The “Home Sweet Home” sampler writer Caprice Lawless stitched to hang in a hallway. It is also the mission statement of her “little enterprise” of renting rooms in her home.
The “Home Sweet Home” sampler writer Caprice Lawless stitched to hang in a hallway. It is also the mission statement of her “little enterprise” of renting rooms in her home.
Rare is the win/win arrangement, but renting rooms in your house to workers in your vicinity is a big one.
I know. I’ve been making most ends meet for a dozen years by renting rooms in my small ranch house. In that time, a few at a time, 35 people have called my place home. To keep from going broke, I had to think of my house as a business and to see my work in it as job. The outcome? I have kept my house, paid for improvements to it and met some interesting people, all while expanding both my business acumen and my world view. I am more than $1 million ahead from 12 years of rental income, tax advantages, and increased home equity. Furthermore, because of the way I price rent, many of my housemates have been able to get out from under debt or save money for the first time in their own lives. A few have saved enough to make down payments to buy their own homes. More than a few have thanked me, upon leaving, for creating such a peaceful and welcoming sanctuary.
You can do the same if you are willing to re-imagine your own house for all its potential and if you take seriously your work in it. As you change the way you look at your four walls, the way they look will begin to change before you. Its strengths and weaknesses as your business partner will become obvious. Take a second look at your extra furniture, those pots and pans in your kitchen, the lawn chairs out back, and even the Christmas decorations you put up once a year. What if all of those props in your home-owning drama could pay their way instead of just collect dust?
You can start small (renting just one spare room), and feel your way to a larger enterprise. For example, I started with renting just one room to one person for $470/month. Now, however, my income from three housemates residing in three spaces is $2,600/month.
This Making Room column will help homeowners, especially single heads-of-households like me, keep their houses, supplement their incomes, and, in the process, provide much-needed housing in a community hurting for it. The process offers to chance learn how to: Understand the local rental situation, create welcoming rooms, reframe your house as a business, set boundaries, enforce house rules, vet lodgers, and see why your ability to keep a clean house and a beautiful yard add to your financial security. All comprise the win/win. You can find good lodgers who welcome the chance to pay a flat, reasonable rate that includes furnishings, utilities, and wifi.
Your rates can be far below those that apartment complexes can demand. You can create an environment where lodgers don’t just exist, but live happily. You can help local businesses keep a stable workforce, while building the connection and community so scarce right now. People need that feeling of belonging, but it has become elusive. Too many struggle to find stable, affordable housing. More than 35% of all Americans now rent. For decades, housing costs have soared while wages have stagnated. In Oregon, more than 76% of the renters earn extremely low incomes. Rent should not take half a worker’s monthly earnings, but for too many, it does. While local and federal officials work steadily to address the housing crisis, it is empowering to make your house part of the solution.
Surf the web and you’ll come across many real estate investors who seem to be turning extra rooms into cash cows effortlessly. For serious, careful persons, though, those come-ons are overwhelming and off-putting. Their slides depicting number crunching and cash flowing, while exciting, do not go far enough.
Many of those glib presentations raise more questions than they answer. For example: What is it like, really, to share your own house with strangers? How do you rearrange your thinking to allow that? What about your pets? What will happen to your garden, your furniture, your fancy dishes? What if the lodgers are noisy and you can’t sleep? Will you be able to work from home? Will you have any peace, quiet, and privacy? Will you be able to have friends over for dinner or card games? Isn’t living with strangers dangerous? What if they leave behind a mess? What if you have to evict someone? What is it like to come home to chaos? Where are the YouTube videos and the DIY TV shows that explain those things?
Those were the typical worries I had initially, and are just some of the topics this column will address over the coming months. I began small, starting by renting just one room to one person in my small house. I made mistakes; I had a few sleepless nights. Even so, I kept with it. Now, because of my effort, I like coming home. I like my housemates. I like going to the bank, filing my taxes, getting my tax refunds, writing off the front-porch geraniums and the pumpkins that replace them each fall. I like being able to leave town for a few days, paying my housemates to watch my pets for me while I am away. I have plenty of privacy, as do each of my housemates. I still enjoy my backyard, my family, my friends, my pets, my fancy dishes and my life. In fact, I enjoy all of it even more, now.
The housing shortage is certainly a problem. However, it presents a few unexpected opportunities for even a small-home owner. You may be able to save money and save community. You can do it by making room for a few more to live under your one roof.
Next week: Start small.
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The information provided in this column does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice. The information herein is to provide readers with general information. Please contact your attorney for legal advice with respect to any particular issue. Views expressed herein are those of the writer, not those of the publication.
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