House Hacking With Disrespectful Tenants

[Jonathan Baptiste]

Hi all, 

I am a 27 years old and bought my first property in October. I decided to house hack and filled my rooms very quickly. I was not expecting to be best friends with my roommates but I was hoping that we would be able to communicate like adults and I would get the respect I deserve as a roommate and landlord. Unfortunately that is not the case. Things are not being clean, minor request are being met with attitude, and little gratitude is being done for what I offer for free (buying furnishing, kitchenware, cleaning supplies). There are also some small lease violations that I have overlooks over the weeks. 

I am introverted person and very kind to everyone around me. I have never once raised my voice to anyone in my home and done anything rude on purpose. But I am not being met with the same behavior. Not only that, I allow things I am not completely comfortable with in order to make my tenants happy (smoking near the house, having pets, etc).  It just very disheartening to be treated this way in my own home. But I am hesitant to play the "I own the home" card because I feel that would be an unfair thing to hang over someone's head (also my father would do that a lot and it would make me upset). 

Any thoughts on how to handle this situation?

THANKS

[Jeff White]

@Jonathan Baptiste I'm sorry you are going through this right now. The big thing I've learned over the last few years doing the rent by room strategy, you can't change the people. You can set the expectations up front, that's helped me a lot with finding, screening, and getting the best fit for the house with other like-minded individuals that respect the house and each other.

Also, another insurance policy is to give every roommate-tenant a 2-4 month lease to start as sort of a trial period to see how they fit in with the house, and if they aren't a fit, you can choose to not renew them and then replace them with someone that is a fit. If they are a fit, then you can offer renewals for another 6-12 months.  

By doing that, you will find the best group of people, and then, a majority of your problems will go away since they will have passed your 2-4 month lease test.