Renting to a Sober Living Business

[Erin Luedeke]

I have an extremely large duplex, each side 5 bed, 2 bath. A sober living business owner has approached me to rent half of the building. I think it would only make sense if they ended up renting both sides. I’m concerned about so many people coming and going disturbing the other half of the building. This is in a newly hot area with lots of revitalization. It seems like a very stable idea to rent to a potentially long term business, but I’m not sure how the community will react. Any advice?

[John Warren]

@Erin Luedeke whenever I have any type of subsidized program or community program like this approach me, I always think through how hard it is to get a regular, market rate tenant. If I can easily get market rate tenants, then I will almost always go with that. I am approached quite a bit by programs like this here in the Chicago area, and I still haven't ever worked with one. The main thing these types of situations buy you is consistent rental income, but if you can already get that with a less risky tenant... why bother?