Anyone have experience renting/renting out a room?

[Top Secret]

So, as some of you know I just purchased a house with my girlfriend. Needless to say, going from a 500 sq foot condo to a 1900+ square foot 4 bedroom house is a little... excessive - at least for us. A few people I know (responsible) have shown interest in renting a room from us. To be honest, I wouldn't mind having the extra cash from renting out a room or two. Anyone here have any experience with this? Ever rented a room to someone, or rented from someone? How did it go? Any tips/advice? Thanks.

- Top

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

I haven't personally, but I think one of the major things with my parents doing it was deciding that you don't mind someone eating all of your food. And food is really a big deal when you're sharing with someone. Basically you budget the rent so that it covers most of the cost of their food, and you don't have to worry about making them buy groceries once a month.

It's always going to have stressful moments, but it usually went okay with my family. We've had quite a lot of different people live at our house over the years.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

We just moved but we're keeping the old house and renting it out to some relatives (through marriage). Not sure when they're moving in so I guess I'll let you know if/when the ****shit goes down.

 

[Top Secret]

I haven't personally, but I think one of the major things with my parents doing it was deciding that you don't mind someone eating all of your food. And food is really a big deal when you're sharing with someone. Basically you budget the rent so that it covers most of the cost of their food, and you don't have to worry about making them buy groceries once a month.

It's always going to have stressful moments, but it usually went okay with my family. We've had quite a lot of different people live at our house over the years.

Oh no. They're buying their own god damn food. =) They get full kitchen privileges, minus the fridge. Which they will have one of their own.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

I suppose it's too late but could you consider getting a smaller place?

 

[Krynn72]

I'm renting out one room to a friend of mine and his girlfriend right now. Its a pretty small, 2 bedroom duplex. Having to pay half rent and utilities is awesome, and being a friend of mine, we get a long great. Usually we just keep to ourselves in our own rooms. The only thing I dont really like is sharing a bathroom. They're kinda messy with it.

I can see a stranger being kinda weird though, especially if you don't hit it off right away.

EDIT: As for food, we've never had a problem and we share the fridge and cabinets. No one eats each others food unless they need something and ask for it.

 

[Sulkdodds]

The only experience I have with renting a room is when my mum and my dad used to lease the upper floor of our house to a man named Dell. One of my earlier memories is preparing for his arrival. I went out with my mother to buy new crockery and cutlery for the flat, rifling through the stocks at the Co-Op department store just down the road. That store, one of the last of a kind now almost gone from Britain, was a fixture of my hometown as I remember it; every Christmas they used to put glowing trees up in its windows. That multi-storey edifice, every floor devoted to the mass sale of a different kind of goods, with great rooms full of different kinds of plates or buttons, exercised a tremendous power over my adolescent imagination. I was obsessed by corporate symbols, entranced by the products our late capitalism could offer to the adult world. It was a frequent occupation of my kid self to imagine his future house, to go through catalogues and pick out the most lavish and shiny fridges or televisions to fill it with. It seemed like the most amazing thing in the world.

Anyway, we picked out crockery for Dell and soon he had moved in. He was the first black man I remember seeing, but he wasn't bothered when he heard me ask "mummy, why is that man brown?" A very friendly guy, very cool. He had big dreadlocks and a kind face and always wore a variety of leather jackets. He was a film student at Sussex University and his life was in a pretty awful mess. His finances were in trouble. He was going out every night and taking various drugs, which wasn't helping. He had girlfriends scattered around the town who kept colliding with each other and landing him in the shit. But there was one steady girl who seemed to care for him, or anyway enough to stay with him and keep coming round to the flat.

She was there when he had his epileptic fit. He'd stopped taking his medication some time ago, but had never told her - or anyone, really - that he might at any moment lapse into a spasm of the kind that's usually not very harmful but is always terrifying to other people. I remember staying in the house of a friend in London, who had such a fit while we were there. We were alarmed but not have as scared as Dell's girl, who screamed up and down the stairs and called an ambulance and sobbed as he was taken to hospital. He was okay in the end, but moved out soon afterwards.

Anyway, I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help.

 

[Stigmata]

Work out the food situation and make sure everyone understands the implications of it. I agreed with my roommates to split food bills three ways and share the food, and then one of my roommates decided it was a great idea to buy really expensive deli meats and pre-cooked meals from the grocery store when we were all massively poor. Idiot.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

I rented a room out to a guy last year. Went well, made about $5000 from him. We got on well as he was studying IT so we could have uncomfortable nerd conversations about wireless encryption and java.

Establish your rules straight away
- No smoking
- No pets
- No bringing over noisy friends
- Must clean their dishes.

Make them pay some bond money upfront. If they want to move out they have to give you 1 months notice.

We didn't share food or meals. Buy your own stuff, cook your own stuff.

Well that all went well.