Do I need a contract to house hack?

[Dorian Dixon]

I’ve been fighting the urge to do this. I live in a three bedroom townhouse alone. I have two sizable rooms that I’m now strongly considering to rent out. Only problem is, I don’t wanna share my space, but I could use the extra income to help me reach long term real estate goals. So if I do this, I gotta do it right. So my question is, do I need a contract for this? What kind of contract could I use? Should I require a security deposit? How do I go about checking their background?