Does anyone have a tenant?

We are considering buying a house with an apartment. The extra income from the rent will help tremendously!

Do any of you rent an apartment in your home? Has it been a good experience? Do you have your tenant sign a lease, or have you kept it informal?

Right now I am looking through classifieds to see how much rents are in the area so that we can approximate a price and figure it in our numbers.

It seems like a good opportunity. Just interested in everyone's experience.

Thanks!!

I do not rent an apt in my home. However, I had a lot of experience with tenants growing up.

It is my very strong opinion that you should not buy a house that you are unable to pay the mortgage for independently. If you rely on the rent to pay the mortgage, you may get yourself in a very tough bind. The law is almost entirely in the favor of a tenant. If your tenant decides they do not want to pay the rent for whatever reason, it will cost you thousands as well as many months of waiting until they are finally evicted. In the meantime, you are stuck with the mortgage and most tenants could care less if you lose your life savings in the process.

I know of one person who lost their home as a result of this. And a few others that were very close to losing their own and would have if they didnt get a bail out from family to help them thru the many months of court battles.

I only wish you the best and you MAY get a great tenant...but I wont even go into all my tenant horror stories about other sorts of tenants...just that be wary.

I disagree with the other replies already posted..

Even though anything can happen, the chances are HIGHLY unlikely.. my parents have tenants, and they've always been blessed to have some great people living there. .. they have someone to watch the house when they are away, and the extra income is gravy!

Use your best discretion when renting.. It's sad to say, but you should rent to someone preferably single, or a couple that works.. try to stay away from having small families, or children.. Not that I have anything against them, but most neighbors can't stand that AND god forbid something happens, ie, one the kids fall and break something..

Good luck.

My parents have been landlords of a 6family home in Queens for over 25 years. IT STINKS! Like Stef said, you MAY luck out and get a great tenant. But the law is TOTALLY in favor of tenants. I have loads of horror stories also, and I am SOOO HAPPY that my parents recently bought a 1family home (they still own the other one, but its a HUGE difference not to live there!) Its a great income for them, and thats about it. They are pushovers (TOO NICE !!) and tenants have always stepped all over them!

I guess it can depend on, are you looking at 2 family homes, or 1 family homes with 'rentable' apartments/remodeled garage/apartments, etc.
If its a 2family home, I would consider it. But if you are sharing your living space, (backyard) it might be a little awkward especially if youve never lived like that before.

When you buy a home, it is your castle. Your safehaven, something you DONT want to share. We also have plenty of room to be able to rent our downstairs (full kitchen bath, separate entrance, 4 empty rooms) but fortunately we dont need to, and my husband is an only child, wont share his lunch, never mind his home! It also depends alot on your personalities. I WOULD consider it if I had to (have 3 siblings, learned to share). DH would rather live in a BOX he can call his own !

I also wish you lots of luck, but when it comes to buying a home, try to buy what you can afford and make it all yours. Think about things like: they will be asking to share the backyard, when you have company, will they have company also? You will not feel 'comfortable' in your own home.

We have a tenant in our house. She is an older woman who works full time & has grandchildren in our neighborhood. She's wonderful. I can honestly say that this has been a relatively painless experience & having the income has made it possible to do lots of extra things. Not that I couldn't afford to have the house without her, but her rent makes life much easier!

As far as finding her, I contacted a few local realtors & had them come in & give me an idea of what the going rates were. I got about the same answer from all of them, so I knew how to price the appt. I listed it for the average price .... not the highest. I wanted someone who would stay in the apt .... having the apt vacant even once a year would cost you money!

I would not list privately, deal with a real estate agency ... b/c its impt that your tenant be screened, have references, & good credit. It does not cost you anything.... the fee is paid by the tenant.

When she came & looked at the apt. she asked me if I would take $25 less than what I wanted. Because I knew that she would be a great tenant & wouldn't be moving out any time soon ... I accepted. Its worth it to have someone consistently, than a revolving door. I've also never raised her rent in the 2 1/2 years that she's been living with me.

Any questions ... feel free to fm me! Good luck!

My parents had tenants the entire time I was growing up and we had some very good and some very bad experiences. We had one couple that was the best and stayed for 5 years. Very sweet and considerate and we even socialized with them. After they left we hit a few losers in a row, including one that I had to have arrested while my parents were away.

