Rent by Room Utilities

[Christopher Roper]

I'm about to close on my first investment property (a rent-by-room house hack in San Antonio) and I couldn't be more excited!

Rent-by-room landlords, how do y'all handle utilities? Flat fee? Build it into rent? Or charge back the tenants? If so, what software do you use? Thanks!

[Rick Pozos]

Hey @Christopher Roper

I have done the 'all bills paid' kind of thing before. I would figure out what the cost is for the highest month and use that number and bake it into your monthly rent. Keep track of the electric, but it might get to be a pain to charge everyone different amounts of electricity every month. And I bet it will be at a different time of the month than the rent is due. Just charge them a flat rent and be good with it. Some months you make a little extra, some months you break even. When you get to 5 houses with 3 or 4 tenants in each, you will be trying to collect 15 to 20 electric bills. Too much headache for me.