Renting Out a Room in Your House

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Damon Thompson, I've been a landlord for over ten years and I have five multi unit buildings. This is what is, Renting Out a Room in Your House. Renting out a room in your house is just that, it's renting a room to a stranger, you're allowing a stranger to come and share your home with you. So there are some things that you need to do to make sure that you're protected and to make the experience goes smoothly. The first thing you want to do is decide what room that you want to rent and what amenities that you want to include. Is it a bedroom, is it an attic, the basement. What utilities are included, is there cable included or are we, you're going to split the cable bill with the potential roommate. Who's going to clean up, who's going to, how are groceries going to be handled, how's cooking and dishes going to be handled, all these things need to be spelled out, but you need to think about these things before you actually place an ad to find a potential roommate. Then once you have found this roommate you want to create a clear agreement. You want to make sure that everything is spelled out. You want to make sure that no matter how small the item or the issue, you want to make sure it's put on paper. If you have a concern or your potential roommate has a concern you want to address that concern and you want to have everything in writing. Then you want to also advertise, you want to make sure you take out an ad either in a newspaper, on the Internet, post fliers, something like that. You want to make sure that you get the information out there, that you have a room for rent so that way you have a nice potential pool of tenants to choose from. Then after you do this, you find, let's say you found some people that you really like; you want to make sure that you interview these people. A one on one, face to face interview is always good, it's good to have good human contact, it's good business. Finally you make that decision, pick that great person that's going to gel with you, you're allowing a stranger to come into your home and you want to make sure the transition and the overall experience is great for you and your potential roommate. I'm Damon Thompson and that is, what is Renting Out a Room in Your House."