There are a few things I have learned from renting the rooms out in my house to roommates. In this blog post I am going to share my advice:
- Always and I mean always ask to see their last 3 paystubs. I used to skip this step because it made me uncomfortable to look at someone else’s finances and I learned the hard way that this is a very necessary evil. Trying to be nice and polite got me 5 roommates thus far who didn’t work. Three of them lied about having a job when their parents were paying their rent and what I got was overgrown children watching TV in my house all day. One had money “left over” from a project he did, watch out for these people. These people call themselves freelancers but what they are is proud and lazy. Another also lied about having a job when he was living check to check from money he received from the V.A. and when he wasn’t spending the little he had on alcohol, he was paying his rent late.
- Judge a book by its cover. In my experience I have found that if someone looks messy and as if they don’t care about their appearance, its because they are messy and they will not care about the appearance of your home. Now this is a controversial one, but it has proven to be true every time- if the person is fat and I mean really overweight you can bet that its because they eat a lot and are just overall slobs. People who have really poor diets will naturally have other bad habits that go along with their sedentary lifestyle. Like sitting at home a lot watching T.V. and being lazy about cleaning. Also watch out for these people if there are shared bathrooms because they will be in there A LOT trying to pass their unhealthy stools.
- Anyone who is late on your first meeting is incredibly self-absorbed. I rented twice to two people who were late to come see the room and didn’t bother to call me to let me know they would be late, I had to call them. I knew it was a red flag when it happened and I kicked myself in the ass when it was confirmed that their lack of punctuality was just a side effect of their selfishness. People who are late to meet you for something they scheduled are plain inconsiderate and they seek to attract people who allow them to be this way, don’t fall for it. Both of them were girls of course. Now I am a feminist so it pains me to say this, but she was the biggest most self-absorbed airhead ever and…she turned out to be an escort. She was late because she was an airhead. Let me finish. She would constantly lock herself out because “she forgot her keys inside” and call me hysterical nearly demanding that I drop whatever I was doing regardless of where I was to come home and open the door for her. She would also leave the stove and oven on……um that was scary. Point is someone who isn’t worried about making a first good impression will NEVER make a good impression on you.
- Active people are the best to rent to. If you’re anything like me and abhor a couch potato in your home (see number 1) and chose to rent to a fit-looking person. Not attractive, fit. Go ahead and ask them what their hobbies and interests are. Get a feel for their day to day. Someone who says they like to hike or run a few times a week is great. This means they have more energy and are out of the house more.
- Rent to a 9-5er. There is no better way to ensure that your roommate won’t be sitting in their room all day then to (see number 1) and make sure that they work a set schedule. Watch out for any “freelancers” this is usually code for “I refuse to get up at 8 a.m. everyday and I don’t mind living off of pennies.”
- Protect yourself with a clause in the lease about overnight guests. In my case, I rent out rooms in a home I own. The rent I collect does not cover the mortgage. I pay more than each roommate does to live in the home, not including utilities (which I do not charge them), wifi & cable, furnishing of the entire house with my furniture, and any maintenance which I pay for. Thus, I do not feel it is fair to allow them to have guests over as much as they want. Why? They don’t pay utilities, they don’t pay for maintenance, and that’s extra people using the wi-fi only I pay for. Watch out for girls. Girls are much clingier than men and will try to move in their boyfriends if you’re not careful. We had a roommate whose boyfriend started to move things in. Um, no. Not under my watch. This isn’t a hotel. Bottom line, the people you rent to will see your home as a hotel. They don’t care if something breaks because they aren’t paying for it, so why let them add a +1 to that equation?
That’s all for now. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments.
-ModernBitch
Proud Modern Bitch 