All Forum Posts by: Ron Gallagher

I am loving the Zestimate right now since Zillow is claiming this house I closed on less than a month ago is now worth $142,000 more than I paid for it.  Now I have to credit $50,000 of that "Z-equity" (new term I just made up) to @Russell Brazil for negotiating $50,000 off the asking price in a seller's market, but since I use mint.com to calculate my networth and mint.com uses Zestimates I am very happy with Zillow right now and given all that-- I think Zestimates are very accurate and I hope everyone else considers them as accurate as I do now! ;]

I ultimately offered the room to the person who worked closer to the house so they would have a better commute.  Really I was looking out for the other tenant since her commute to work each day would have been awful.  People tend to overuse the word "hero" so I won't use it to describe myself in this situation but clearly I'm doing the Lord's work over here. :)

 Yeah and I'm Mr. Furley.

I found at this time of year renting out room by room has been much easier than trying to rent a 2 bedroom unit to a couple or 2 friends.  People just seem to be looking for individual accommodations for themselves in November and December.

I have heard some pros and cons about renting to military which you will obviously have in Woodbridge. The pro is that if they don't pay their rent, from my understanding, you can talk to their superior officer and then their officer will yell at them and they will likely pay up since they are getting in trouble at work.  The con is that military personnel can break their lease early if they get orders to move elsewhere. If you are renting room by room this becomes less of an issue because you just replace the tenant in that room which from my experience is pretty easy in the DC Metro area.

Good luck! 

Ultimately, I looked at where both of the potential tenants worked and used google maps to determine who the house is a better fit for based on what their commute would be, then I followed Deanna's advice and offered the room to the one who would have the better commute if she can sign the lease and give me the security deposit within 24 hours.

Thanks to all for your help in this dilemma!

I have one room left to rent out in my group house and I have two girls who have the exact same credit history, they submitted the rental application within minutes of each other, they showed up to look at the house at the exact same time, they both want to move in on the same date, basically they are equal in every way.  How should I fairly decide who I should offer the room to?  Decide based on whose name comes first in Alphabetical order?  Take votes in the BP forums? This is one of the toughest decisions I have ever had to make as a landlord!  Help me!!

Hi Sara,

Thanks for the info. I don't see your email or contact info in your profile. I would love to see a copy of your applications and leases.  Can you email me at my email address on my profile here on BP?

Thanks!

Ron

Thanks for all the great advice. It seems like I am in the clear as far as the occupancy laws go:

The basement unit I plan on living in has a separate bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom.

Hi all,

I am buying a massive 4 level row house in Washington DC and I will live in the basement apartment unit and rent out the six bedrooms available on the three upper floors. 

My questions are--

1) Do you have the tenants sign a lease or just a roommate agreement with the house rules? I recently spoke to a friend who runs a group house and she said she doesn't have any leases with her current tenants. Does anyone have a copy of the lease/rental agreement they use for a group house they could send me?

2) Do you still ask for pay stubs and proof of employment when you are renting a room month to month? Do you still run a credit and background check as well?

3) I assume you still collect one month's security deposit from each tenant. How do you handle damage to the common areas since if someone breaks the dishwasher for example they probably won't admit to it?

4) I got an overwhelming response to the rooms for rent postings I did on Facebook and Craigslist last night, what is a fair and efficent way to deal with the dozens of responses?  Discard anyone who has pets and doesn't have a job (some people noted they are just moving to DC to start their new job or to look for a job)? Are their any qualities you would favor and select on?  For instance, since one level has 4 bedrooms sharing one bathroom maybe a guy would be more tolarant of sharing a bathroom with 3 other guys then 4 girls trying to share a bathroom. I was thinking of adding some questions to the rental application like - What times do you usually work and what times will you be home? Then I can pick people on different schedules so the bathroom shower won't be occupied at the same time. Then I can pick a few 9 to 5ers and a bartender and a waiter, etc... who will be working different schedules.

5) Bonus question- I see on roommate listings online "Females Only" quite often. I did a little research and I was surprised to learn that you can legally discriminate when looking for a roommate and that fair housing laws don't apply.  I am technically looking for 6 roommates so while I don't plan on discriminating on any other factor than their ability to pay rent and maybe a person's work schedule, I am curious if fair housing laws apply to me in this situation? 

Thanks in advance for any advise!

Ron

I used Rick Knobler on my property in Dallas.  He was great and highly recommended. 

http://knoblerpm.com

Much better than my property manager I currently have in Washington DC, which is seemingly devoid of good property management companies.