All Forum Posts by: Jacob Shumate

So a couple months ago, I had a tenant send me a very large unhinged message accusing me of breaking his headlight in the garage plus other things. I'm house hacking so I do live in the basement while managing the property but had nothing to do with it and no idea who did. I was very polite and empathetic about his situation which I told him he could contact auto or rental insurance to file a claim. I chalked it up that he was going through some personal stuff but would not be renewing his lease, his lease ends on the last day of July.

Well, a month went by and then I got to wake up to another large unhinged text of him accusing of another tenant of mine of a disgusting and sexual act in the bathroom openly in the household's group chat. I felt this was going completely overboard and that this guy should have spoken privately with the other individual instead of putting the guy on blast in front of everyone.

I had a private conversation with the difficult tenant. I allowed him to speak to understand his side of the story but told him even if the accusation was true, he should have spoken with the guy one-on-one. I ended up sending an email with a notice to vacate with 45 days where he violated the lease term: 

"Tenant shall conduct himself/herself in a
manner conducive to the peaceful enjoyment of the Premises. Tenant therefore agrees (a) to
refrain from any behavior which is loud, obstructive, rude, offensive, boisterous, or disorderly; Any violation of this paragraph may, in Landlord’s sole discretion, be cause for termination of the Lease and or Tenant’s tenancy."

Since he didn't respond, I assumed he would be out by then. I would give him 24 hour notices for doing showings, halfway through the month he confirmed that he would be out by the last day of the month.

I signed on his replacement, got the security deposit and was good to go. This guy waits till 5 days before he is supposed to vacate to txt me saying that it's really inconvenient for him right then. He talked to the sheriffs office and they said they don't have an eviction notice and so he doesn't have to leave. He also talked to a lawyer who said what I was doing was unlawful. So he does not plan on moving out anymore and will stay until the remainder of his lease. I know he's lying but I can't prove it.

So I'm not too happy about how this turned out. I had to tell the new guy that the room won't be available, sincerely apologized, canceled his lease, and returned his security deposit back. This brings me to my next question.

This guy has 2 months on the lease left so I don't think it would be worth evicting him. But I'm worried about the new Colorado law HB 24-1098 and if it could impact my situation on non-renewal. I'm afraid this guy may retaliate or not move out when the lease expires. I don't understand the clause "substantial lease violation". Based on the 2 violations, is that enough for me to not renew his lease?

Hey, I've been house hacking my first property where I lived down in the basement with it's own kitchenette, bathroom and laundry for the last 1.5 years. I'd had 5 tenants share the rest of the house which has been a pretty good experience. I didn't want to spend a ton sound proofing the basement ceiling so instead I went with a cheaper route where I put down felt padding with a rug on top that covered the entire living space that was over my area. I'm 100% remote so it's necessary to have. 

I'm looking for my #2 house hack in a similar fashion but instead of managing 5 more tenants, I'm looking into doing section 8 where I can reduce work load with managing only one lease for a family. I plan on doing the same for common areas, felt pad with rug area that covers the entire area and will establish rules of no shoes in the house. I understand that with section 8 especially a 5bd, you're going to have a lot of kids. The house I'm looking at fortunately has all 4 bedrooms on the 2nd floor and I'll be converting one of the two living rooms on the 1st floor into an additional bedroom.

I understand people here have had differing experiences with section 8. Has anyone had experiences of living in SFH and/or stacked duplex where you had a 4/5bd family live on top of you, what was that like? Can I assume that the kids will be in school during the day and that I only have to deal with noise say 4-8/9pm? Will it be that loud? I have some hesitation because this may be drastically different compared to what I've been accustomed to with rent-by-room tenants.

@Brandon P.

Month to month has too much uncertainty. The reason I do a 2/3 month lease is a form of a trial period that benefits both sides. The tenant gets to try it out to see if it's a good fit without locking them into a lease, I get to know whether they will be a good tenant (paying rent on time and getting along with others nor causing me any issues). I lock them into the 8-10 month so they can't break their lease in the middle of winter which I've been told is very difficult to find new tenants during that time of the year.

