Do you rent or lease out a part of your home to produce additional income? Have you considered leasing a room in your home to better afford the mortgage payments, but do not know where to begin? Renting out an unused part of your house can be a good financial decision, if you are prepared. Preparing for a roommate requires the following considerations.
What rooms will they have access to?
You will want to set boundaries before taking in a tenant. Make sure that your expectations and their expectations regarding available rooms of the house are similar. Decide ahead of time if they will have access to the main living room or outdoor entertainment space. If you are going to share these main rooms, you may be able to charge more. However, you will want to make sure they have access to a bathroom and kitchen amenities.
Do you have any time boundaries?
It can be helpful to find a tenant with a similar lifestyle to yours. If you try to make it to bed at a reasonable hour to wake early for work in the morning, you probably do not want to bring on a roommate that loudly comes home in the middle of the night, every night. Ask your potential tenant?s questions like what time they work, what activities they enjoy, and how often they go out. Lifestyle questions can also help with understanding their hobbies. In 2014, 173,300 people worked as musicians. A musician constantly practicing loud music in their room may not work with your sleep schedule.
Who is responsible for furnishing the room?
Most tenants will also want to know if they are to bring their own furniture, or if furniture will be supplied to them. This could also include questions surrounding decoration and remodeling. Is the tenant allowed to make permanent changes to their room? Can they do things like paint or change out the decorative laminate flooring? Do you, the homeowner, have to approve each of these changes? If you enjoy the decorative laminate in the room, you might not want to allow a temporary tenant to change it.
What is included in rent?
Sometimes rent includes utilities and other times, it does not. You also might choose to charge a little more and provide household necessities to them. This is something that you should work out with your new or potential tenant. Do not wait until it is time to collect rent to evaluate everything that is included. Your tenant may expect you to cover all utility costs or the ceiling clouds that were recently installed in the spare bedroom.
Will sound be a problem?
Probably one of the most difficult parts of learning to live with another person is holding onto your privacy. Even the quietest of roommates can put off a lot of sound. Consider using sound isolation wall panels, soundproof wall panels on a suspended ceiling, and sound absorbing ceiling panels for the best results. You can even incorporate sound blocking techniques into your decorative laminate. The process of soundproofing a room is accomplished using a combination of 4 tactics, adding mass, damping, decoupling, and filling air gaps. Using sound blocking decorative laminate can also be beneficial to your health. Community noise can actually be detrimental to health. Adverse health effects include cardiovascular problems and learning deficits. Studies indicate the incidence of heart disease increases as community noise levels rise above 40 decibels (dB).
Many homeowners make the decision to rent out a portion of their home. This is often done for financial reasons and can also reduce feelings of loneliness. Although a good financial decision, it can be difficult to learn to live with another human being. It is best to prepare by setting boundaries ahead of time. It is also important to be completely open with one another and if possible, create private and noise blocking areas.
