How to rent my main house with a rented attached unit

Question

Hello, I owned a house in San Diego. I hacked the house a few years ago to help with mortgage payments. I turn one side of the house into a studio, that shares a wall with the main house, it has a separate entryway. Currently, I am planning to move and also rent the main house. My concern lies in how can I mention this duplex or attached unit in a rental post, without making it less appealing to prospective tenants? Also, in terms of utilities paying %25 of each shared utility is reasonable? There is only one person occupying the unit. I feel like I am maybe overcomplicating this, but I guess I am looking for some advice on how to make this happen any advice or ideas are wellcome. thank you!

Rick Albert · Answer

There are a couple of things to consider:

1. How private is the back unit? Do they see each other?

2. People rent out duplexes all the time. I would take a look at those comps.

3. Inventory is low and people ideally want SFRs. If you meet most of the criteria, some may not care.

4. Regarding utilities, You could do based on square footage. Although not 100% accurate, it will likely be the easiest way to split it. Alternatively, you could do a flat fee for one or both units. Maybe doing a flat fee for the smaller unit and then crediting the main house might make sense. We charge a flat water fee for the ADU and so far so good.

Kenneth Donaghy · Answer

Yes, you may be making more complicated than it needs to be... I would be honest and as transparent as possible. It sounds like you took a SFR and divided the home. Which has been done plenty of times. Depending on the area of town this doesn't matter much.

Val Casalderrey · Answer

Thank you Rick. Very good points and things to consider. I appreciate your guidance, and will definitely keep them in mind.

Val Casalderrey · Answer

Thank you Alecia for your advice. I think I will pay for trash and 25% of the bills they share.

Alecia Loveless · Answer

@Val Casalderrey I wouldn’t worry too much about the shared unit. It’s simply now a duplex.

As far as utilities go many years ago my parents owned a 12 unit apartment complex that had all shared utilities. At the time it was impossible to divide them out but my dad didn’t want to pay the entire bill. So he took the electric bill, the water bill, and the sewer bill each month and divided them by 15. He then billed each unit for 1/15 of the bill and he paid 3/15 of the bill to alleviate anyone claiming this unit ran more lights or that unit ran longer showers.

Perhaps you could figure out a way to do something like this where the studio paid a small portion, you paid a small portion and the main house paid most of it. That way if anyone complained your small portion each month would balance things out.

Jake Andronico · Answer

@Val Casalderrey

Agree w/ @Kenneth Donaghy: "Be as honest and as transparent as possible".

SD is an extremely desirable place to live and for the right price I'm sure you'd have a lot of tenants very interested.

25% of utilities sounds logical.

How to rent my main house with a rented attached unit

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