Renting rooms to college students/young professionals? (Socal)

[Jeff L.]

I'm in Southern California where the prices are very high right now, and was thinking of a different strategy to offset the costs and make the math work. I live in a town that has many college students and young professionals.

Instead of renting a 3-4 bedroom out to a family, I was thinking about renting out each room and potentially receiving higher total rents.

1) Is this even a viable strategy? Could I really expect to receive higher rents by doing this versus renting to a single family?

2) Do any property management companies take on clients for this type of strategy? Should I manage it on my own?

I'd love to hear from people who have done this. Do you have someone manage it for you? Pros and cons vs renting to a family? What amenities do you supply?

[Joi Johnson]

Hi Jeff!

I don't do this personally but I'm fresh out of college and got some knowledge from a friend's landlord. Also throwing in my  feedback from going through apartment/house searching.

 You definitely can charge more per person for renting a room vs the whole house, big pro. But cons are managing 3-4 people instead of one family or group. It's not bad when you have 4 responsible tenants but it gives four opportunities for something to go wrong instead of one. Late /no rent payments, roommates might clash and you/PM have to deal with complaints, more likely to damage because lack of a sense of ownership. You can get property managers who specialize in it and likely you'll pay the same percentage you would for a family.

My suggestion would be rent to a group of friends, professionals ideally but college students too. They look at it as they're paying for just themselves so you can probably get the same amount per person as if you were renting per room. I would even write it in the listing: "$500/mo per person" as opposed to "$2000/mo". You also get the some of the same benefits of a family; accountability with paying and mitigating potential damage being the biggest pro. Additionally less issues will come to you/PM because they're more likely to work it out themselves. Con being potential parties since they are familiar with each other which can lead to damage.