Everyone wants to make some cash and there’s no doubt that renting out a room is a great way to accomplish that. It’s not entirely easy money and does come with some work. Most folks may already have an idea, but I wanted to share my first hand experience as what the work will entail. [...]
Last week, I received the following question from a reader: I am considering renting a room out in my home. I was creating a list of “rules”… and wanted to ask you if it was okay to ask that the tenant not bring any guests to the house. I’m a single woman and prefer not [...]
We have a fear that renting out a room will almost guarantee a trashed house. After several years of renting out rooms, I can tell you first hand that you house will not get trashed. However, it will certainly exhibit more wear and tear faster than if you were living by yourself. Stuff breaks around [...]
If I handed you my rental agreement, would you read it from top to bottom? Probably not. Neither will one of my potential roommates. So with that said, how do I ensure rules are adhered to? Do I go over each rule in person with them? Not really. That’s not my top priority. My priority [...]
The past few weeks I’ve been on the search for a new roommate because one of my roommates moved out today. I posted the room on my go to sources – Craigslist and roommates.com. Craigslist is probably by far the most popular way to advertise, but it’s not without its faults. Craigslist is prone to [...]
I receive e-mails everyday from folks about questions to renting out rooms. Questions range from what to do in a given circumstance or how should I go about doing such and such. These are all good questions and I respond to each and every one of them. I want to share one e-mail I received [...]
I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I wanted to share a story I stumbled upon about a fellow who rented out his entire home via Airbnb. It’s not the same situation as being a “live-in landlord.” When you rent out your entire home, you relinquish control because you’re not there to oversee what goes [...]
Saturday around noon I received a call that scared me a bit. The person at the other end of the line introduced himself as Investigative Service Personnel for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). At this point, I thought I was in trouble! Just the sound of Investigative Services sounds terrifying. But alas, it [...]
So I survived the apocalyptic storm called Sandy uneventfully as I did with Hurricane Irene last year. My residence fared well through the storm: floods were nonexistent as were fallen tree limbs. As you are aware from news reports, folks near NYC and in NJ are without power and left in the cold night. I [...]
I'm Mike, I rent out my spare rooms in my house to roommates. So far, the rental income has :
