Renting a room to in-laws

[Joseph Henry]

I am new to landlording so looking for some help. We have a situation where my in-laws will be living with us temporarily. This could be an year or even longer. I want to get an estimate with numbers to see if this makes any sense. In-laws will be living in a bedroom (it is a 5 BR home) and will be sharing kitchen and family room with us. For deductions, should I only use 20% (1 out of 5 BR) or is it possible to use the actual sqft (bedroom + shared area)?  In terms of property depreciation, would it make sense to distribute across 30 years or is it possible to claim a one time depreciation? For a 800k home, how much would the depreciation be? 

If this makes any difference, there is a possibility that we will move to a bigger home, in which case, the in-laws will move along with us, and we will either rent the existing home or sell it. Is there anything I need to consider any terms of lease or rental agreement with in-laws? In-laws will likely pay the same rent in the bigger home. We intend to charge them below market anyway.