I live in a house that I own (OK, I have a mortgage), and my setup is that I have a suite in the basement with 3 young Japanese female students renting.
It's been that way for about 2 years now and it all works quite smoothly, the rents cover my expenses. They are no bother and seem to like to keep things clean and orderly, which suits me fine. As a landlord of 15 years, I'd say this is the smoothest least hassle set up I've had.
I'd like to spend some time seeing my family in Europe and the east coast (I'm over on the west coast)
Time ticks on and my father is in the U.K. and has a heart condition, my grandkids growing up on the east coast, and I feel like this desire to be around them is more than just wanting to travel for the sake of wanting to alleviate boredom etc...
To help with the cost of the trips, I could rent out my place on air bnb while I visit them. But I have my reservations, as I've never done it before.
A couple of things that make me hesitant are just this idea of having people living in my place and 3 females downstairs. It could get strange?
I have a friend that tried air bnb, he had some guys stay there and they had done identity theft and stolen credit card, he caught them unscrewing the bulbs from his security lights, so they scarpered and he called the cops. It wasn't the only time he had a problem like that.
Nowadays he rents his place out as a furnished rental to people in the city on business contracts. He still says how he should be renting it out on air bnb as he could get x$ more that way... yet he doesn't, and doesn't really have an answer as to why not.
I can only presume it's because in reality it's a pain in the neck.
Has anyone got any experiences to share, both good and not so good? Anyone tried it not as a full time thing, but just while they were away on holiday?
I live in a city that has less than 1% vacancy rate, so there's lots of demand. But I'd just be away from my place for maybe 3 months a year for the next 3 years or so. Then I'll be ready to sell and move either to the east coast or back to the U.K.
So I guess the question is how to best rent out my place for 1 to 3 months a year without it going wrong, and not feeling anxious at the thought of what could go wrong.
One thing comes to mind is that time to time the parents of the students downstairs come to visit them and stay in hotels. I could put the word out that they could rent my space and just kind of plan my trips around the times they would like to stay here.
Another is I have friends and friends of family in UK that might like to stay here and rent while I'm away. That too could be OK... it's just the thought of some kind of random person staying here that has me a bit bothered.