@Ben Einspahr

I already include utilities with rent. There is a chance for tenants to overuse the utilities but I'd rather take that chance then deal with the hassle of charging each person their share based on the total usage of the household.

As part of description I include "2/3 month leases for fit with up to 1 year extension", and reiterate in my showing that I'm only interested if they are interested in extending if it's a good fit. I always ask and get them to sign the renewal 30 prior of the end of their current lease, otherwise start ads for their replacement.

I was dropping it to $750 after 2 weeks. It also seems like I get flooded with a lot of low quality applicants on fb market the cheaper it gets.

@Ryan Thomson

1. I think I'm good on photos, they're professional but always room for improvement.
2. You sure about Craigslist? I've heard it's became worse due to scammers and low quality applicants. I'll checkout Roomster and apartments.com

4. I'm still learning about this as I go. If I get a lot of interest, I try to do showings with at least 2 people. But sometimes I only have one person for a week, which I'm afraid of putting off the showing for too long where they would lose interest. I generally schedule the showing 1 or 2 days after the initial pre-screen. How long can you usually wait?

5. I'll try that on apartments.com then.

Yes I've been following that blog since last month, great content!

Hey Brandon,

Yes I have, I get most of my advice from @Jeff White

I learned that I was too verbose in my ad, messaging format and too long winded during my showings. Last year was a few back and forth messaging that I guess was more human. I was trying to automate to save time but ended up sending 3 paragraphs to the response "Is it available?". I thought that if they didn't reply they weren't serious but I think I was over pre-screening plus too much info all at once. I significantly reduced all 3 categories while still keeping important details and screening criteria. 

Photos are professional and I'm asking $750 which includes utilities for standard 10x10 rooms in Westminster. I was getting $800 for the last year, that may have been luck but is also the market rate for the area.

I don't do month-to-month but usually a 2/3 month lease to start then extended into a 8-10 month lease afterwards if it's a good fit. I also require 30 day minimum notice in my leases.

Thanks,

Jacob

Well that post looks awful. I'll try to make it easier regarding the questions.

1. What ways have you changed that significantly impacted application turn out for room-by-rent rentals? 

2. Is there other platforms to advertise on other than fb market place and roomies.com? 

3. I don't start ads until the tenant lets me know which is usually 30 days before the lease is up, should I be advertising 60 days prior to the lease ending? 

4. How many showings do you give a week before you get a lease signed for rent-by-room properties? 

5. It seems that I'm limited to only fb market place and roomies.com that allow ads for private rooms, are there others or other ways to get around zillow, trulia, padmapper that only accept rentals as a whole property? 

6. Is there a method to posting on market place, I've seen fb penalize my ads when I renew them and the boosting does not go as far as it did the first week, so I delete, repost and boost weekly.

Hey,

So I purchased my first SFH last year and quickly rented out 4 rooms before my 1st mortgage payment was due. I walled off the dining room creating an additional 5th bedroom turning the house to a 5bd/2.5ba and rented that one before my 2nd mortgage payment was due. I started with 2/3 month leases which were extended into the next year where now I've been dealing with turnover. Finding new tenants has not been easy but I also had some faults on my end which I learned of and fixed recently.

I'm hoping that this will improve application turnout. I've been told by a few in the Denver house hacking group that my house meets all the criteria for what rent-by-room people would be looking for. I also have strong screening, 3x income, 600+ credit, clean backgrounds, no evictions, felonies, or bankruptcies, 1-2 landlord references. It is 2720 sqft property, plenty of patio space, updated kitchen, lots of furnished common areas with kitchen supplies in a great location of Westminster only 15 min from downtown Denver. A few things I can think of that would deter applicants

     - 4 bedrooms have to share one full bath upstairs and half bath on the main floor

     - The yard is not perfect, especially the back. Grass is dead and hardly any plants in the garden beds. It's an ongoing project

     - I don't have tv in any of the common areas, I was advised not to where it would minimize potential tenant altercations

     - I have tenants on a rotating cleaning schedule where they only have to do their part every 4-5 weeks. I planned on hiring out cleaning                       services once I had moved out.

