All Forum Posts by: Andrew Powers

I roommate house hack. Pros are that they pay me rent, can be fun to hang out with sometimes, there tends to always be somewhat at the house so less likely to be broken into. Cons are that it's sometimes inconvenient sharing common areas, there's not much privacy other than your bedroom, and people live life differently than you so there can be tension sometimes. Overall I enjoy it and currently don't require the benefits of living In my own space, but I expect that to change as I get older.

Welcome to BP! I recommend to read the BP Ultimate Beginners Guide for real estate investing. Listen to the BP podcasts, search the forums for questions you may have. And don't be afraid to network with others. Good luck with your investing!

Is the plan to evenly split profit?

Since he is living there, he could have increased responsibilities like doing repairs and property management.

So you and another roommate are in the bedrooms, you have someone else on the couch in 1 room, and this new person will be on a couch in the other room? 

Hi Ken, for rent rates and advertising I look at Craigslist and FB marketplace. My tenants are long term. Look around the area for available rooms, see how much they typically go for, and scale price based on your rooms amenities and location. Or for short term rental look at AirBnB. If a room has its own bathroom, I charge more. Make sure the price is not too close to a studio apartment because as a renter, if the price is close I'd rather a studio! 

For bathrooms, the less people sharing the better of course. But usually it isn't an issue for my house, partly due to good screening. Sometimes you just have to wait for it to be open. I recommend putting in the lease that max bathroom time shall be less than 15 minutes at a given time. 

For cleaning, my lease says all shall contribute to cleaning every 2 weeks. It's more of a roommates agreement thing to figure out. My tenants are 25+ so it doesn't get too messy... if tenants were college for example, I'd definitely do a cleaning service! 

I have good screening process, so usually I don't have issues with tenants breaking things. Issues so far are mostly related to the house, or me not making it clear how to use an appliance (added to lease for next time!)

With House hacking, you can reduce or remove your personal living expenses. That will enable you to save hundreds or thousands a month (depending where you live) which can be applied to the next house. Its also nice to learn the ropes of land loading while house hacking, and have a place to store your things instead of paying for a storage unit (if there's enough space in the garage/ basement).

Hello, my lease states individual's (non shared) living areas are full responsibility of that one roommate. And common areas are responsibility of all roommates. 

if something breaks in someone's non shared area, it is treated like a normal rental. In lease there should be a portion that states the tenant owes up to $xx for maintenance items. At least that is allowed in my state.

if something breaks in shared area, if it is obviously some specific person fault it is treated like the above non shared area. If it is a wear item, or not obviously 1 person's fault, then I fix. 

since I house hack, I am there to deal with maintenance item requests. But There are property management tools/ apps to deal with requests. 

for laundry, you can get coin / credit card operated machines. Most don't have that, especially when house hacking. Even if you add a few extra dollars to the rent for each person, that should cover it. Just make sure your room rent rate is not excessive compared to other rooms available on the market.

Hello, there are many ways to do it some options are below (make sure you state how utilities are paid/ dealt with in the lease.

1. add a premium to rent amount.

2. split utility bills equal among tenants no matter how much each one uses.

3. have tenants pay the average monthly utility bill (over a year's time).

4. there is a tool where it calculates each person's utility bill based on their living space amenities, time in the apartment, etc. I forget the name but someone may chime in.

I rent rooms. I currently do #2 but plan on changing to #1 or #3. My monthly water bill comes 2 months after usage so it is difficult to charge for it, especially after a tenant leaves. 

Yes when the tenants move in, have them switch utilities to their name. That will remove you from it (also can check online/ call utility companies to confirm they removed your name)