Do you rent a room out in your house for extra income?

[beadmama]

Dh and I have been kicking around the idea of renting out a downstairs bedroom. They would have there own bathroom and living room for the most part as we will still have to use the front door. I don't know about the kitchen as they would have to come upstairs into our main living area to use it. They could just use a hotplate and microwave and we could put a mini fridge down there for them.
We figure we could get $450 to $500 for it. So any ideas or personal experience from either perspective would be great. It is hard because we would be allowing a stranger into our home and that is a little scary.

[lifeguard]

We did rent out a room for a few years. In our case it was a downstairs room & half bath. We shared the rest of the house but really most of the time they kept to themselves.

For the kitchen we allocated one shelf of the fridge & one cupboard to our renter & that worked quite well. We also had a clean up after yourself rule.

We actually only rented to friends (we were in our early 20's when a lot of friends were at an age to rent rooms instead of whole apartments/houses) but in some ways I think that was harder then a stranger would have been. So much more complicated when problems came up to deal with & not ruin the friendship.

[Paxjourney]

If you do this please do a background check. You will be home at times alone with a stranger in your home with your children. Have clear boundaries set and expectations for shared living spaces. Times of use. Etc.

[sbrinton]

We do this. Overall it has worked really well.

When we built our house, we set up the basement to work as an almost-separate apartment. There is a small kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom, and plenty of storage. The space totals just over 800 square feet and we've made it very nice. We rent it for $900 a month. This is a great deal for our renter and for us, as the space is much nicer than the "average" 1 bedroom apartment in our city which rents for about $1000 a month.

The renter basically has her own living space, although she does enter and exit through our garage and front door. We also share the laundry room (we get weekdays, she takes weekends).

As the space is not legally a separate apartment, the renter is legally our "roommate" and from the beginning, we set out to find someone who wanted to live in community. This means we share a meal or a loaf of freshly baked bread here or there, share movies and books from time to time, look out for each other, etc.

For legal assitance, we joined our local Rental Property Owners association. For about $50 a year, this gives us access to all of the forms we need. We do a full lease and put together addendums that spell out everything - and I mean everything. This provides legal protection for us and for her and makes the expectations very clear around everything from noise to company to finances.

We also made it a priority to find someone who we felt comfortable living with. Our renter attends our church, is great with our kids, is honest and responsible, etc. She's actually a wonderful homebirth midwife who hopefully will deliver our baby in a few months!!

[mtm]

maybe an international student? For a longer term renter I would want a separate kitchen and entrance for my own privacy.

[grniys]

My DH and I are in complete agreement we'll never let anyone (other than our kids!) live with us. Ever. For pretty much any reason.

We let a friend of mine move in for a short time and it was awful. It actually ruined the friendship.

Your situation may be a bit more doable since they'd be downstairs and such. No matter what, I would never go into it without checking out the full legalities of it and making sure everything is in writing!

Keep in mind once they become your tenant if they stop paying rent it can take you months to legally get them out of your home- you'd have to go to court to have them removed. It varies from state to state, but I would think it over carefully.

[heatherweh]

My mom lives in the basement, which is essentially set up like an efficiency apartment. We include utilities and cell-phone for her since we put her on our family plan and she can use our food and stuff, but we're working on setting boundaries a bit more. It is at once very nice and very annoying if that makes sense.

[missmich]

I've had some terrible,terrible roommates in the past and for years! I was young and didn't know how to screen them very well. I vowed never to have one again until I got into debt and decided to move to a cheaper are and get a roommate. The woman I moved in with was great and changed my mind about roommates! The next place I found I started to think about roommates.

I made sure I could afford the rent myself and was the only one the lease. I had 3 short term international students stay with me (at different times) They paid on time and were clean,though the one girl had never cleaned before in her life and got angry when I asked her to clean the bathroom and taught her how it should be done.


When I was looking for a roommate for my new place I used craigslist and kijiji and was very clear about the kind of girl I wanted to share my home with. NO overnight guests from the bar and NO parties or drugs of any kind. Then I gave a good description of myself ,my lifestyle and my home. I wasn't able to meet my roommate before she arrived,but it's been over a month now and she's great!

We didn't sign anything and maybe we should have. We do have a verbal agreement about when the rent should be paid and what it is and that we both provide household items when needed taking turns and that chores should be divided on a schedule. We never do that part though,but neither of us feels the other does to much or to little.

She's a student doing her work experience here and is super busy so she's in her room often and away every other weekend.

It's important that things are very clear about the space the roommate can and can't go into and the chores and when the rent is due and what to do when they or you want them to move out. I ask that I'm given 30 days notice at the end of the month. I also ask that they stay for at least 1 school semester since it will be easier to find a new roommate when they leave.