All Forum Posts by: Nicholas Graphia

Thanks for all the good replies.  I'm returning to New Orleans soon after a year abroad, and have so many options. Not sure I'm motivated enough to move forward with the original plan but we'll see. @Jennifer T. what your tenant did with the Air-BnB options sounds like a good idea. I'm leaning towards trying to go this route since I love to travel. From your perspective as the owner, what made you feel comfortable about that arrangement? 

@Account Closed I also like your idea about marketing only to law and maybe other grad students. sounds relatively stress free. Actually as a renter my last semester of law school and the summer studying for the bar exam I lived in a similar housing set up. From my perspective, not having to buy furniture or deal with utilities and having a quiet place to study, it was a no-brainer. The owner even offered me a commission for finding a replacement when I moved out too! With me being out of the country now and the law school semester starting in January the timing may be a little difficult for the Spring semester but I will definitely keep this in mind for the Fall. 

And re the clauses in some of your leases about not allowing sublets, that reminds me of my first ever trial which happened to be a landlord/tenant dipsute. The two tenants, a married couple, let their adult son move into a guest bedroom even though the lease said that only the couple could live there. The rent included utilities. The tenants' side of the story was that this was a 2 bedroom house, the son was family, the utilities were about the same, and he didn't live there the whole duration of the lease. The judge wasn't impressed and simply applied the plain language of the lease, ruling in favor of the owner for increased utility costs and greater than expected wear and tear.

@mikewood Thanks for the reply. I'm still kicking this idea around. Yes, I would be upfront and straightforward with the owner about me wanting to find a roommate while making sure to be in agreement. And, yes, my income alone would be enough to cover the rent. I see what you're saying about potential roommates not wanting to pay more than 50% of the out of pocket costs. At the same time, when browsing  listings I've noticed roommate ads for above solo-renter rates ie, that particular neighborhood rents for $1.70 per square foot and the price advertised for the room in a house in the same neighborhood would be $2.25 per square foot for the roommate's share. I've seen those ads go from pending to "sold" so I'm inferring there's a demand for it. And there is pretty good short term renters movement here; e.g., travel nurses, medical residents doing interns, grad students... Might be too much of an unknown for me to move on this idea, but I'm going to keep working on this. 

I'm looking to rent hack while I'm saving up for a down-payment on my first RE purchase. I'd like to use the money saved/earned rent hacking to invest in a triplex or fourplex. 

Here's my plan: Rent a nice 2 - 3 bedroom house in New Orleans, in a desirable neighborhood, and rent out the extra room(s) to carefully screened professional type roommates.

Hypothetical Numbers for 2 bedroom house:

Cash Outlay:
$1,500 deposit
$4,500 (3 months rent set aside as cushion in case of vacancies)
$1,500 for furniture purchase

-Find roommates through Facebook marketplace and/or personal network. I'm a single professional in my 30s
Income
Charge roommate $900/month + utility share + a security deposit. From their standpoint they get a turnkey place, and more square footage for their money compared to renting a 1 bedroom.

This would keep my monthly rent payment down to $600. My housing budget if I lived solo would be $1,200/month. So if the extra room rents 8 out of 12 months the rest of the year is a wash. But I could still rent the room to shorter term tenants if need be to keep the income stream going.

Seems simple enough, but there could be something I'm overlooking. Thoughts?