Renting by the Room

Member since 2025 · 23 posts · 5 votes

Has anyone tried renting by the room in a multifamily? E.g. A duplex with 6 total beds - each side gets each of the 3 rooms rented out separately?

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Tim KirkPro Member
Member since 2026 · 86 posts · 49 votes
1mo
How many bathrooms
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- Charlie Bemis
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  Member since 2025 · 23 posts · 5 votes
  1mo
  @Tim Kirk good question, for the sake of this hypothetical, let's say 1.5 for each unit
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Stacy RaskinBusiness Member
Lender · Member since 2022 · 1k+ posts · 503 votes
1mo
Renting by the room generally has more turnover and more work to keep the rooms rented. It depends on if you want to do the work or pay someone else to do the work- if you think the upside is there in making enough money to justify the extra work. If renting near a college or if in a location where people are more likely to want to stay in the location for a certain period of time- for example a school semester or school year that might cut down the possibility of turnover.
Generally helpful to have house rules around cleaning or noise as those can be issues for roommates as there are issues that may arise out of that. That is especially if people aren't on the same page as to what the environment will be like when living in a shared space. Helpful to have written house rules that roommates / people sharing the space that the new tenants are aware of and sign off on before moving in so there's less likely to have problems around those issues.
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Andrew FreedBusiness Member
Investor · Worcester, MA · Member since 2020 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
1mo
@Charlie Bemis Great question. I know people use padsplit to help with rent by the room and all the administrative burden it causes. More or less, you have way more vacancy and tenants are more transient. Nonetheless if you have a good process and can fill units quickly, it can be possible. I'd definitely explore utilizing padsplit to implement since I know the best operators use this platform. Best of luck figuring it out!
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Dan HandfordPro Member
Investor · Lexington, SC · Member since 2018 · 779 posts · 501 votes
1mo
Charlie, room-by-room leasing can improve gross income, but the operating model matters as much as the bedroom count. I would verify local occupancy rules, licensing, parking, utility capacity, insurance, and whether each side of the duplex can legally function with unrelated occupants. Then underwrite higher turnover, shared-area cleaning, utilities, furnishing, and management time. A six-bedroom property can create six leasing decisions instead of two. Is your expected renter pool students, traveling professionals, or longer-term local tenants?
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James Dougherty
Lender · Philly Area · Member since 2020 · 3 posts · 1 vote
6d
Charlie, Dan above touched on the most important factor: is a rooming or boarding house use legal in your respective municipality? While many investors are able to sneak violations by code enforcement, I do not recommend that you try in regard to this. If in your town these uses are illegal and you decide to illegally operate a boarding house, you are SOL if a tenant decides to stop paying and you need to execute an eviction. And if you are running an illegal boarding house and you need financing, you will also be SOL as any decent underwriter is going to see leased rooms as a red flag. But if a boarding house use is legal, than pay attention to the earlier advice as it was sound.
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