All Forum Posts by: Dhaval Sheth

" A year from now, you'll wish you had started today." - Karen Lamb

I love this quote so much that I have photo framed it at my desk.

@Ned J. No. I meant to say that he asked me to find a roommate for him to share an apartment and he will be happy to sign one-year lease after that. And I gave him a choice to bring a referral such as his friend or colleague that I will screen before allowing him to stay in the apartment. Sorry for the confusion.

Here is little more insight on why I am trying to work this situation out. So the 2 brothers  who stayed here for past 3 years were the best tenant I can wish for. Never late on any payment, looked after the house as if it was their own, will ask for my permission even to put a nail in the wall kind of tenants. The only reason the elder brother is moving out is job related. Currently, younger brother has switched from yearly to monthly lease because he can’t afford to pay $1200 on his own for the whole year. He said that if I find someone to share an apartment, he will happily sign 1-yr lease. I gave him option to get a friend to stay with him and he tried to find someone for the month of April/May but wasn’t lucky. So as of now he has paid 2 months’ rent plus utilities and is really hoping that we find a tenant so he can continue to live here because he loves the house and neighborhood. He may move out of the house in a year or two and then the goal is to rent it to family.

Seeing his urge to continue living in this house and the fact that we are going to do credit/background check for a new tenant, I think this situation will work out for 1-year term.

So in short, this tenant has never given me any chances to complain so I feel it is not fair to throw him out of the house so that I can rent the house to family. Please correct me if little emotions like this is helpful or not helpful in this business. I am relatively new to REI.

@Marc Winter Good advice. I will remember your words. Thank you!

@Matthew Paul I am not living in the apartment. I have a tenant in the master room.

@Rick Imby Yes, he is paying all the utilities at this time in addition to rent at higher rate because he went from yearly lease to monthly lease.

@Ned J. Thank you. I see your point in that. Makes everything overcomplicated! I think I may just rent the room to one person

@Allan Smith Thank you. Lots of good advices in your reply!

@Theresa Harris That is what I am thinking of charging if only one tenant comes to stay in that room. The house is in close proximity to one IT company that has lots of young bachelor employees. So there are fair chances that two people would want to share a room. How would you divide rent in such situation? 

I put such situation in Splitwise rent calculator and it suggested me to charge $560 to master room and $640 ($320 each) to the 2nd room. I may be wrong but I did not find it fair to charge this way. 

Thank you!

I have 2 bedroom/2.5 bathroom rental property. Two brothers were living in the house so far but one brother has moved out so that room is open to rent. The current tenant is in the master bedroom with private full bath. The available second bedroom is smaller in size (80% of the master bedroom) and there will be personal full bathroom assigned to whoever stays in that room but it is outside the room. Apart from these differences, the roommates will share everything equally. It is 1088 sq. ft property with an additional 600 sq. ft space of the unfinished basement and I am going to set the total rental price at $1250 for 1 yr lease. 

Here are my questions:

1. How should I divide the rent if one person comes to live in the available bedroom?

2. How should I divide the rent if two people come to live in the smaller bedroom while the current tenant lives alone in the bigger bedroom?

Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thank you.