DagnyT
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Post by DagnyT on Aug 6, 2017 22:28:26 GMT -5
Fair housing laws are different when you are renting a dwelling that you live in also. You can exclude children in this situation, or at least I am pretty sure, but I am not a lawyer. This is from Wikipedia:
The Fair Housing Act applies to landlords renting or leasing space in their primary residence only if the residence contains living quarters occupied or intended to be occupied by three or more other families living independently of each other, such as an owner-occupied rooming house.
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NancysSummerSip
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Post by NancysSummerSip on Aug 7, 2017 8:11:47 GMT -5
A lot of people in our neighborhood rent out their basement because most of them have their own entrance. Some have an actual bedroom downstairs or like mine they call it a suite/studio (big open space with kitchen and bathroom). Per the postings I see on Nextdoor people are renting them out for $1,200-$1,500/month. Anyway this lady posted about her old tenants that used to rent from her but moved out to MD and now want to move back into DC. The twist: it is a family of 4 with 2 kids aged 2 and 4. No one posted offering up their information / basement and I am thinking that most people want to rent out their basement to 1 person or at the most a couple.... 4 people is a bit pushing it I think. All the homes are similar so depending on finishes/storage etc we are talking 540 sqft of space. I wouldn't in your case - you have enough on your plate at the moment, but it is a thought for the future, certainly. BTW, can DH and I stay with you on our next visit, since you have the room? JUST KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Value Buy
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Post by Value Buy on Aug 7, 2017 8:56:52 GMT -5
A lot of people in our neighborhood rent out their basement because most of them have their own entrance. Some have an actual bedroom downstairs or like mine they call it a suite/studio (big open space with kitchen and bathroom). Per the postings I see on Nextdoor people are renting them out for $1,200-$1,500/month. Anyway this lady posted about her old tenants that used to rent from her but moved out to MD and now want to move back into DC. The twist: it is a family of 4 with 2 kids aged 2 and 4. No one posted offering up their information / basement and I am thinking that most people want to rent out their basement to 1 person or at the most a couple.... 4 people is a bit pushing it I think. All the homes are similar so depending on finishes/storage etc we are talking 540 sqft of space. I am assuming they do not have separate utility meters and you would be paying the water and electric bills. Simple answer, no. Four people will use a heck of a lot of water and electric. Young children can tear the apartment up too.
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Waffle
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Post by Waffle on Aug 7, 2017 9:10:08 GMT -5
I had a family of 3 in my basement once, but like minnesotapaintlady, it was family and it was short term. There was a finished family room and bathroom, and we put two beds in an unfinished area.
But renting, no I don't think I'd be comfortable with that.
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Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Aug 7, 2017 9:28:05 GMT -5
My older sister and her DH had a basement apt. in NC that they rented out to either singles or couples and it worked out great for them. I would rent an apartment/basement like they had in a heart beat...other than it had no windows other than the door. No way would I rent out such a small space to a family of four. The problem is that it's illegal (federal law) to refuse to rent to a renter with children. Based on the occupancy laws in your specific area, a landlord can restrict the total number of people who can legally rent a property but can't legally require that those people be adults. For example, if occupancy laws in NC state that landlords can't rent to more than the number of bedrooms times 2 people, then a landlord with a one bedroom apartment could restrict renting to 2 or less total people, but couldn't specify that the 2 be adults. Not sure if this will change under the new administration, but in the past it was risky for landlords to refuse to rent to people with children because HUD would send out fake renters to see if landlords were discriminating. And the occupancy calcs are state (and possibly city/county) specific. In my area it's two to a bedroom plus 1 for each extra room, so my downstairs would allow for three.
You can't discriminate against children but you can discriminate against numbers, income and credit. Therefore if you wanted to choose an adult couple you could choose them if they earned more money than say a low paid single parent with a child. You can also choose to pick a couple over a family of four due to more people (not children!) causing more wear and tear on the property.
That said for my rentals I preferred to rent to families vs singles or couples because they tend to stay longer. I also would rent to folks who had one or two pets because those renters tended to be grateful that I did take pets and took better care of the property.