My only advice to you is to make sure you interview them thoroughly (get references) before you rent them the apartment. Remember they are going to be living in your house and you need to be extremely comfortable with seeing these people on almost a daily basis.

Good luck!!

I rent out my apartment. I think this is different than renting an apartment in a house though.
I was nervous about it, as once the tenant is in, they do have most of the rights. Like what if she lost her job and couldnt' pay rent? She'd could live there until I hired an attorney and forced her out. I'd be due all my $$ back b/c of the lease etc.. etc.. but hopefully I will never have to go through that. My co-op board runs a huge background check on the tenants, so for that I'm not worried.
I definitely wouldn't have that income be reliable to pay my mortgage. If I couldn't rent if for a month or so while it was empty, I'm still accountable for my mortgage. (obvioulsy)
Good luck! I do think renting can be a good expierece, but you need to be careful who you rent to.

we had tenants who would sublet to family and friends (charge them money to stay!) and theyd tell my parents 'my sister is visiting' they had a thousand SISTERS !
Guess who paid the hot water bill for all these sisters to VISIT/ take LONGG showers for months ???
Thank God my mom has the mouth and the wit to outsmart these wiseA$$es. She never let ONE thing slip by her! She knew how many people were in the aptmts at ALL times, and she would put her foot down ALOT more than my dad...
She was very LENIENT on alot of things (late rent if they were having $$ trouble, late parties, she was understanding) but if she had an suspicion that they were lying or pulling anything.

She became the evil stepmother downstairs! They KNEW not to evne TRY anything with her..
Go Mommy !



UGh, the stories..

Good luck..

Thank you for such thoughtful responses, everyone! I'm very interested in hearing the good as well as the bad.

Just to clarify-no, we would never, ever put ourselves in a position where we'd need the rent to pay the mortgage...that would be insane!! We're looking at it as comfort money...at the end of the month it may give us a bit of spending money to enjoy.

There's lots to consider here, we are going to weigh out the pluses and minuses.

Anyone else with experience to share???

My mom lives in a four family home in Brooklyn. She has been blessed with wonderful tenants. She has never had any problems with them.

Now my dad on the other hand has a home also that he rented out and he got a tenant from hell. I do not know why the law is like that in NYC. I live in VA and after my five day grace period on my apt my complex would start filing court papers. There is no such thing as living a year and not paying rent down here. In NYC however its crazy. My dad said he had to pay the water bill, provide heat and all that for a full year while the tenants did not pay rent and they were in court.


However my father got this tenant as a referral. I would stay away from those. Also do not rent to family either.


My mom always gets her tenants through a real estate agent. He is very thorough and she said he has always gotten her good people.


It definately is a big plus on the money side. My mom's house the three apts that she rents out covers the mortgage and all the house bills. This is has been a true blessing since she has been out of work some time now.


Even if it does not cover so much for you it really helps a lot. Just pray you don't get an idiot for a tenant.

I have tenants, and all in all, it has been well worth it! They are great (once in awhile pay their rent a couple days late, but that's as bad as it gets) and the $$ is such a big help! I'd definately do it again.

Good luck!

My mother does. We never did a lease it was always month to month.

She has had some good ones and some bad ones. Be as picky as you need to be and definitley get references

I dont really have an past experience with this, but it is definitley something me and DH plan on doing. The income potential is great enough to conteract the possible negatives. My in-laws have been doing this for years, and have been able to put all 3 kids thru college on the extra income and now own a house that is worth 4 times more then they paid. The main thing is to be VERY picky in who you pick as a tenant and get references. Dont call their last landlord, becuase he may say anything to get rid of them, call the landlord before that, he'll give you the truth! Good Luck!

I have to agree on the 'business' side of it. Its GREAT income. My parents are very comfortable in their retirement years now, thanks to the home they bought 25 years ago. It's been fully paid off for years now. The 6 rents, pay for their current mortgage on their 2nd home (Which is single family, very roomy and gorgeous (can you tell im SOOO happy for them ??? ) , plus give them money to live, shop and enjoy life.
If they were to sell the 6 family home, it would also go for at least 6 times what they paid for it !

BUT I have to say, I wouldnt 'mix business with pleasure'. I would DEFINATELY consider in the future, investing in real estate that I can rent out, but I would never want to live there...

Good luck !