I am a 34 year old woman and live on my own.Anybody got any useful hints/tips/advice on taking in a lodger?
I used to do it. The men were no trouble, but some of the women were. I had to ask two of them to leave.
Were I ever to do that again, I would take some measures to discover something about the person.
1. the last two months of bank statements.
2. a call to an employer.
3. a surprise call on the prospective lodger at her own place.
4. a lot of questions designed to see if life styles are compatible.
5. If you can find financially secure men, they are the best bet, but check closely. It ain' easy living with a none relative.Anybody got any useful hints/tips/advice on taking in a lodger?
my other half took in lodgers and regreted it and wont do it again
Renting out a room and a portion (common areas) of your home is a fine idea. I'd say... you'd want to make sure that you attract the type of ';lodger'; that has a lifestyle commensurate to your own (IE: if you work nights, it would help if they were away during the days so that you could sleep, etc.). I would also draft some lease-type documents that reflect the area of your home (their room, etc.) that they would occupy and the amount of rents and when they are due. Also, it would be a good idea to include utilities and other common expenses.
You could post your room for rent on a board, like Craigslist.org, or tack a note on a bulletin board at your neighborhood coffee shop. I think that word-of-mouth helps to pre-select your lodger... you want someone that you trust and that you could live with. Good luck!
(Here is a positive lodger story: I was moving and looking for a new place. I had a girlfriend who had a friend who's sister was vacating his ';in-law'; apartment in part of his house. So, through this friend-of-a-friend situation, I made a really great friend and we had a superb living situation. It couldn't have been better, really. I fixed things around the house; I paid below-market rent and he always ';forgot'; to assess my share of the utilities. We even had a third roommate, whom we found through Craigslist, who was only present 4 days/month -- work required her to maintain a ';home base'; in our town but it also required her to travel non-stop. Anyway, it was a great positive experience for us and I appreciate having him as a roommate. Still, I say: good luck, you can find a good situation if you look carefully!)
When i got my first house i tool on 2 lodgers, both where female and i must admit i really regretted it after a while. The phone, bathroom,kitchen and living were basically off limits to me the parade of different fellas every month was quite disturbing. I ended their contract and a male lodger moved in , i had no problems (only him being n arsenal fan!) and to be fair he showed much more respect towards my property than the girls. Make sure you have set rules, cleaning up after them is a must if they decide to have visitors try to be relaxed about it , but dont let them walk over you either. Have a months trial with someone, they may not like you. All in all just be careful
I did this after I lost my clients in the aftermath of 9/11. It can be a good way to pay the bills, that's for sure.
However, I also learned some lessons that you may find helpful.
First, determine whether or not you can charge enough to make it worthwhile. It depends on the area where you live, how much space you'll be renting and what you'll include with that rent.
For instance, in my case, I decided that (seeing as how I lived right outside of Washington DC at the time), I could rent the rooms on a short-term basis and rent them out to interns and/or visiting fellows at the local non-profits. I fixed each room up with TV/digital cable, a mini-fridge and microwave, etc. Then I rented them out for $900 - $1500/mo.
How did I come up with those figures? Well, for one thing, I decided to start with a portion of the rent. (I had five rooms to rent out, so I divided my monthly rent by that amount to get a place to start), then I estimated the monthly expenses and divided that by five as well. (Estimate HIGH because it's all included in the same price -- I found that to be much easier than hounding someone for each little bill every month.)
I also had a set of ';House Rules'; that I had them sign before I'd accept a deposit from them. They agreed to abide by the rules and were subject to being evicted without notice for violations. I spelled out everything from details about overnight guests (which were only allowed a maximum of 7 days per month) to schedules for cleaning. (In truth, I wouldn't have kicked someone out for falling a little behind on the cleaning or having someone stay overnight for an 8th night; however, some of them were zero tolerance rules -- like those prohibiting drugs on the premises.)
In the end, it's only worthwhile if you can make enough money to offset the loss of privacy on your part, so be careful when you work out those numbers. Also, keep in mind that there is no such thing as discrimination when you're choosing someone to share your housing (though it certainly applies if you were renting out space that was not to be shared.) This means that you can, for instance, specify a female roommate, if you prefer to do so.
Good luck!
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