All Forum Posts by: Nicole Masters

I have my most success with roomies.com, and the second most success with Craigslist shockingly. I always post on FB marketplace, but have never gotten anyone through there. We've brought in a total of 9 roommates over the past 2.5 years (we have a large house) and one of the comments I get most often is that our posting stood out because of the pictures and description. I would suggest looking at that and making sure it stands out from other postings to have a higher success rate.

I'd be happy to take a look at it and give you any friendly feedback if you want to shoot me a direct message :)

Hi James! 

First of all, congrats on the wedding, that's so exciting! My husband and I bought our first single family househack a few months after getting married back in 2020, so I'm familiar with where you guys are at.

I honestly don't think you need any type of mentor to get started on something like this. I think between networking with other local investors (who you can meet at meetups) and speaking with/using an investor friendly agent who has househacked themselves or has intimate knowledge in the subject you should be good to go. The best way to learn is by doing it!

We rent by the room househack in California so happy to answer any questions you think we could help with!

Like an occupancy tax? I believe this is specific to the county you live in.

 I second everything Dan said! We've been renting our rooms out for the past 2.5 years and always use leases. We like Avail.co because they have good lease templates and we also collect all of our rent through them as well. Roomies.com has been my favorite place to find roommates by far, it's also a great spot to check for comps if you want to see how much other people are renting for in your area. Shockingly I've gotten 2 amazing roommates through Craigslist as well. 

Congrats on joining the REI community and good luck on your adventures! :)

I agree with @Karl McGarvey, cashflow is getting tougher and tougher even when renting out your rooms. However, when we were running our numbers looking for househacks we always made sure to account how much we were currently paying in rent into the numbers so we could keep in mind how much we would be saving by buying a house as opposed to renting. 

I will echo what everyone else said, try looking at apartments of similar size if there are no comps for you. I would also try looking at Craigslist, Roomies.com, and Facebook marketplace to see what people are renting their bedrooms in their house out for and know you can charge about 50% more than that.

Hey Seth! That is so exciting that you're getting interested in this at such a young age! I'm actually from Salem Oregon (Go Sprague Olympians lol) so it's always cool to see my hometown pop up in here. My husband went to OSU and always commented about how he wished he had bought a house and rented the rooms to his friends - because they all shared houses all the time anyway.

I think getting your foot in the door and buying a house where you can rent out the bedrooms is a smart move if you can cover the difference between rents and all of your bills (if there is anything left over).

We own a 6 bedroom house and rent out the rooms so if you need any help once you get started please feel free to shoot me a message and I'd love to help!

 I couldn't agree with Paul more. I personally househack rent by the room and we've had a total of 9 roommates in the past 2.5 years and I would only accept somebody if they met ALL of my background and income qualifications. Trust me, there are better qualified people out there. Don't risk it.

As far as what COULD go wrong, they could give you 3 months rent just to get their foot in the door and then have the intention to stay past 3 months without paying you. Even if you try to evict them it could take a very long time and they could end up on top. They already have bad credit so not much to lose for them.

Hey Prince! Would you be looking for a full time or part time individual?