Who's rented out a room in their house before?
Patricia Martin Steward
Having a flight of fancy -- "renting" out my guest bedroom in exchange
for housekeeping, maybe some meal preparation, etc.
Anyone have stories, horror or no? What did you do to make sure you
got a good person? Thanks all.
--
"Palin lied when she told Charlie Gibson that she does not pass judgment on gay
people; in fact, she opposes all rights between gay spouses and belongs to a church
that promotes conversion therapy."
"The Odd Lies of Sarah Palin: A Round-Up" by Andrew Sullivan
andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com
Rod Speed
> Having a flight of fancy -- "renting" out my guest bedroom in
> exchange for housekeeping, maybe some meal preparation, etc.
> Anyone have stories, horror or no?
Anyone who has done it has.
> What did you do to make sure you got a good person?
There is no way to make sure.
References can help, but they arent hard to fake up and
just like with job references, there is a real tendency to
give glowing references to get rid of a dud etc.
A trial period can be useful, but that isnt possible in quite a few
legal jurisdictions where that is covered by the law in most.
Bill
>
> Anyone have stories, horror or no? What did you do to make sure you
> got a good person? Thanks all.
>
People tend to think that others are like themselves. And people who own
homes tend to be responsible people.
With that said, people who own homes and want to rent out a room think they
will find some nice responsible person to rent the room to...
But think about this a minute. Who are these people that do not own any
furniture? Why don't they have any personal belongings? Why can't they rent
their own apartment?
Possibly because they can't hold a job. Maybe they have bad credit. Maybe
they have a criminal record. Maybe they have a bad rental history. Poor
handling of their personal finances. Etc.
With that said, these days professional apartment rental companies will run
many different checks on potential renters before renting to them.
The way they look at it is they are renting/loaning the person a property
worth upwards of $100,000.00. So they take the same care a bank would to be
sure their investment will be well taken care of.
They verify employment and length of employment.
They run a rental history check.
They run a credit check.
They run a driver's license check.
They run a criminal check.
(Ask a local rental company how you can run these checks yourself.)
The rental check shows they paid their rent on time and left the property in
good condition after moving out. The credit check shows they pay their bills
on time. The driver's license check shows they can follow the rules of
society (would show tickets for speeding, DUI, etc.). The criminal check
could reveal a person who uses/sells drugs or a dishonest person.
In my opinion and experience, it is more important to run these checks on
people who are renting a room than someone renting an apartment or house.
That is because they don't have furniture and they don't have the money to
rent their own apartment/house. The question is WHY?
There ARE good responsible people out there who will pay their rent on time.
But there are also many irresponsible liars who will lead you to believe
they are the responsible types. And being the responsible homeowner you are,
you would tend to think these people are like yourself! (Not!)
Then other than that, put it in writing what you expect of your roommate.
That is food, cleaning supplies, watching TV in the living room, using your
stereo and the volume level, etc.
Will you pay for all cleaning supplies?
Will you pay for all kitchen condiments (salt, sugar, spices, ketchup,
etc.)?
Can they eat your food or not?
Who will do the dishes/clean the kitchen? Perhaps leave the kitchen as you
found it?
You will get along better with your future roommate if you work this all out
ahead of time.
It does not matter what you agree to, just that you both agree to the same
things. You might say they need to buy their own food, but the roommate can
use all of your condiments. No problem if you both agree!
You may come home and want to watch the news on TV, but find your roommate
playing the stereo at full BLAST! And the roommate gets mad when you ask
that it be shut off so you can watch the news.
Etc. Be sure you can live with the person and come to some sort of agreement
with these things. Sort of like being married or having a relationship.
Better if you like to do the same things.
Rod Speed
> Patricia Martin Steward wrote
>> Anyone have stories, horror or no? What did you do to make sure you
>> got a good person? Thanks all.
> People tend to think that others are like themselves. And people who own homes tend to be responsible people.
> With that said, people who own homes and want to rent out a room
> think they will find some nice responsible person to rent the room to...
> But think about this a minute. Who are these people that do not own
> any furniture? Why don't they have any personal belongings? Why can't
> they rent their own apartment?
Some of them are in that situation due to personal circumstances.
In the case of someone I have known for years now, its because he
is just divorced and they agreed that she would have the apartment
they both owned, and he would get the stocks and shares.
> Possibly because they can't hold a job. Maybe they have bad credit.
> Maybe they have a criminal record. Maybe they have a bad rental
> history. Poor handling of their personal finances. Etc.
Or something much more mundane like separation etc.
> With that said, these days professional apartment rental companies will run many different checks on potential renters
> before renting to them.
