have to establish if you own a house (my personal experience because I was a renter of someone who did this for his house) is what to do if something goes wrong in the house. My worst story is that the landlord had an A/C unit that only cooled his room, and when it broke, he wanted all us renters to chip in. We thought it was unfair and fought so we didn't have to pay for something that we couldn't even use. I think he was upset since it ate into his savings. So be prepared to spend some money as landlord/supervisor.  Also with owning a house, you'll have to deal with chores, because it's a lot more to do, esp as the owner. Us renters agreed to divide everything in a chore cycle (ie. This week I do chore A, next week, I do chore . Also you need to make sure that if you resell the house post degree it's in a good situation/neighborhood so you don't lose money over this. Another tale: while I was in this rented house, there was an issue that an international student wanted a room, and got it, but when it came time to move in, there was another guy (who I suspect was there illegally). They couldn't do this with a management company in an apartment complex, so they did this plan to a guy with a few rooms to spare. I doubt this will happen to you, but it's the only cautionary tale I can remember for now. 

(There are probably more issues, so this is not a comprehensive list by far)

As for sites, craigslist is the go to, but I've heard positive things from AirBnB, since the site "verifies" people. If your school has a forum/apt/house listing site, definitely use that. Also there maybe neighborhood emailing lists you can get on, and independent advertising in the school library, etc. Good luck in whatever you decide to do. 

[ak48]

My worst story is that the landlord had an A/C unit that only cooled his room, and when it broke, he wanted all us renters to chip in. We thought it was unfair and fought so we didn't have to pay for something that we couldn't even use.

 

That he even had the gall to ask for this is amazing. Sounds like a terrible person, not to mention landlord.

 

Good advice though on subletting. Check the lease! Make sure the landlord is okay with it, and have clearly defined plans written down with signatures to implement when rents aren't being paid.

[juilletmercredi]

I have, but it was to cover the rent and not make spare money.  In NYC, that's illegal anyway - if you are renting and you sublet, you can only charge your sublessor the cost of the rent.  I originally went into an apartment lease together with another roommate in an MPH program, but she moved out of her room after she finished and I wanted to stay.  I found two students to cover the interim time (one for the academic year, and one for the summer) before I ended up moving out myself to live with my husband.  My landlord was okay with that.

 

I used Craigslist, honestly, but I would be careful with that.  I got the initial contact through CL and then contacted renters individually via email, and then via phone.  Only after I had verified them did I tell them the actual location of my apartment, and I met them to show them around.

 

I used a sample sublease agreement that I found online and just altered it to my liking.  One of the major things I added to the lease is that a security deposit cannot be used as last month's rent; I made it that way to protect myself in case my roommates caused significant damage that I needed to repair before I moved out.  I also did specify the fee for late payments; it was equal to the fee in the lease.  You also want to specify how you will split utilities payments.  We split ours 50/50 regardless but some may want to split them proportionate to use (in my area, the biggest difference would be electricity during the summer months if the roommate has an A/C unit and you don't.)

 

I also specified that the tenant was also liable for all of the stipulations under my original lease (wrt to pets and noise and all that) and arranged to provide them a copy of the original lease at their request.  No one did, probably because I took the basic rules from the lease and put it into the sublease.

[ELM616]

Keep it simple. Talk to your landlord and ask if they can be added to the lease. That way they can't just bail or trash your house. When you post your ad on craigslist just note that anyone interested will need to apply, get approved, and be added to the lease. The two of you may even need to sign a whole new lease together, which you may or may not want to do, but at least you'll be legally protected.

[michigan girl]

You can also supplement a roommate agreement to the lease. Make sure both parties add their signature stating that they agreed to X amount of rent and conditions. The bottom line is have EVERYTHING in writing so that if an altercation occurs you have supporting evidence in small claims court.