Renting by the room in Austin

[David Orr]

Has anyone here found that they get better income by renting a house by the room rather than as a whole?  Someone said they do it here, but I wonder why.  (There was another topic about this a little bit ago but it was in the marketplace rather than the Austin forum here.)

We have a house that we rented by the room for a couple years, but we found that the market rate rent for bedrooms (we were at about $675/month in north central Austin) isn't any more than the market rate for a whole house, and it was harder to find renters for rooms.  And renting by the room was a ton more work (more turn over, more issues). I'm curious if anyone has had a different experience with that.

[Erika Butler]

It has its pros and cons for sure. You have the potential to make more income, but it requires a lot more work from you. You are constantly looking for people to rent rooms because the turnover is higher. You are also the one that has to cover the utilities included wifi and lawn maintenance. I've also noticed that these type of tenants tend to not care as much about the homes and they never get cleaned so they eventually just look disgusting. Personally, I think it's worth taking a little less in cash flow every month (it's really not much less), but in return you get tenants that actually take better care of the home and it's less work on your part.