> The way they look at it is they are renting/loaning the person a
> property worth upwards of $100,000.00. So they take the same care a bank would to be sure their investment will be
> well taken care of.
> They verify employment and length of employment.
> They run a rental history check.
> They run a credit check.
> They run a driver's license check.
> They run a criminal check.
> (Ask a local rental company how you can run these checks yourself.)
> The rental check shows they paid their rent on time and left the
> property in good condition after moving out. The credit check shows
> they pay their bills on time. The driver's license check shows they
> can follow the rules of society (would show tickets for speeding,
> DUI, etc.). The criminal check could reveal a person who uses/sells
> drugs or a dishonest person.
> In my opinion and experience, it is more important to run these
> checks on people who are renting a room than someone renting an
> apartment or house. That is because they don't have furniture and
> they don't have the money to rent their own apartment/house. The
> question is WHY?
> There ARE good responsible people out there who will pay their rent on time.
There are indeed.
> But there are also many irresponsible liars who will lead you to believe they are the responsible types.
Its very arguable if those even out number the responsible ones.
> And being the responsible homeowner you are, you would tend to think these people are like yourself! (Not!)
Plenty of them are anyway.
> Then other than that, put it in writing what you expect of your
> roommate. That is food, cleaning supplies, watching TV in the living room, using your stereo and the volume level,
> etc.
> Will you pay for all cleaning supplies?
> Will you pay for all kitchen condiments (salt, sugar, spices, ketchup, etc.)?
> Can they eat your food or not?
> Who will do the dishes/clean the kitchen? Perhaps leave the kitchen as you found it?
> You will get along better with your future roommate if you work this all out ahead of time.
If I came across someone like that when wanting to rent a room, I would run a mile.
> It does not matter what you agree to, just that you both agree to the
> same things. You might say they need to buy their own food, but the
> roommate can use all of your condiments. No problem if you both agree!
> You may come home and want to watch the news on TV, but find your
> roommate playing the stereo at full BLAST! And the roommate gets mad when you ask that it be shut off so you can watch
> the news.
Unlikely to be worth putting all those unlikely situations in writing up front.
> Etc. Be sure you can live with the person and come to some sort of
> agreement with these things. Sort of like being married or having a
> relationship. Better if you like to do the same things.
Plenty claim marraiges work best when they arent carbon copys of each other.
Vandy Terre
<pat...@noteranews.com> wrote:
>
>Having a flight of fancy -- "renting" out my guest bedroom in exchange
>for housekeeping, maybe some meal preparation, etc.
Great idea on the surface. But how would you find someone you could trust
enough? More than once I made the mistake of taking in a 'homeless' friend or
co-worker.
>Anyone have stories, horror or no? What did you do to make sure you
>got a good person? Thanks all.
Horror stories abound. Live in maid took reverse charge long distance telephone
calls from the boyfriend in prison in another state, then stole my check book to
forge a check to cover the $3000+ telephone bill. I had no long distance
service on that telephone line and did not realize that reverse charge calls
would be accepted. I did finally get the money back from the woman and she was
tossed out the day I found out about the mess. Holding the check with her
forgery and the telephone bill showing the calls placed from a prison went a
long way to keeping her prompt about repayment.
Another horror story that was not quite so bad was the young man hired to do
general garden/ lawn work. 'Friends' claimed he was a good guy who just needed
a low cost room. He had a 'day' job. Sounds good, right? Fortunately I
discovered the 'day' job was selling illegally obtained prescription drugs and
street drugs before he took residence. Also found a different circle of
'friends' that were not into the drug culture.
If you really intend to do this, do a full background check and bond the
individual. Yes, a bit over the top, but better than loosing a lot of money
and/ or going to jail.
NT
wrote:
> Having a flight of fancy -- "renting" out my guest bedroom in exchange
> for housekeeping, maybe some meal preparation, etc.
bad idea, as there's no way to measure such payments in kind, and
resentment and misunderstanding is likely.
> Anyone have stories, horror or no?
all have horror stories.
> What did you do to make sure you
> got a good person? Thanks all.
as said, its not possible. This is why more or less no-one does this
unless they have no other option.
NT
kerilotion
wrote:
>On Aug 16, 10:04�pm, Patricia Martin Steward <pats...@noteranews.com>
>wrote:
>> Having a flight of fancy -- "renting" out my guest bedroom in exchange
>> for housekeeping, maybe some meal preparation, etc.
>
>bad idea, as there's no way to measure such payments in kind, and
>resentment and misunderstanding is likely.
>
I rented out my second bedroom to students for several years as I live
in a university town. But that was with a lease and post-dated rent
cheques. I would never do it in exchange for household help.
Maybe try renting the room and then use that money for a monthly or
bi-weekly cleaning service?
Keri