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In 2009, my fiancé and I bought our first home. It’s a lovely 1970’s contemporary-style home.

Our first home.

Before that, we were renting a townhome together along with a mutual friend and offered him to rent a room from us when we closed on our home. We used the lease that we had with the townhome landlord and modified it for our own use. All in one day, we were homeowners and [live-in] landlords! We’ve been renting out one or two of our extra rooms ever since.

When people hear that we rent out rooms in our home, a lot of times they ask, “but don’t you want privacy”? Well, yes, of course; and I personally feel I have privacy. Most of our roommates have had fairly busy social lives leading them out of the house often. I’ve never felt smothered or my space invaded. I ask, why let an empty room that has no use just sit there when it could make money for you? This set up can be tailored to your preferences. For example, we started out doing yearly leases, but now are starting off month-to-month. After having a roommate or two with questionable cleaning habits, we couldn’t commit to a year with anyone anymore.

But as suddenly as we became homeowners, we discovered the stream of income our new home provided. Renting out one bedroom gives us $700 per month and that does not include electric/gas, water, and cable! When we were renting out two bedrooms, that income per month doubled. To date, assuming just one room rented since 2009, that is a total of $42,000 not including utility payments! That is impressive income for basically doing nothing.

At tax time, we learned of the extra write offs we could do because our house was a partial rental. All of our renters besides the friend have been found via Craigslist, Roommates.com, or message boards at our work. For an active couple with no children and openness to the idea of sharing part of our home, it was no question that this was a great first stream of rental income!