Room by room renting. Advice to prevent later headaches.

Room by room renting. Advice to prevent later headaches.

northglenn colorado · Member since 2022 · 2 posts · 0 votes

Hello everyone. I'm closing on a home in Northglenn Colorado mid August and planning to do a room by room rental in the basement area. First time home owner and this will be my first time ever renting to anyone. The home is bi-level. I will be living on the top floor and renting 1 room and building a extra room in the basement for a total of 2 rooms in the basement. Their is already a full bath. The stairwell to the basement im going to put a door and lock it on my side and have the tenants enter through the backside of the house near the garage because a door is already their that enters into the basement. Planning to do 30 day rental agreements just in case I get a bad tenant. I plan to start by charging $1000 a bedroom. Im not sure if I should furnish the rooms. I don't think it makes a difference. Background checks and credit history will be taken into account before renting. 1 month deposit will be required. Cameras will be setup in the hallway and entrance of the basement. Also planning to add a camera on my upper level just in case someone tries to come into my level.

I have a bunch of questions. What do I need to do on my side to make sure everything I'm doing is legal. I'm aware the occupancy limit for Northglenn is 4 unrelated people. I have two windows in the basement area that are egress for fire emergency one is in a room and another will be where I'm planning to add another room. I'm going to add a small kitchen on a wall that already has a bathroom. Sink counter tops and a convection oven with a fridge no stove. Laundry is in the basement I will have a policy on what days people can use including for myself. I don't plan on providing internet just because of the nightmare stories I have read. Anything I should be aware of or plan ahead of? Thank you.

0Reply
9 views

3 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • northglenn colorado · Member since 2022 · 2 posts · 0 votes
    4y

    Would still love any advice for someone who has walked down this road before or is very familiar with room rentals.

  • Michele FischerPro Member
    Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    4y

    Hi Bryce.

    My only experience with room rentals is when we rented a spare room within our main living area to interns of my employer.

    What is your target market?  Travelling nurses/temp workers?  Students?  Those straight out of their parents house?  Low income?  Immigrants?  In most of those cases providing a bed and maybe a desk might be a good move.  It also may be wise to get your toes wet with short term rental/AirBnb than tenants.  I'm sure this set up would appeal to some, but think it would appeal to most as a shorter term arrangement.

    Sounds like you have thoughts of egress, make sure the windows legally comply.  And if you go the tenant route get comfortable with the tenant-landlord laws for your city and state.

  • David MackinBusiness Member
    Lender · Westminster, CO · Member since 2021 · 92 posts · 86 votes
    4y

    @Bryce Pryor I would definitely connect with a lawyer to make sure you fully comply with laws in your area. I considered doing room to room rental in my property. I decided against it for may of the reasons you stated above. I crunched numbers and found that I would cash flow enough doing LTR. The extra money for single room wasn't worth the headache.

    That being said, I no longer live in the property. I was lucky enough to have buddies rent out the other rooms when I was House-Hacking.

    Like @Michele Fischer said above, checking out STR or Traveling Nurses (Mid Term) might be a good option to get the hang of things before dealing with a longer commitment.

    Regardless, congratulations on the home! Whatever you decide to do, I hope it goes well and you find yourself in a great position!

    If you would like some help finding connections, feel free to reach out.

    Cheers!

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.