Owner-Occupy Single Family & Renting a Room

[Grace Marie Weger]

Hi!

I am new to the site and so appreciative of the community that has been built here. I live in an area where the real estate market is ridiculously high and only projected to continue growing. I currently do not own any real property and I am thinking of buying a single family home to live in myself, while renting a bedroom or two to pay the rent. (I am also open to multifamily homes and benefiting from owner-occupy rates in that scenario, but that has been thoroughly discussed whereas I have not seen anyone else speaking of the former situation.) The tenant- landlord relationship is obviously very different if we were to become housemates and I can foresee some sticky situations when it comes to the responsibilities of each party. 

I would likely be catering to graduate students at the local college, whom are around my same age group. I wonder if there are any laws dictating if I need to disclose that I am the owner of the property or if I could act as though I am the intermediary between tenants and landlord. 

My main objective is to obtain a piece of real property that will grow in value, for a low down payment, and for little or no mortgage cost. The money saved and equity earned on this property is what I will use to invest in an income producing property in the future, or perhaps I will move out in a year or whatever with my owner-occupy rate details is acceptable and rent out the entire house.

Has anyone done something like this?

Thanks!