Rent By The Room Strategy

[Carlos Lopes]

hello everyone! Wanted some opinions on rent by the room. 

I’ve been a landlord in Cape Coral, FL for about 6 years now. Been loving the process, and has worked out pretty well so far. Unfortunately my current tenants are moving out due to financial hardships, so I’m back on the drawing board for finding new tenants. I was curious if anyone has had any luck renting by the room in the Cape. 

Until now it’s strictly been a traditional long term rental, but really curious if renting by the room would be more lucrative or even doable in the area. Is there a high demand in the cape for such leases? What’s been your overall experience with those tenants? How did you market it? I did some digging on Zillow for room rentals, and quite literally only came up with 3 listings in the entire city. Is this for a reason? Or is it because they fill very quickly? Or the demand just isn’t there? 

If all fails, I’ll just resume normal long term renting the entire unit, but seems like the market suddenly got saturated with rental competition again, and prices have dropped significantly from the peaks of COVID. 

[Jason Zundel]

Rent by the room is becoming more and more popular, especially as it allows landlords to increase earnings while lowering the per room cost.  Cape Coral is generally pretty friendly for this strategy, but does require a permit (around $35 so not too onerous), does enforce their rules strictly, and there are some zoning restrictions if the rent by the room will be on a short term basis, so verify that your properties are zoned for such.  Finally, make sure you are under the Cape Coral occupancy limit of no more than two people per average room, including children, though that can vary depending on the size of the room being rented.

Here is a link for specific codes related to Cape Coral - https://library.municode.com/fl/cape_coral/codes/code_of_ord...

Note: This information is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, financial, or investment advice. No attorney-client, fiduciary, or professional relationship is established through this communication.