Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
I have a few single family homes in the greater Seattle area and am looking at buying another house. It's a large house and has a MIL apartment with separate laundry, entrance, kitchen, and bathroom. It is a studio but setup to be able to convert a section into a bedroom.
I like the house because it is close to Seattle for commuting (though I currently work mostly from home, but planning ahead) and is about a half a million. The house itself is nice, and in an upscale neighborhood with no HOA (hooray!).
Anyways, is it a bad idea to have a MIL apartment rental? One thing I've considered is that if I move out of the main house and convert it into a rental as well, the utilities will not be metered. Perhaps I could give them a $100 discount per month to cover the MIL utilities or something?
Or perhaps I would be better off buying two properties with the money, each worth about 250K? The MIL apartment situation allows me to switch to living in the MIL if I want and slow down a bit if I wanted, while renting out the top two floors (the main house).
Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
10y
Is the MIL on one level with no stairs? There is a huge market for property with a place to keep an aging parent nearby as their health fails. So if it is handicap accessible, that is a huge plus. The going baby boomers are going to change housing needs in the coming decades.
As far as separate metering, that isn't a huge deal. Many would tell you to get it separated, but we have a property in that situation for e water/sewer. We charge each party market utilities as part of their rent, and monitor the actual. If they were consistently over market we wold give them a warning and tips on how to conserve, then eventually raise rent.