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Rent-by-the-Room Starter Checklist

From RoomRentalsHQ · The landlord's guide to renting by the room. By Eric Willden (almost 10 years, 2 rental houses, 13 rooms).

General info, not legal or tax advice. Rules vary by state and city; have a local attorney review your lease and follow fair-housing laws.

Property

  • 5+ bedrooms if you can get them. The first 2–3 rooms cover the bills; rooms 4+ are your profit
  • No more than 3 rooms per bathroom; one person per room
  • Check your city's rental-permit and short-term-rental rules. Fix cheap exterior issues (fence, screens, wasp nests) first

Setup (about $400–500/room)

  • Each room: queen bed, small dresser, end table
  • 2 fridges per kitchen, a shared vacuum, no mini fridges
  • Keyless locks on the front door and every room, with a unique code for each tenant
  • Cameras in common areas only

Utilities

  • Include WiFi and utilities, with a cap on electric. Split overages evenly
  • Budget about $75/tenant/mo for electric, based on the yearly average

Tenants

  • Post on several sites: Craigslist, FB Marketplace, SpareRoom, FurnishedFinder, Roomies
  • Ask: smoking/vaping? pets? how many people (one per room)? drinking? move date? how long?
  • Always do a live phone call. Run a background check, plus income and job verification (apply the same criteria to every applicant)
  • Don't take the first applicant. A good tenant can take a month to find

Pricing & lease

  • Price rooms about the same (+$25 for a bigger room, +$100 for a private bath). Aim for about half the all-in cost of an apartment
  • Target $2K+/mo profit per house
  • 3-month minimum, then month-to-month, with a 30-day probation period
  • Clear house rules: quiet hours, guest limit (3 non-consecutive nights/mo), no smoking, no parties
  • Have an attorney review the lease (late fees, notice periods and fair-housing rules vary by state)

Operations

  • Deposit up front. Collect prorated rent at move-in, read the lease together and initial it
  • Rent due on the 1st, with a reminder 2 days before. Have a written late-fee and notice timeline
  • A live-in house supervisor (about $100 off rent) for trash, mail and first contact
  • Monthly cleaner or chore chart. Have an on-call handyman lined up
  • Landlord insurance policy (tell the agent you rent by the room). Consider an umbrella policy. Keep rent records

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