Turning a home into a rent by room in Minneapolis?

[Rob Grove]

I just recently listened to a podcast on BP where a guy turned a duplex into a rent by room and increased his profits. I just started managing a facility where a lot of people live in these types of properties and pay between 5-700 a month in north Minneapolis (pretty bad area). When I talked to my wife about this, she said she stayed in one near the U of MN when she went to school there. 

Ideally around a university would probably be better for a variety of reasons but I may need to start in the bad area since its cheaper. Luckily my current job has given me the experience of dealing with the roughneck crowd (and I can legally carry a gun.... Which is also a +) ok it's not that bad... In most parts.

A few questions: 

What does it take to turn a SFH or duplex into a rent by room? Does this require getting rid of common areas like LR amd DR and creating bedrooms? Getting permits for these changes and that's it? Do I have to do anything special to get these changes approved by anyone? Anything I'm missing? Thanks in advance !

[Roy N.]

@Rob Grove

What you are describing is turning an SFH or duplex into a rooming house. The first thing to do is check the zoning for the area - are rooming houses permitted? Do they need to be licensed? What are the requirements (ratio of bedrooms to washrooms, kitchens, etc)?

If rooming houses are not explicitly permitted (or restricted) in the area, what are the City by-law restrictions around occupancy (i.e. how many unrelated adults per dwelling unit)?

The answers to the above questions will allow you to determine if, where, and what nature of rooming house you might legally create.