     - No pets. Love them but don't want to deal with them which I know that shrinks my target market by 70% considering nearly everyone in                 Colorado has a pet

     - I tell them in the showing that I am the landlord, live and work remotely in the basement. I don't share the rest of the house, I have my own           kitchen/bathroom.

I've had to go $25-75 down under market rate and it still feels like a struggle to get applications. I even changed from TurboTenant to Innago to reduce the application fees from $55 down to $35. I lowered the overall security deposits but started to do one-time move-in fees where security deposit plus fee is $100 less than rent. I'm also part of many local Denver/Boulder/Colorado housing groups where my ads get posted as well. 

What ways have you changed that significantly impacted application turn out for room-by-rent rentals? Is there other platforms to advertise on other than fb market place and roomies.com? I don't start ads until the tenant lets me know which is usually 30 days before the lease is up, should I be advertising 60 days prior to the lease ending? How many showings do you give a week before you get a lease signed for rent-by-room properties? It seems that I'm limited to only fb market place and roomies.com that allow ads for private rooms, are there others or other ways to get around zillow, trulia, padmapper that only accept rentals as a whole property? Is there a method to posting on market place, I've seen fb penalize my ads when I renew them and the boosting does not go as far as it did the first week, so I delete, repost and boost weekly.

Maybe I am worrying about trivial things but I don't like advertising for 3-4 weeks then the last week of the month I get bombarded by less quality interest only to get one applicant that I'm desperate to lease to so I don't have a vacancy. If there is something I missed, please ask any additional questions. Thank you

@Tanner Pile

Go with Branch. Surprisingly they are cheaper than what I had last year. According to my broker, it is a new insurance company that started covering Colorado last year. Since they started after the 2020 wild fires occurred so they never had to pay out any claims.

Hi,

Recently my insurance renewed for my home which there was a increase of over 50% to my premium. I've made no claims which they told me that this was increases across the board. I find this to be a ridiculous increase so I decided to start shopping around elsewhere and have gotten some quotes which included home-sharing coverage from a couple of independent brokers. After getting those quotes, I decided that I would try to cut the middle man out (independent brokers partnerships with insurance companies are factored into the premium, but I could be wrong) further reducing my premium by directly contacting the insurance companies based off those quotes. I contacted Travelers Insurance and after talking with an agent, I was told that they could not underwrite my policy due to the fact that I was renting out by the room and not to a family. I currently live in the basement of a SFH and rent out 5 bedrooms with 3-12 month leases.

I don't understand this. I tell the independent brokers the same as I what I tell the insurance company. How come brokers can find polices that include home-sharing but I can't do it directly with the insurance company? Is there a point of being too honest with the insurance company when asked about whether renting by the room vs family and short lease vs long lease terms? I don't want to lie and later be denied a claim if I ever had to file one. But also can the insurance company determine who I rent to and how long I rent rooms for? 

Is it also true that if you frequently switch insurance companies that it will reflect in increases in the premium? I don't know for sure but I think that I may have gotten the new customer promotional rate with Safeco then followed into the 2nd year where they significantly increased the premium. Seems kind of sketchy like what cable/internet companies do which I would hate to have to change insurance every year to get competitive rates. I understand that insurance gradually goes up every year due to various factors but a 50% increase seems excessive.

I know I said I wanted to cut the middle man out but I would like to go with an independent insurance broker if they can find me a competitive policy so if anyone could recommend someone that specializes in house hacking rent-by-room strategy for the Denver metro area, that would be great as well!