Rent by the Room Pricing Strategy..?

Question

Hi friends! Considering a rent-by-the-room approach for a property we may purchase. For those who have experience with it, how did you price your room? I looked on rentometer, apartments.com, furnished finder and facebook marketplace. I only found comps on Furnished Finder, but would like a few more data sources to validate my findings. Thoughts? Thanks!

Andrew Postell · Answer

@Brittany Guimond when I house hacked and rented out the rooms I just based it on the mortgage payment.  It's probably a little better practice to use SOME type of research...but that's what I did.

Yu Liu · Answer

FB marketplace and even craigslist would be good options.

Furnished finder and Airbnb are good options if furnished, you can look at 30 day minimums for rooms

Tanner Pile · Answer

@Brittany Guimond

Facebook market place, roommate.com and rooster are the best that I have used. Have good photo and list all the amenities well to get a ton of interest on the rooms. Also be picky on who you select! having a bad house hacking roommate can cause problems.

I've rented rooms for over $1k before because I include all utilities, internet, parking, and private bathrooms.

Jake Andronico · Answer

@Brittany Guimond

I rented by the room and had comps for college students in particular. Not sure if you're close to a University, but you can see what others are charging by asking around, looking on Facebook groups, etc.

Hope it works out well for you!

Joey Banasihan · Answer

Hey @Brittany Guimond, sounds like you are on the right track. I have used Zillow and Apartments.com for comparables, but my best advice is reach out to investor friendly property management businesses. Based on the size and ameneties provided with the SFH, they should be able to give you a rough estimate, then you may need to just experiment a bit. Pending what you come up with for a LTR room to room rental, than you can begin assessing cost for a furnished room via MTR. For my MTR, I added a 12% increase based on the furnishings and amentities but I have seen this vary from area to area (10-20% range increases for MTR). Good luck!

Conner Olsen · Answer

Roomie is a good platform

Julien J. · Answer

Sounds like most of the sources are covered in responses. That's where I would go too.

Brittany Guimond · Answer

These are all great ideas!! Thanks friends!

Noah Bacon · Answer

I would check FB Marketplace, join a few local FB Housing Groups, and Craigslist to get an idea of what rates private landlords are offering. You won't have much luck using Zillow, Realtor.com, etc. because the listings are for the entire unit or property. I'd highly recommend joining local FB Housing Groups as you will be able to understand what landlords are charging and get an idea of what tenants are looking for.

Rent by the Room Pricing Strategy..?

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