Duplex with 4/2 up & down. Rented out by the room currently.

[Charles Fletcher]

The seller wants $260,000 for a duplex with 8 bedrooms, he is willing to manage it and guarantee rents for 12 months as part of the deal. It's in an area with a lot of transient oil refinery workers, they are often well paid but only needed for 6-9 months. It's kind of like a really nice private man camp I guess.

He is currently collecting about $5,500 in rent at 100% occupancy and covering all bills for the tenants. If I wanted to go traditional and find families to rent to, it would probably bring in $4,200 a month. 

I feel like having 8 rooms to rent out making managing it more of a full time job than going the traditional route, but also brings in higher rents and a vacancy may be 1/8 or 3/8 rather that either 50% or 100% vacant.

Do you have any experience with renting by the room, any serious pitfalls I'm not aware of? The numbers make a lot of sense.