All Forum Posts by: Summer Chen

I discovered that I was operating a boarding house when I paid a local RE attorney to review my “lease.” I’m house hacking while renting 2 bedrooms to “boarders,” which is my county’s maximum allowable. 

 Yes it does. For example in Austin the law is currently a maximum of 6 unrelated people can occupy one residence.

Make sure your local laws allow "boarding house" rentals.

 It is difficult enough to get human housemates to get along and clean up after themselves. I would not add pets to the mix.

As I stated above, if you have a No Pet policy, you should ALSO establish an Assistance Animal Policy that applies to Service Animals, Emotional Support Animals, Comfort Animals or any other name for a Non Pet. If you are allowing pets, but being very restrictive as to type, size, etc. you should still develop an Assistance Animal Policy to maintain reasonable control over the situation. Of course with a full "pets" allowed property, you STILL want some rules in place for animals, along the lines of what I mentioned for the Assistance Animal Policy. There really is nothing there that is not simply respecting others on the property, and ensuring the health of the animal.

In most cases it is illegal to just deny an ESA request, but there are exceptions known as "Mrs. Murphy's exemption"...google it.

Hi Summer,

While I'm not sure about the legality of denying an ESA I think doing your best to limit pets as much as possible when renting by the room is the best strategy. Pets certainly add more risk of renter to renter conflict, not to mention allergies, etc.

LTR, Whole unit MTR, By the room MTR, STR

These are all great strategies for a house in San Diego, but what is the "best" strategy?  Short answer: the one that works for you.

Longer answer: Is what you want to do legal in your area? STRs are famously under attack by municipalities and HOAs. Your neighbors *will* turn you in if STRs are not legal in your area. When rehabbing for a rent by the room strategy, make sure you don't run afoul local zoning laws. For instance, adding a 2nd kitchen might be viewed as making an illegal duplex in a SFH.

Decide which headaches you want. LTRs are commonly viewed as less stressful, but if making less money is a stress, then you need to factor that in. Do you love juggle your own schedule? How would you feel about juggling your properties? If that is something that you enjoy, then you may be well rewarded with STRs. Do you de-escalate interpersonal conflict well? That is a necessary skill in rent-by-the-room.

It sounds like you are doing a great job of running the "what if" scenarios, but ultimately, you will have to decide which path to try first. Most mistakes that can be made in being a landlord are not fatal ones, so if something doesn't pan out the way you want, pivot.  Try another model.

To answer specific questions you posted: Noise monitors are available that can be mounted in a room. Set a reasonable decibel limit in your lease and enforce it.

By-the-room and "allows pets" strikes me as a bad recipe.  People who are traveling through for work are going to be leaving their pet alone for hours at a time, and that would concern me (and my insurer).

Emotional Support Animals are legally allowed to break the "no pets" policy. We've not had it come up yet in our practice, but we would abide by the law. One note, some court rulings in some circuits have limited the allowable animals to traditional dogs and cats, disallowing exotic ESA.  Hopefully, you will never have to allow an emotional support peacock. :)

I agree with Andrew that it is worth trying a whole house MTR strategy. It may earn less, but it allows for a great opportunity to learn (and thus to decide if by-the-room is preferred). Also, renting the whole house as an MTR to a insurance company may be the best of all worlds.

 5-10 people could if the space supports it. Give it a try and see if you like it. Some people dislike the multi personalities. You could probably rent 700-900 bucks per bedroom pending your area or the whole house for 3K+ pending your area (I'm using New England numbers). You just need to vet each tenant well to avoid major headaches. 

Room by room is specific to each apartment. I personally don't feel it is worth the headache unless the building can support the space required. Whole housing is less headache, especially when starting out. Make sure you use door locks for room rentals for each room and have the space to support storage.