Househacking Single Family Utilities Methods

[Bryan Igboke]

Hello BiggerPockets Family!

I am a new real estate investor in California looking to do my first deal in the next year. My goal is to househack a single family home by finding one with a guest house and living in that while the tenants I rent to stay in the main house. I'm doing this to replace the traditional househack strategy of buying a multifamily home because those are far more expensive and I want to move out of my parents house as quickly as possible. The analysis process has gone smoothly so far, but I hit a snag when it comes to utilities. If I were buying a multifamily I would just make sure every unit was individually metered and be done with it, but with a single family this obviously can't be done. Additionally I am planning on renting by the room to individual people and not one family in order to maximize cashflow. My plan is to sub meter the guest house I stay in so my utilities are all separate from theirs and have them get all utilities that don't place a lien on the home in their name. The utilities that can place a lien on the home will be in my name (just in case they don't pay) and I will simply forward the bill to them to split evenly. I've read many past posts that expose flaws with this method that I am hoping to negate by getting great tenants, but I was hoping someone from the community had a different/better method just in case this does not work. Please let me know what you think!