I'm surprised almost no one talks about the LAYOUT of the house!

[Account Closed]

Doesn't all your monthly income hinge on this?  The average size of bedroom in my middle class area is 100 - 150 sq ft.  The average median priced home here is about $300,000 and about 2000 sq ft, often not including the basement.  Do the math.  That could be an awful lot of revenue!  Most dummies with houses rent to one family and get about $1500 - $2000/month but if they rented to individuals here they'd get about $600/month for say 125 sq ft.  Just one floor could have about 8 people!  That's $4800 a month.  Then there are the other 2 floors if you use the basement.  The problem is the layout. 

Young families want to keep an eye on their young children to keep them safe so they want more of an open concept type layout.  Perfectly understandable but not good for renting to individuals.  We want the absolute opposite!  And that's the problem.
   
Things like closets, expansive stairwells, unnecessary hallways, consume a LOT of space.  By having all your rooms fan out from a center kitchen and bathroom on a shared accommodation floor you minimize hallways.  Instead of closets everything should be on wall mounted shelving that is height adjustable.  This way you can put a short shelf under a deep shelf.  Anything you want is possible if its wall mounted.  Think wall standards like we've seen in grocery stores....that type of design.  Paint it black to make it look more stylish if you want. 

The more I think about this the more I wonder why so many people overlook this?

The focus should be getting a run down property cheap, then use that discount to change the layout to best maximize revenue because almost no house really works very well for this.  And soundproofing it up the ying yang!  Young families want to hear little Johnny if he falls down.  We don't want to hear our renters and they certainly don't want to hear each other.  Sound proofing is a must.  

All of this applies to short term rentals as well of course.  Even more so as they tend to be louder.  They're more likely to want a self contained area with a mini kitchen.  

[Jeff Copeland]

Of course floor plan is important. It isn't talked about a lot because it goes without saying. 

But different business models work for different people in different situations with different needs and goals. 

Calling people "dummies" because they chose to implement a long-term rental strategy is narrow minded. 

Co-living is a sound business model that is taking off in many markets across the country where it makes sense. But it is limited by obvious things like zoning and parking restrictions, as well as not-so-obvious things like management intensity. 

There's no getting around the fact that having 4, 5, or 8 tenants living in a single family home with shared common space is going to take a lot of work for the landlord and/or property manager. 

By contrast, I have LTR single family homes where the same tenants have been in place for 6 years. It's a much more passive model.