Rent by the room / boarding house in NoVa?

[Geo Dan]

I'm looking to buy a property to rent by the room, preferably in Fairfax County. I see that Fairfax County has overcrowding restrictions, such as no more than 4 unrelated occupants per house. Fairfax County also requires you to have a permit of some kind to run a boarding house, but I can't find any info on this. Does someone have experience with renting by the room in Fairfax County? Is this legal?

[David Fernandez]

Hi @Geo Dan, I don't know of any permit that you need to rent by the room. As long as you don't rent it to more than 4 unrelated people, you should be good.

@Brian Jarvis, Renting by the room is a great strategy here, especially if you are looking to house-hack. It's a way to live for free in one of the most expensive areas in the country. If you are looking for an investment property, not a primary residence, you can get to cash flow it by renting it to 4 unrelated people, but don't expect it to meet the 2% rule or anything like that. If done well, your rent to purchase ratio can be 1% (rentals here are around 0.5-0.6%). Ths market, as you know, it is not a cash flow market, but you can generally bet on appreciation, annual rent increases, and a pool of great tenants. 

There are some areas that work better than others as well as property types. For example, a townhouse with low HOA fees and a walk-out basement is the property with the highest ROI when looking to rent by the room here.

Finally, the county is working on easing restrictions on permits to build/create accessory dwelling units (https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicaffairs/county-proposes-changes-accessory-dwelling-units-and-home-based-businesses-better-serve-residents). This could be a game-changer for existing single-family homes with a walk-out basement. It is not approved yet.