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bean29
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Post by bean29 on Aug 7, 2017 9:40:45 GMT -5
I could rent my basement out. We have two legal bedrooms a full kitchen and a full bath. Shower in bathroom needs repair to be rented out. 2 nd bedroom can only be used by a relative situation b/c you come down the stairs and we have a storage closet and the bedroom I currently use as an office, then we have a door, and a family room, full bar, full kitchen, bathroom, and guest bedroom. There is a separate entrance, one bedroom is identified by the city as a legal bedroom, second only is not "legal" b/c when inspector inspected dh had not installed the hard wired smoke alarm, but the wires are in the ceiling, he just needs to connect them.
I have thought about renting on something like air bnb, for short timeframes...we really don't have a need to rent it out, but we could if we wanted to. The square feet on the one bedroom is probably about 1500. Idk how much rent would be. DS's friend is "renting" as SFH in the neighborhood for $600/month. I don't think the kid knows what a good deal his Dad is giving him. Rent should probably be about $1200. House has a finished basement, 2.5 car attached garage and a big yard. It is worth $200-250,000.
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obelisk
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Post by obelisk on Aug 7, 2017 9:47:18 GMT -5
yes, the basement of my outhouse
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Aug 7, 2017 9:49:19 GMT -5
Nope. #1 it would be illegal because my basement is not set up to house tenets and I am not going to completely renovate my house for strangers. #2 I barely tolerate DH and the kids living with me . No way I am sharing my house with four strangers. I got enough shared living space experience in college to last me a lifetime. Renting a separate house I own is one thing, inviting people to move into my house is another. I don't care how carefully you vet someone, that only catches things they have been caught doing. You don't know the things they may have done that aren't appearing on a background/credit check. Call me paranoid but I prefer to have distance between me and people I barely know.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Aug 7, 2017 15:51:18 GMT -5
I rented my basement to a young man who was doing a summer internship in this area. It was for 90 days and he didn't want to sign a lease. He was interning as a radiologist and his father was a radiologist.
His father called me and told me if there were any issues, to call him and he would take care of it. The young man had a girlfriend in his home city, so unless he was working, he wasn't here on weekends.
It worked out fine and I never needed to call his father.
It was the next summer that my basement flooded. I was glad that didn't happen while he was living in my basement.
I may have subconsciously done this because a young couple a friend of mine knew rented a room to me when I was in college. It helped me and it helped them.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2017 18:07:08 GMT -5
Maybe, but not in my current house. Since I don't do rentals as I'm not the right personality to be a LL, it would take a special situation to consider doing it.
Current house is unfinished field stone, so doesn't heat in the winter, no kitchen, does have a toilet (and the laundry sink) and no egress windows. It would be rough times for me to rent that out (or for someone to want to rent it).
Parking would be easy, I could probably get ~$50/mo for a spot in my garage (have 2 spots). I have actually been approached by neighbors and co-workers due to my close location to a major employer that charger over $1,000/yr for parking (that has a waiting list and no guaranteed spot). I can street park for $25/yr since I'm a resident.
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on Aug 8, 2017 18:24:31 GMT -5
No way, we have renters, they are all good people but not in my house.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Aug 11, 2017 7:48:06 GMT -5
Do you think these people claim it?
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cael
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Post by cael on Aug 11, 2017 7:59:38 GMT -5
Out of curiosity, are you able and are the other people in your neighborhood getting certificates of occupancy before they rent out their basements? I know we could for ours (look into it at some point) but we decided not too since we needed every sqft possible. But good to know if things get rough, we have the option of renting out the basement if need be / month to month or airbnb. Another thing that is rocking DC/pissing off people: new laws against airbnb (lobbied by the hotel industry). Also, at least in my city, we've had a hard time with the AirBNB stuff on a few levels: first, are the apartments getting the pre-rental occupancy inspections I think Tenn mentioned? (mostly not) also - people buying multi-families with the intent to only rent them as ABNBs poses a zoning problem, due to the question of is that considered a business, and most of the houses would be in residential zones where commercial was not allowed. In MA the sanitary code dictates how much square footage is required per occupant in the unit, and per bedroom per person, so that would limit how many people in a small space. This wouldn't apply to a family, but the building code also says no more than 3 unrelated people can live in a unit.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Aug 11, 2017 9:53:07 GMT -5
When I rented a room to college kids, I talked it over with my boss at the IRS. Since it was short term and lower than market rent, he told me to consider it cost sharing so that is what I did.
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