House hacking, best way to get roommate/ tenants?
My coworker bought a 3br/3ba house in Las Vegas, and will be living in the Master. Besides FB market place, are there any good Roommate or Tennant platforms to check for and screen potential people to move in and help house hack his first starter home?
In all of my experience, I have just used Craiglist and Facebook. But it really depends on the market to determine how good the marketplace is really going to be.
There are a couple of other platforms that I haven't used, Roomster and Roomies.com to help find roommates/tenants by creating a profile and matching preferences. Those generally have the best reviews from people. For screening, if you were looking to get serious and do background checks, Transunion and Experian offer a landlord package. It would work if you were executing a lease. For roommates, I never did the full background, maybe I should have! You could also just do some old-fashioned google exploring, and social media searching too. Last but not least, ALWAYS interview and ask for references.
Besides the other options, word of mouth is strong. There are always people looking for a room.
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I have had a ton of luck with apartments.com (they bought Cozy). I list my rooms for rent here and then they put the listing on several of their affiliate sites. I get a couple interested leads a day.
Apartments.com is also where I have tenants fill out a background and credit check, set up automated rent payments, and upload renter's insurance. It's pretty sweet and free for me.
I also have some nice auto messages I use to do the initial "screen" to save my time from the tire kickers and the "is it still available" annoyers.
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Real Estate Agent Colorado (#100092341)
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I'm rent-by-room investing, and I'd definately recommend publishing your listing to many places to increase your exposure to potential tenants.
We have had success posting to:
- FB Marketplace
- FB Groups
- Zillow
- Roomies.com
- Roomiapp.com
- Roomster.com (paid)
Quote from @Ryan Thomson:
I have had a ton of luck with apartments.com (they bought Cozy). I list my rooms for rent here and then they put the listing on several of their affiliate sites. I get a couple interested leads a day.
Apartments.com is also where I have tenants fill out a background and credit check, set up automated rent payments, and upload renter's insurance. It's pretty sweet and free for me.
I also have some nice auto messages I use to do the initial "screen" to save my time from the tire kickers and the "is it still available" annoyers.
How are you posting on apartments.com for the house hack? I've tried and get denied.
Quote from @Frank Shearer:I think it depends on who you’re trying to target as well! If you’re looking long term, I would say Roomies and Apartment.com are great options. If you’re wanting to focus on Midterm, I’d say furnishedfinders.com is great.
My coworker bought a 3br/3ba house in Las Vegas, and will be living in the Master. Besides FB market place, are there any good Roommate or Tennant platforms to check for and screen potential people to move in and help house hack his first starter home?
Word of mouth is very safe. Always treat them the same as any other prospect in terms of screening. But I get quite a few prospects my way from local young adult ministries and from past clients that know I have rentals.
Hope that helps!
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Real Estate Agent Oregon (#201244569)
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Quote from @Nicholas D'Andrea:
Quote from @Ryan Thomson:
I have had a ton of luck with apartments.com (they bought Cozy). I list my rooms for rent here and then they put the listing on several of their affiliate sites. I get a couple interested leads a day.
Apartments.com is also where I have tenants fill out a background and credit check, set up automated rent payments, and upload renter's insurance. It's pretty sweet and free for me.
I also have some nice auto messages I use to do the initial "screen" to save my time from the tire kickers and the "is it still available" annoyers.
How are you posting on apartments.com for the house hack? I've tried and get denied.
Hmmmm. I'm not doing anything special that I know of. I create a property. Then I create 4 bedrooms for that property. Then I create an opening for that bedroom and apartments.com pushes it to all of its affiliate sites.
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Real Estate Agent Colorado (#100092341)
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Quote from @Ryan Thomson:
Quote from @Nicholas D'Andrea:
Quote from @Ryan Thomson:
I have had a ton of luck with apartments.com (they bought Cozy). I list my rooms for rent here and then they put the listing on several of their affiliate sites. I get a couple interested leads a day.
Apartments.com is also where I have tenants fill out a background and credit check, set up automated rent payments, and upload renter's insurance. It's pretty sweet and free for me.
I also have some nice auto messages I use to do the initial "screen" to save my time from the tire kickers and the "is it still available" annoyers.
How are you posting on apartments.com for the house hack? I've tried and get denied.
Hmmmm. I'm not doing anything special that I know of. I create a property. Then I create 4 bedrooms for that property. Then I create an opening for that bedroom and apartments.com pushes it to all of its affiliate sites.
FYI - Just got off the phone w/ apartments.com and they no longer allow rent by the room.
@Ryan Thomson. I used to post with Cozy then Apt.com. However, they started flagging my posts for words such as roommates. I spoke to a rep who told me they no longer offer per room rentals. Has this changed?
I'm going to throw out another option. Airbnb rent by the room is always an option. You would need to furnish it, of course, and there's the cleaning between tenants and potential vacancies. But it gives you more flexibility as a landlord and potential for higher cash flow. If you're thinking "who would want a spare bedroom in a home with other people" you never know. Don't let that hold you back from trying.
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Quote from @Wendy S.:
@Ryan Thomson. I used to post with Cozy then Apt.com. However, they started flagging my posts for words such as roommates. I spoke to a rep who told me they no longer offer per room rentals. Has this changed?
Good to know! Maybe I'm grandfathered in? I haven't had to find a new tenant in a couple months so that could also have changed. Bummer!
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Real Estate Agent Colorado (#100092341)
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Correct on apartments.com only allows full houses.
Although their algorithm for catching those is buggy, so you might be able to sneak some rooms in (I did by accident).
I use tenant cloud for my listings (free), then advertise on the sites already mentioned up top.
Thanks,
Question does anyone let a couple rent a room or just one person per room? Thanks for the feed back.
I do one person because multiple people most likely combine their income to pay rent.
If anything happens to the relationship, there goes your due diligence on income.
In addition to other relationship issues that may affect the environment in the home.
Quote from @Didier Bizimungu:
I do one person because multiple people most likely combine their income to pay rent.
If anything happens to the relationship, there goes your due diligence on income.
In addition to other relationship issues that may affect the environment in the home.
I agree. That’s the same for single family etc. I was asking more for the applicants I’m receiving are couples. And I didn’t know if other investors are turning them away or renting to them.