Author Topic: Rent with roommates? With Landlord? On own?  (Read 3816 times)

astvilla

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Rent with roommates? With Landlord? On own?
« on: February 01, 2015, 07:33:35 AM »
Doesn't exactly fit this subtopic but I think the readers here would have more experience, input and insight into the question.

I'm planning on renting this summer and there seem to be 2-3 main kind of arrangements I could take.

1. Rent an entire place for myself. This would obviously be more expensive but I would have more privacy. I would rent an apartment and not a house.

2. Rent a room with other roommates. The area I'm in has a lot of homes with rooms rented out to individuals. This is a good way to save money and meet new people similar in age to me. There are drawbacks such as conflict, this happened to me before where a roommate crashed and damaged my car and refused to take responsibility for it, also keyed it but again no hard evidence, just very very strong suspicion. This was in the past though and I'm way past it already. I would have no control of who the roommates are except by picking based off visit and description. But I get to use the kitchen and save money by making my own food.

3. Rent a room in the same house as landlord. Never did this before but likely similar cost savings as #2 from listings I've seen. However not always allowed to use kitchen.

My question is what are the pros and cons of each option, particularly between #2 and #3? Rent price and a reasonably quality place are important to me. Wondering what people have to say based off their own experiences.

Also what are things to look for when picking a house and evaluating the landlord? The last landlord I had started off well but not ended well. What are qualities a tenant should look for in a good landlord that's nice and willing to listen to you? And what are expectations I would need should fulfill as a tenant?

monarda

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Re: Rent with roommates? With Landlord? On own?
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2015, 09:49:38 AM »
When I rented in grad school, I rented a 3 bedroom house myself, then I chose my roommates.  That's a variant on your arrangement #2 where you would have control.  You might want to do this with a 2 bedroom.

27y/oTennesseeRetiree

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Re: Rent with roommates? With Landlord? On own?
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2015, 11:14:32 AM »
I agree with Monarda. This leaves the ultimate financial responsibility with you but is great practice for becoming the landlord some day in situation number 3. You do a master lease with a landlord on a 4BR place for $1000 (for simplicity sake). Then you get one room for yourself and rent the master out for $400 and the other two for $350. Suddenly you are living rent free and making $100 a month towards your utilities. Your "tenants" cut the rent check to you and you cut it to your landlord. They don't even have to know how you set it up. But do tell the landlord what you are doing and make sure it is okay with him or her. Chances are as a landlord they will appreciate what you are doing and understand it. They will also like having one specific person to deal with instead of four. This would work in a college or military market especially well. Good luck!

Dicey

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Re: Rent with roommates? With Landlord? On own?
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2015, 07:53:28 PM »
When I rented in grad school, I rented a 3 bedroom house myself, then I chose my roommates.  That's a variant on your arrangement #2 where you would have control.  You might want to do this with a 2 bedroom.
I did this for years in a rent-controlled apartment. I paid the whole deposit so LL only had to deal with me. Each time a roommate moved on, I increased the rent a little, decreasing my share of the rent. I went from 50-50 to something like 30(me)-70(roomie) over ten year's time. The LL was so happy with the arrangement that several times they didn't bother to take the increase allowed, making the rent enough below market that even the person paying the big half was still getting a fair deal.
I always looked for grad students and I interviewed them like they were job candidates. A couple of them are still friends twenty years later.

astvilla

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Re: Rent with roommates? With Landlord? On own?
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2015, 09:04:07 AM »
Wow pretty interesting never thought of it that way. Are these type of arrangements very time consuming though? It kinda leaves the responsibility of finding a roommate on you and what happens if someone just ups and leaves? Guess that's why you have a contract? I'm only a bit familiar with renting in general, not an expert.

I was also wondering if anyone had experience of renting out to or renting a room in the same house as the landlord. From what I've seen, there seems to be some restrictions like no use of the kitchen, etc. What factors to consider if renting a place in the same building as landlord?

Runge

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Re: Rent with roommates? With Landlord? On own?
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2015, 10:14:54 AM »
I agree with Monarda. This leaves the ultimate financial responsibility with you but is great practice for becoming the landlord some day in situation number 3. You do a master lease with a landlord on a 4BR place for $1000 (for simplicity sake). Then you get one room for yourself and rent the master out for $400 and the other two for $350. Suddenly you are living rent free and making $100 a month towards your utilities. Your "tenants" cut the rent check to you and you cut it to your landlord. They don't even have to know how you set it up. But do tell the landlord what you are doing and make sure it is okay with him or her. Chances are as a landlord they will appreciate what you are doing and understand it. They will also like having one specific person to deal with instead of four. This would work in a college or military market especially well. Good luck!

All of the lease agreements that I've signed and seen have had a clause that specifically prohibits this, even if you live there. Be sure to check with the landlord and contract first before pursing this option.

mskyle

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Re: Rent with roommates? With Landlord? On own?
« Reply #6 on: February 02, 2015, 10:33:50 AM »
I think how these different situations work out depends more on the individuals involved than anything else. I've had landlords who insisted everyone in the house be on the lease and landlords who didn't care how I made rent/who was living there so long as we paid the rent. (FWIW, I find the loosy-goosy landlords are generally more trouble than they're worth - if they're flaky about knowing their tenants, they're flaky about other stuff too.

Where are you based? I think what's customary varies a lot based on location, too. Also, if you don't want your roommates to mess up your car, don't let them drive your car.

escolegrove

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Re: Rent with roommates? With Landlord? On own?
« Reply #7 on: February 06, 2015, 10:03:22 AM »
Just make sure you are allowed through your lease to do a "sub lease". I know know of my leases allow sub-leases. So you wouldn't be able to rent my house and than rent it out to others! Check the same thing if you rent from someone else that is renting. The last thing you want to do is get in "legal" trouble for living unauthorized.

I personally like renting from the owner. It makes things simple and they often care deeply about their house. We had done all 3 of what you proposed and it worked out great in all 3 cases. So it really comes down to your personal preference.

 

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