Legally renting to 4 or 5 unrelated students?

[Megan Greathouse]

I'm about to put an offer on a single-family property less than a half mile from Washington University in St. Louis. It's a nice, 5 bed/2 bath house that would be ideal to rent to students. However, St. Louis City, like many cities, states that "No more that three unrelated persons may live in the same dwelling." Based on my research on the university room rates and other area rents, I can't be competitive in rent/student and still cash flow unless I have four students in the property.

I've read that some cities allow you to request an exception to be considered a roominghouse, so I'm looking into that. I've also reached out to the real estate attorney I've been working with to get his thoughts.

In the meantime, has anyone else faced a similar situation and have some ideas or more insight for me? Thanks!

[Megan Greathouse]

Thanks for the thoughts! @Perron Riley, the idea of creating separate studio spaces is definitely interesting!

After making this post, I called the zoning department for St. Louis City and learned more about the process of having a single-family rezoned as a roominghouse. I'm sure it's different everywhere, but just in case either of you are interested, here's what it looks like here:

- First step is to visit City Hall to get the directions for the process and a map of homes where you must ask current residents in the neighborhood to sign a petition to support your request to rezone the property as a roominghouse.

- Once you've collected the signatures, they recommend that you meet with the alderman to ensure you'll have support from them in your rezoning request. Without their support, it's unlikely that you'll get the rezoning request accepted, so it's not really worth taking follow-on steps where you start to incur costs.

- If you get enough signatures and have support from your alderman, the next step is to apply for rezoning, which comes with a fee of about $400.

- Following your rezoning request will be an occupancy inspection, which usually costs $80 - $160, depending on the size of the home.

- Once the occupancy inspection is complete, the rezoning request is submitted to the zoning office, which will deny the request and send you to a hearing.

- The hearing costs about $200, and is where your petition, rezoning request, and alderman support should hopefully come together to help you get the rezoning approved.

So, the process can cost nearly $800 and probably takes a good month or two, at least. However, could be worth it if you have a good case and a great opportunity close to a respected university. Hope that's helpful!