Advice for Finding a House Hack Roommate

[Josh Abrams]

Hi! I wanted to reach out for some advice on finding a roommate for a house hack. First a little background - I recently purchased my first property in Nashville (3 bed 2.5 bath) and will be moving in in December as it is a new build. I will be house hacking the property as well. I currently rent an apartment with my friend who I played college football with, and he will be renting a room from me in the new place. I am 24 years old, he's 22, and we both have full time jobs (actuary and teacher).

My biggest questions are where should I post my ad, and what should I include (and not include) in it? Should it mainly concentrate on the specifics of the property - rent price, utilities included, W/D in unit, new build, proximity to downtown, restaurants etc? Or since I will be living in it and not just looking for a traditional tenant, should I also be marketing myself and my roommate? I will be giving my roommate some say in who I take in as the extra roommate as he will also be living there. I was thinking maybe a short paragraph or two about what we do, our hobbies, what we are looking for in a roommate, etc. Or should the ad be kept more professional/formal and ask those interested to reach out for a short phone call where they can explain what they are looking for, why they are interested in the property, etc., and we can get to know each other and see if it would be a good fit?

I would love to learn some dos and don'ts from personal experience if possible. Being that this house hack is my first of many rental properties, I want to start off on the right foot.

Thanks in advance!

Josh

[Brenden Mitchum]

Hey @Josh Abrams, welcome to the BP community!

Congrats on the house hack and first investment property! 

Okay let's first answer those two big questions then I'll provide a bit of further advice, if that's alright.

1. Where should you post the ad: Facebook marketplace & Facebook groups. There should be a group or several group pages for "Nashville rooms for rent." You can also do craigslist.

2. What your post should include: Everything you can think of. The more info you have the more likely you'll attract qualified applicants and waste less time sifting through folks who wouldn't have even reached had you added more info. Be completely upfront with the situation and definitely tell them a bit about yourself and the other roommate. Tell them everything that is included in the rent and give as much detail on the new home and location as possible. However, don't provide an address in the listing. Make sure you also include your criteria in the listing. 

BTW If you keep it short, and think you'll just prescreen everyone on the phone, you will get buried with phone calls. Personally, I don't even prescreen with a phone call. I have everyone who is interested fill out my prescreening questionnaire (google doc) and then I call only those who appear to be qualified. This saves a ton of time and headache.

Also, giving your roommate "some" say is a recipe for disaster. If you don't get along with/trust them enough to give them as much say as yourself, then you shouldn't be living with them. And I'm not talking about when it comes to criteria. Obviously, you likely know more about screening tenants than they do so when it comes to things like income requirement, you have the final say. However, they should absolutely get a say when it comes to the potential tenant's personality. It doesn't matter if you and the new tenant get along if they don't get along with your roommate. 

Bottomline here is make sure this is someone that you're both going to get along with. You'll want to sit down with your roommate and talk about your pet peeves. This may get uncomfortable but it's gotta happen so you know what questions to ask potential new roommates to see if they would be a good fit. 

Hope this helps a bit! Please, feel free to reach out anytime if you have other questions or just want to chat!