My short term rental did provide a service

This weekend the spouse and I dropped in at a party that we were not planning to attend, but we said we'd pop by to get rid of some unused booze. We stayed longer than I intended, chatting with lots of different people, admiring the patio (even though it was dark) and stealing design ideas. On my way out I asked the name of one of guys I was talking to on the patio and we discovered he was one of my roommate-tenants*. 

Yes, we were talking for a while not realizing we share a roof years back.

Briefly he told me my place was one of the nicest and sanest sublets he had when he first moved to DC for work. Other places had too much of a party atmosphere and he really wanted to concentrate on his career.

Meeting my former tenant and hearing the praise he had for my home and the environment I cultivated (or attempted to) for my tenants, made me appreciate the housing service I provided. If my husband and I had a larger home, we might entertain the idea of having tenant-roommates, because I believe I served a need when I rented out my extra room.

I know the default preferred renter mentioned around BP is the family looking for great public neighborhood schools who sticks around for 8 years. In the area where I live in the NW quadrant of the District of Columbia there are a whole lotta college educated singles who live with roommates or in group houses or if older, alone. Families, the ones with the kids, typically are buying their homes and unless you're west of Rock Creek Park or in that special part of Capital Hill, the schools are a non-starter. Charter schools are the thing keeping some young families in the city. Those people weren't my niche.

My niche was the college educated professional who just landed in DC, or is transitioning or had a temporary assignment, or the college student (grad student) who was attending one of the several colleges that the bus (1 block away) went to or who was doing an internship. In some point in my life, I've been the grad student, the intern, the term federal employee, and the new DC arrival, I was renting to my people.

Rent in DC can be expensive. Rent in NW DC is expensive and rent in NW DC near a metro is definitely expensive. So younger people, the ones just starting their careers in government, media, law tend to seek out roommates as a way of affording to live in the hot neighborhoods. Group houses are cheaper but the dynamics of a group house can be its own price. I provided a quiet, clean, semi-affordable place (I kept increasing rents with each new tenant) with only 1 roommate (me) and no pets along several bus route and within a 10 minute walk to the metro.

Though I'm out of the rental game in DC for now, I do recognize that among my neighbors they are meeting some of the rental needs of single professionals. Some have taken on 1 or 2 roommates to help with the mortgage. Some have made their legal (and not so legal) basements separate studio-1-2 bedroom units, where the rents help out with the mortgage. Most of the renters are singles, some couples and everyso often a young family.

*Strangely we were not the only set of people at the party to wonder "Hey didn't we live together?"