My first landlady gig- roommate landlord

When I bought my first house in '01, where I am still living, it was a great time to be a first time homebuyer in Washington DC. At the time I had a housing doula (counselor really), a decent agent, the Federal $5000 tax credit, low interest rate and a local program that rid me of property taxes for 5 years.  My mortgage for my 2 bedroom 1.5 bath with cellar was less than $600-$500 (insurance included).

Once I got settled I got a roommate a few months after and became a landlady. I had always had roommates through college and after college when I was renting and they were a great way to save money. The hardest part was figuring out what to charge people as I was never sure what the market would bear and there were some limitations I'd put on my roommates.  The best part was I learned a lot about tenant screening and practicing the hard stuff.

My tenant market were short term people who were in DC for an internship, a fellowship, school (I'm near a university), temporary change of duty location, or just getting their bearings before they bought or got a place of their own. I provided a furnished room, laundry facilities and use of most of the house. 

Early ads were in the CityPaper a weekly free newspaper. A few years later when I moved on to Craigslist things got challenging. Spammers came with the ease of Craigslist and I made it a rule not to rent to anyone who didn't see the place. There was another reason for the in person on site interview, the neighborhood. My neighborhood is/was "transitional", the 'hood and not everyone is okay living with economy diversity. I gained practice in crafting my ads to get the right person because they'd also be my roommate. I will never advertise in the Washington Post. Did that once, regretted every single person it brought.

In the 10 years I rented out my master bedroom, I charged between $450 to $875 a month. Sometimes I'd include utilities. When I first got my house it was renovated for sale with all sorts of problems, and the rents were in the lower range. After a big renovation to address the 1st bad reno job, I began charging $700. As the neighborhood starting getting trendier and gunshots were not ringing in the air at night, I could charge more. 

Sometime in between all that I bought a house in Florida, which sadly I could not seem to charge as much. Maybe if I could remove my current tenants and renovate, maybe I could... The location is not as good, no gunshots, but no trendy restaurants nor any decent public transit. Eh, it cash flows. And the income from the DC room, helped purchase the Florida place.

I stopped renting out my extra room when I got married. I do miss looking at an empty room and thinking, "I want money, time for a Craigslist ad."