House Hackers: Did You Let Your Tenants Know You Were the Owner?

Question

I’m about to move into a triplex I just bought as an owner-occupant — I’ll be living in one unit and renting out the other two.

This might sound like a small detail, but I’ve been thinking a lot about how to handle tenant interactions now that I’ll be living in the building:

• Did you let your tenants know you’re the owner?
• Or did you present yourself more as a property manager/representative to keep it professional and protect boundaries?

Did you let your tenants know you’re the owner?

Or did you present yourself more as a property manager/representative to keep it professional and protect boundaries?

I’d love to hear how other house hackers navigated this.

Also — curious how you handled rent collection and expenses:

• Did you set up a separate checking or HYSA just for the property?
• How did you keep things clean for taxes and budgeting without it getting messy with your personal finances?

Did you set up a separate checking or HYSA just for the property?

How did you keep things clean for taxes and budgeting without it getting messy with your personal finances?

I want to start off on the right foot but also not overcomplicate things.

Would appreciate any lessons or best practices from folks who’ve been through it

Drew Sygit · Answer

@Oliver Martinez you will notice two opinions on your question.

1) Transparency: letting tenants know you are the owner.The majority of those recommending this have finite experience. Either they are dealing ONLY with Class A (maybe Class B) tenants or they just haven't done it long enough to have a bad experience.

2) Business-minded: keep it all business with tenants, so why tell them you are the owner?Your biggest challenge with doing this is protecting your mail - if the tenants see it, they will know. Suggest you get a PO Box ASAP!

You can pick either option, but let me give you a story to think about.

Second rental I bought was a Class B rental, with a Class C tenant in it. Met tenants and used to pick up their rent (BIG mistake!). Even did my own repairs and was very cordial and understanding with them - husband & wife with twins boys. They kept falling behind on rent. Got worse & worse. Started eviction process several times, but then they'd pay. Finally went through with an eviction because they were 3 months behind (another mistake on my part!) and broke promises to pay. Upon TakeOver, discovered they broke every door, punched holes in all the walls and there was human excrement on the walls! Found out they moved one block down from my house. Knew the guy had a paid off Harley-Davidson. My attorney had the bike collected by the sheriff - got my money 2 days later.

All good so far, right?

Then my wife calls me when I'm out on a Friday night with friends. She had to call the police when the former tenant and his biker buddies paid our home a visit, knocked on our door and threatened her. Wife wanted me to sell all our rentals at that point!

To keep her happy & avoid selling, I never again told a tenant I was the owner, stopped collecing rent in person, if I did repairs I was just the hired handyman, got a PO Box, setup LLCs to hide my ownership, etc.

Ever since then my mantra is: NOTHING GOOD HAPPENS FROM TENANTS KNOWING YOU ARE THE OWNER!

Calvin Thomas · Answer

As a person who owns a good amount of rentals, I would tell you NOT to inform anyone that you are the owner. You should pretend to be another tenant and find a real estate agent or property manager to handle the issues with the other tenants. Also, any of your important mail should be sent to a PO Box or UPS Store.

When things are fine, no worries. If there is an issue or eviction, then there can be a problem.

When things are fine, no worries.  If there is an issue or eviction, then there can be a problem.

Miranda Bilodeau · Answer

I agree with the contributors encouraging presenting yourself either as another tenant or as the property manager. I also agree with the advice to keep separate bank accounts and have separate rent collecting methods to protect your anonymity. It can be a great experience living by your tenants but it can also cause problems.

It comes down to your risk tolerance and whether you want your tenants to know about your ownership. In either case, keep a separate bank account for the triplex and have all rents deposited there.  Note: This information is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, financial, or investment advice. No attorney-client, fiduciary, or professional relationship is established through this communication.

John McDonald · Answer

Present yourself as the property manager. And do NOT put your home address on your LLC. I am shocked at how many people do this. You never want your address known for security purposes. Google is not your friend.

Alecia Loveless · Answer

@Oliver Martinez I’ve house hacked for 28 years. For the first 23 renting rooms in my house and for the last five living in one side of a duplex.

My tenants have always known I’m the owner and it’s never been an issue. In fact, all my tenants in all my properties know I’m the owner and it’s never been an issue.

I have always maintained separate accounts for my properties. It can be a tax issue if you commingle funds. I believe your account can be frozen by the IRS if they start investigating you or auditing you if you’ve commingled funds.

I actually keep a separate account for each property which adds a little to my bookkeeping but gives me an instant snapshot of what’s going on with each individual property.

Some investors like separate accounts and some like one operating account for all their properties. It’s a personal preference.

Mitch McBride · Answer

When I lived onsite, I didn’t hide that I’m the owner, it’s usually pretty obvious. That said, for larger multifamily or places I don’t live, I take a more hands-off, property manager-style approach to keep things professional and maintain some distance.

For finances, I always open a separate checking account per property, it makes taxes, budgeting, and tracking way easier. Rent collection through an online platform.

Max Emory · Answer

Hey @Oliver Martinez, I'm on my 2nd househack now and can speak to the financial/bookkeeping side of this as well.

For the tenant situation, we let them know we're the owners but we have a PM manage them because we're not interested in being a PM due to it being a heavily regulated thing and time constraints. I will say in the beginning they would come to us for things, but we would direct them to the PM every time so they learned over time to just go to the PM for everything and not come to us.

For the financial side, open up an extra checking account and only use that checking account for househack-related income and expenses. Even if you don't have proper bookkeeping in place, this will save your sanity come tax season. And, same for credit cards. Designate 1 credit card as your "househack credit card" so all of those transactions are in 1 place and no commingled with any other types of transactions.

Hope that helps!

Amanda Rechsteiner · Answer

Love house hacking and seeing everyone's experiences. Here was my experience and how I did things... Learned over time and figured out the system that worked for us.

When showing the property, I did not tell them right away that I was the owner. I sent some pre screening questions and let them know I was the property manager. Once I knew I was moving forward with a tenant, I would then let them know before they committed and paid for background/credit checks. They will be seeing you around obviously and at least for us at this time, our address is on the lease so it's not really something you can hide. I am now looking into setting up a PO Box for everything for business purposes but for the time being, our address as the owners needs to be on the lease. But if a tenant does not feel comfortable knowing the owner is right there, why move forward with it and try to hide that you are the owner? I am all for transparency. None of our tenants have had a problem with it. BUT I still keep everything professional and protect boundaries. Just because you are the owner and a neighbor does not mean you can't still be professional. Definitely keep boundaries and remember that a business is a business.

I have separate bank accounts for each property. I collect rent through TurboTenant and they have set up late fees if they do not pay. I began by collecting checks at the very beginning. Don't do that. Have a system set up and ready. Don't intermingle personal finances and business (Not my area of expertise though).

Best of luck!

Kenneth Williams · Answer

Congratulations on getting the triplex and it's very smart to move into one of the units. You definitely want to present yourself as the property manager. I would do this so that there is some distance between you and the tenants. Also, keep everything as separate as possible. I have a separate bank account and credit just for my investment property. It makes things very easy when tax time comes around. Hope this helped. If you need anything feel free to message me anytime!

Na Na · Answer

@Kenneth Williams you would very knowledgeable. I want to connect with you and ask a few questions if you don't mind

House Hackers: Did You Let Your Tenants Know You Were the Owner?

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