gregorygarver.com

eightieschick37 · Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 5

I need a little advice for my friend. A friend of mine bought about 4 houses about a year ago, she borrowed money off of her house that she lives in now. As we all know that the market is extremely bad for real estate, so she’s having a very hard time trying to sell them. She called me today and asked me if it’s a good idea to kick out a few of the tenants that she has, and instead of renting the apartment for one set price, she’ll rent out rooms like a boarding house. Evon mentioned to me that she would make more money by renting it out like a boarding house.What would you tell her?

stars · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Posts: 4

To me it would be unethical to evict someone just to rent it out by the room, I think it is leagal though.Has to be done right and one can get in trouble if done wrong. Oh she also runs the risk of the tenants being very upset and trashing the place, that can cost many thousands and hard to recover, I would wait till they moved on their own then rent rooms out sepratly.Jim here

Ashley · Joined: 09 Jan 2006 Posts: 3

She should wait out the tenants lease then when its up kick them out, or say the lease is over. She would make more money that way but I believe she should find a tenant then see if the tenant knows or can help find other roommates. She would do this with out telling the new tenate her motives for more $. ..

Emily · Joined: 13 Jan 2006 Posts: 3

It just wouldn't be very nice to evict the current tenants. And depending on where you live, there may not be much of a market for renting out single rooms. Unless you live in a college town, that wouldn't make much sense to do.

cowgirl · Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 3

I don't think she can evict them, for no reason.If any apartment is vacant, she could advertise rooms to rent, like a boarding house.She made the mistake of buying too much; why punish the renters? Especially if they are paying.

astralpen · Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 2

A disaster. This will attract even lower income tenants that will be difficult to collect from.

Vangorn2000 · Joined: 25 Jan 2006 Posts: 2

Tell her it would be a lot easier to just raise the rent of the tenants already living there by a reasonable amount. No need for eviction. If the tenants stay and pay the higher rate, great...she gets more money from reliable tenants. If they move out on their own due to the higher rent, she can then choose to re-advertise the place and rent room for room if she wants.I think she will have a much harder time doing the boarding house thing though...the liability issues would be a lot more complex (who would you sue, for instance, if something in a common area were damaged and nobody admitted to doing it?)

spadezgurl22 · Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 3

not a good idea bc if they cant afford to rent the whole unit its bc their lower income and they will be a disater in terms of paying on time , if any. plus u run the risk of high traffic in the house as well as potential damages and people blaming other tenants for the damages where as if there was one tenant that person would be soley responsible. I suggest not doing that, if anything make some repairs and make it more presentable and then raise the rent at the time of renewal.

BlueOctober · Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Posts: 4

i, personally, do not like her idea.i would much rather see her give the tenants a rent increase of 9% now and then another in 6 months.Because of the current mortgage situations many persons are losing their homes and are looking for rentals. Rental property rates are at an all time high...supply and demand.tell your friend to give the tenants 60 days notice of the rent increases....that way if they cannot afford it, they can move.good luck Smile

Cheyenne · Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 3

She cant do anything until the current tenants lease is up. The problem with that is tenants can be a pain. Some tend to not take care of things & can cost an owner a lot of money & headaches. If she does the room by room thing she's gonna have more tenants to deal with. Theres also the problem of the rent being bumped down to a lesser income bracket & that makes the risk of having bad tenants higher. Before everyone gets mad about the lasy comment I should say that there are good/bad tenants in every income bracket. I'm just sayin what I've seen in the rental industry.

MD · Joined: 10 Feb 2006 Posts: 2

Being a landlord right now is not ideal. However, being a renter makes a lot of sense:http://www.a2dvoices.com/realitycheck/housing/