Rent as 2 units or 1 house?

[Michael Mastantuono]

Hello,

My family owns a house in Glendale CA. Currently the house is subdivided, technically there is still easy access between the two units and can be made one house again very easily. I believe renting as two units will generate more income than as 1 house; my dad believes otherwise. it would be the difference between renting two large 1 bedroom houses vs. a nice sized 3+2. It's a fairly expensive area and rents are fairly high. While renting to a family maybe nice it seems more efficient to have only 1 or 2 people in each unit. Seems like there will be more holding time before you can find a family really qualified to make what would be probably be something close in cost to a monthly mortgage. Any insight on this or the best way to work it out on paper would bed great. Thanks everyone. *please feel free to let me know if this is better under another topic.  

[Steve DellaPelle]

@Michael Mastantuono why not go ahead and run the numbers on each scenario? You should be able to pull comps from Craigslist, Trulia, Zillow, etc. on rentals in your area. You will also need to think about utilities as it doesn't sound like they are individually metered. Make sure to price this into your calculator when analyzing each scenario.

It would also be a little more difficult dealing with two separate tenants versus one, not sure if you would manage or pay for professional management but another thing to consider.

Good luck!