4-bedroom rented to four single parties?

[Heather Schmidtknecht]

I have a 4-bedroom, 1-bath (downstairs unit in a duplex) that I am currently advertising for new tenants. Usually if have a group of four roommates or a family… but on this round of advertising, I have had several individuals inquiring about just renting one of the rooms, and seemingly not caring about who else is living there.

On first thought, it seems there would be a lot of drama with no agreed upon set of rules between the roommates in this sort of situation? On second thought, I might be able to get significantly more total rent in a situation like this.

Anyone have experience yo shed light on pros/cons or anything else I need yo think about?

[Ron Brady]

We've done this in multiple homes.  Here are the pros and cons for us:

Pros:

- Caters to a niche for which there is a steady supply--single, working class workers who do not want to/can't afford their own place

- We fill rooms quickly, leading to low vacancy rates

- Our cash flow is higher in these homes than for whole families

- We have less damage because the housemates keep a check on each other

Cons:

- We have to manage housemate conflict. We reduce this, but not eliminate it, by a) allowing existing roommates to interview new potential ones and share feedback with us and b) holding house meetings whenever we have a new group living together. We review expectations, who will "own" which utility bill, etc.

- There is more housemate turnover

I've also weighed-in on other forum posts as follows:
Rent entire house vs by the room (biggerpockets.com)
How to rent a big SFH by bedroom ( 3-4 tenants in one house) (biggerpockets.com)

Best wishes!